As safe of a driver as you may be, there may come a time in your life where you are involved in a vehicle accident. You may think there’s no chance of this happening and that you take all of the preventative measures necessary to ensure your personal and vehicular safety, but you are not the only person on the road, which means it’s always going to be a possibility to happen.
So that you’re not surprised when it does happen, what should you do immediately after some collision or event occurs? You should move through a pre-made accident checklist. You need to contact a lawyer after you call the police. You should take pictures and video of everything that’s around. And you need to do everything that you can to keep calm.
Go Through Your Checklist
Before you go out on the road in your vehicle, whether it’s a car, truck, or motorcycle, you should have created an accident checklist. Because you may be angry, emotional, or even in shock after an accident occurs, you aren’t always going to be the most clearheaded. That’s why being able to get this checklist out and go through it step-by-step is so essential. It ensures that you don’t miss anything vital.
Call a Lawyer
After you have gone through your checklist and called the police about the accident, one of the next phone calls you should make is to a lawyer. Lawyers that specialize in accidents can give you the most information about legal implications and consequences, and they can help you figure out what sort of insurance claims need to be made, whom to contact, and the basic timeline that is going to happen through all of your endeavors.
Take Pictures and Video
At the scene of the accident, take pictures and video of everything. You need photos and images of the place the accident happened, any of the damage that occurred, and even having photos or video of the people who are around can be helpful. In addition to physical evidence, it also timestamps all of these photos, so you know exactly when the accident happened, and when the police came and when the whole ordeal was completed.
Keep Yourself Calm
Different personalities react to accidents in different ways. It’s very common for people to get furious after a crash. You can’t turn the clock back though. The calmer you stay and the more logically you approach the situation, the less chance there is of anything escalating. After the damage has been done, being angry is not going to help. Making the right phone calls to the right people and gathering evidence in the right way will lead you to a much better final conclusion.