How many of us really know what to do after a car accident? When you get in your car to go on a vacation or a road trip, you don’t expect a crash. You expect to conduct yourself on the road in a safe manner and you expect everybody around you to do the same thing.
Being involved in a crash on the road can turn your day completely around, because what starts as something that is supposed to get you to work can end as something that requires you to have the phone number of a paralysis injury lawyer. There were more than 50,000 road crashes last year alone, which equals up to 140 crashes per day. When you are at the scene of an accident, it can be very hard to decide what action you should take next to Make sure that you’re OK. You do have a number of duties and obligations to fulfill if you’re ever in a crash, so here are the things that you should be doing immediately after one happens.
Stop your car immediately. If you crash into another car or you crash into an object, you should apply the handbrake and stop the car immediately. You should also switch on your hazard lights. Of course, this kind of action is only something you can do if your body allows you to do it, so don’t pull yourself out of a sticky situation to get it done. Once you stop the car, do a quick assessment to determine whether it would be safe to exit, and if you can, get out of the car and move to the hard shoulder.
- Call for emergency services. If a crash is bad enough that you need to call the police, an ambulance, and the fire brigade, you should do so as soon as you can. Stay at the scene with the call or on the side of the road until they arrive, because once the crash scene is safe there are some important details you’ll need to collect to make sure that any claims you have can be dealt with swiftly.
- Take down some details. Depending on where you are, there is a law that dictates that you have to stop and supply your name to anybody you were involved in the crash with and them to you. If all the other drivers’ injuries prevent you from supplying names and addresses, this is OK to use as a defense for not providing the details at the site of the crash. If you can, snap pictures of all the registration numbers and models of all vehicles involved, and take down the names of the insurance companies that the other drivers are covered by. You should ensure to record the time and date as well as the precise location of the crash and everything else that you can remember about what happened. If there are any crash features such as traffic controls or road features to be aware of, take those down as well.
- Go to the hospital. After a crash you should take yourself to hospital and make sure that any injuries, no matter how small, are dealt with effectively
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