You might think that a car accident will only happen to a careless driver who is not paying attention to the road or who is driving in a dangerous manner. It’s true that these drivers will often have accidents, but remember, they are crashing into other drivers, and those other drivers might be the most careful ones on the road. In other words, being a careful driver is a good thing, but due to other road users, weather conditions, the road itself, or even your car, an accident could happen at any time.
Because of this, it’s important to know what to do after a car accident. It’s bad enough to be involved in one, but if you are then confused and don’t know what action to take, it will make the situation even worse. Read on to find out more.
Call For Help
Not all car accidents require any outside help. Some will be small prangs, and the two drivers can exchange insurance details and move on. You might feel shaken, you might be upset, but in reality, the situation could have been a lot worse.
In other situations, a variety of different help will be needed. If someone is injured, you’ll need to call for an ambulance, for example, so check around and see if this is the case. If you are the injured person, stay as still as possible and wait for help to come. Some accidents will also need the help of the police. This is true if there is any aggression involved, if the road is blocked, or if the other driver fled the scene, for example. It might be just a case of calling a friend or loved one for moral support. The point is, that if you need to get help, you should do so right away.
Secure The Crash Site
When there has been an accident, you’ll need to make sure the crash site is secure. This doesn’t necessarily mean preserving evidence (although this might be a byproduct of what you’re doing), but it does mean keeping other road users as safe as possible. No one wants the car accident they were in to become bigger because others on the road didn’t spot there was an issue.
The first thing to do is to turn on your flashing emergency lights. These might be your blinkers, your hazard warning lights, or perhaps your LED strobe lights if you have them for safety reasons.
If you have a reflective triangle or cones that can be used, this is also a good idea, especially if the weather is bad. However, it’s important that you don’t stand on the road yourself to try to direct traffic around the crash – this can cause more problems and put you in danger.
Take Notes And Pictures
Perhaps you think your memory will suffice when it comes to making an insurance claim or speaking to the police about what happened, but the human memory is a strange thing, and it isn’t always accurate – it can also fade over time, and this happens more quickly when there is trauma involved.
Therefore, the best thing you can do is take photos of the scene and of all the vehicles involved, documenting the damage in as much detail as possible. You might also want to take a video, which could help to show what happened or at least give a better idea of the layout of the road and so on. When it comes to needing this information later, you’ll be glad you had the notes and photos to keep your memory accurate.
