On the car accident page of my website I have a section called “What Should You Do If You Have Been Injured In An Auto Accident?” and that begins with a section of what to do at the scene of a motor vehicle accident. There, I briefly describe eight things to do while at the scene once you have established that it is safe for you to do so. In this article, I will discuss those eight things more in depth. Those eight things are:
Keep Conversation to a Minimum
Document the Scene (take pictures)
Get in the Ambulance (if needed)
Stop
Stop at the Collision Scene
It may seem obvious that you are required to stop at a collision scene, but you would be surprised by how many people do not. If you have been involved in an accident, especially when it is not your fault, failing to stop creates a host of problems.
The most obvious problem is that your failure to stop is a crime. It is called “leaving the scene of an accident” or more commonly “hit and run”. I am not saying that you will be arrested if you leave the scene of collision, but I am saying that you do not want to put yourself in a situation where you may be arrested.
I mentioned above that leaving the scene of an accident is a particular problem if the accident was not your fault. Generally speaking, the people who flee accident scenes are at fault. What is more, the law recognizes something known as “consciousness of guilt”. What that means is that a jury is sometimes allowed to hear about your subsequent conduct if it tends to demonstrate that you had an awareness that you did something wrong. Since most people who leave accident scenes are at fault, your leaving an accident scene could be interpreted to mean that you knew the accident was your fault. It thus could be admissible at a trial. Since all settlements take place in the context of what would happen if the case went to court, leaving the scene becomes a problem.
On top of that, since good and reputable people generally stop at accident scenes, your failure to do so calls into question your trustworthiness. It is obviously not the sole determinate, but the insurance company is certainly going to wonder what type of person you are that you would not stop at an accident scene.
Unfortunately, there are other people who do not stop at accident scenes besides people at fault, but you probably do not want to be lumped in with them. Such people include people with arrest warrants, people without a proper immigration status, people who have been drinking, and married people who are in an accident while with their boyfriend or girlfriend. None of these associations are particularly helpful.
Stop at the Spot of the Collision
While it may be obvious that you should stop at the scene of a collision, what might be less obvious is that you should stop at the spot of the collision, or at least stay stopped wherever your vehicle stops once the incident is over. Stopping at this point may be difficult, because you want to get out of people’s way and the location where you stop might not always be the safest. If the location is truly unsafe, such as the center lane of the interstate, and getting out of your car is simply not prudent, then obviously this section cannot apply. However, if you are merely blocking traffic, then for a brief period of time you should stay stopped at your final resting place, and document the scene as I will discuss below.
Check For Injuries
This also may seem obvious, but people at accident scenes are not always thinking their best. They become full of adrenaline and full of emotion. They have just been exposed to great shock and a lot of trauma, both physical and emotional, and it is easy to lose sight of your normal priorities, and easy to forget the order of checking on things.
I believe it is helpful to keep in mind what flight attendants say to all passengers before every flight. In the event of an emergency, tend to yourself first and then to any person who may require assistance. That rule applies to a car accident as well. Although there is nothing inappropriate about immediately asking “Is everybody okay?” or something to that effect, the first thing you need to do before actually physically doing anything else is make sure that you are okay and that it is safe for you to be moving around and doing things. This actually requires a great deal of judgment at a time when your judgment is less than ideal. Most collision related injuries involve the neck and could be anything from a simple sprain to a fractured vertebra. You really need to start out slowly and try to figure out if your neck is injured and if so, how severely. At least initially, any movements of your head and neck should be as small and as slow as possible. You should be working up gradually as you feel comfortable. Every effort should be made to minimize use of the neck until you have determined that there is no threatening injury there. If the EMTs come and take anybody to the hospital, one of the first things that they will do is put the neck in a brace. The next thing they will do is put the person on a backboard. Their first priority is to make sure that they do not make any spinal injuries worse.
Perhaps the next step in the process, since we are still trying to keep it simple at this point, is to wiggle your fingers and toes to see if these cause any problems. You are not simply checking to see if you are paralyzed, but if you have broken your leg or broken your arm. These simple tests might show that there is a problem without causing any particular stress. If you are finding a lot of tingling or numbness, then that could be a clue that you have a fairly significant neck or back injury and need to be very careful. It might be prudent at that point, if you can, to sit still and wait for the paramedics. If none of these actions cause significant difficulty, then of course it is possible to engage in evermore movement to gauge your situation. Again, this should be a fairly slow process of carefully checking how you are doing before you move onto something more strenuous. Once you have established that it is safe for you to move around; get out of the car, and help others out of the car, then you can assess the condition of the other occupants of your car in a more hands on manner. Obviously, you have probably been talking to them the whole time you have been assessing yourself, but now you can do similar assessments with them. The good news is that if they are passengers, then there is no requirement that they get out of the car. So if somebody is having serious complaints of pain or numbness, it is probably best that they simply sit still and wait for the EMTs to arrive.
In most cases, this process will not take very long. When you are checking yourself out, the idea is not to perform a full neurologic and orthopedic examination, but to determine whether or not you are safe to move around. Similarly, unless you have small children, I would expect that the other occupants of your car would have already figured out for themselves whether or not they are safe to move about. If they are unsure, you probably should not be touching them. Instead, you should dial 911 and advise them that you have been in an accident with serious injury. Then the EMTs will show up almost immediately, especially if you are in Lowell, or in a good sized town like Chelmsford.
Identify Witnesses
By the time you have made sure that everybody is well, and placed yourself in a position where you can safely get out of your car, most of your witnesses may have already left. Generally speaking, people who actually saw the collision do not stick around to be identified as witnesses. Sometimes you get lucky. However, even those people are often not going to stay around for very long. Most people are busy and unwilling to put a lot of time into your problem. Others may be helpful initially, but when they think about it, realize that they do not want to get involved. As a result, it is important that you identify these people right away. Keep in mind that if the driver of the other car has stopped and gotten out of the car, then that person is probably not going anywhere. The witnesses, however, probably are, so talk to them first. You need to get as much information as needed to enable you to find them later. This means name, address, phone number, and even email would be a good start. If they will let you photograph their driver’s license, that might speed up the process, but you would want their phone number if they will give it to you. While it is good to call the police and have the police get the witness information, you may find that the witnesses are not willing to wait around for the police. You may find that some people do not want to talk to the police.
Identifying witnesses is incredibly important. First, you should expect the driver of the other car to come up with a version of events that shifts some or all of the blame to you. It amazes me the extent to which people are unwilling to take responsibility for what they have done. They will say or do anything to reduce or eliminate their culpability in a collision. They will do so even if it does not help them in any way. A neutral eye witness can solve that problem. However, if you cannot locate a neutral eye witness after the accident, then that eye witness might as well not even exist. The fact that this person spoke to you and told you that they saw everything, and told you that the accident was one hundred percent the other driver’s fault, and told you that they would be happy to testify on your behalf does not do you any good if you do not know who they are and do not know how to locate them. Hardly a week goes by that I do not have a client come into my office and tell me that they have a witness that they cannot identify.
Call The Police
I have written fairly extensively in my blog on reasons to call the police. Rather than repeat that, you can read that here. The reason I put call the police after identify witnesses is because while you are calling the police, witnesses may leave. The reason I put call the police in front of exchange information, is because it may take the police a while to arrive. While you are waiting for them, you can exchange information. If the driver of the other car gets back into the driver’s seat, you should immediately photograph or write down the license plate number and get a photo of the driver if you can. Interestingly, having a neutral witness, a hit and run, and a photograph of the vehicle and license plate is a very good case as long as the witness is neutral and on your side. If you have a picture of the driver, that is even better.
Exchange Information
It is very important that the information exchange be as complete as possible. It is now very common for people at accident scenes to pull out their smart phones and take pictures of the driver’s license, the registration, and even the license plate of the car. These are all good things to do, as it ensures that you will get most, if not all, of the information that you need. However, you need to remember that not every state puts the insurance company on the registration, and the insurance information on the registration is not always up to date. Here in Lowell, we are very close to the New Hampshire border. New Hampshire is a state that does not require that a person registering a car provide insurance information to the registry, and thus New Hampshire is a state that does not put insurance information on a vehicle registration. People often say that insurance is not required in New Hampshire. That is not true. New Hampshire requires insurance, but it does not require proof of insurance to register a car. People in New Hampshire are required to carry their automobile insurance cards with them, and that is another good picture to take. It provides information that is extremely important. If a New Hampshire person is uncooperative, it is extremely difficult to get their insurance information. In Massachusetts, the registration will have the name of the insurance company that was in place at the time that the vehicle was registered. People do change their insurance carrier from time to time. As such, the name on the registration may not be the same insurance company currently insuring the car, so it is important to ask.
If you are doing this the old fashioned way, which is to say that you are writing down all of the important information, then what I would suggest is that you ask the other person write down their information. In this way, you have a document with their hand writing which at least has their name and address on it. After that, I would say to exchange licenses and registrations. If you are not sure what to write down, write down everything. However, be especially keen to write down the driver’s name and address, the license number of the driver, the driver’s date of birth, the name and address of the vehicle owner, the registration or license plate number of the car, and of course the insurance company. You do want to compare the registration number with the license plate on the car. Obviously, if the registration and the license plate are different, there is a problem and you absolutely want the police to come. The driver is probably going to flee once you call them. So if you do have a camera, then you absolutely need to photograph everything.
Keep Conversation To A Minimum
We have all seen police dramas in which the police say to the suspect “Everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law”. That of course is from the famous Miranda decision of the Supreme Court and technically only applies to criminal cases. Nevertheless, this statement is equally true, and may actually be more true, where car accidents are involved.
Insurance companies are very good at twisting your words. So too are the drivers of other cars. As such, you may well find that what is getting quoted back to you is something slightly, but significantly, different from what you actually said. More importantly, there is a tendency among some people to be caring and polite, sometimes even compassionate. Compassion is really not what insurance companies are known for, and they deal with it in an unusual way. Any expression of concern or sympathy or of sorrow that the loss occurred is immediately twisted into an admission of guilt. It is not uncommon to say to the at fault driver “I am okay”, so as not to make that person feel so bad for what they have done, or simply so as not to appear whiny. Either way, when an insurance adjuster hears that it becomes “I was not injured in this accident”. When dealing with insurance companies and their lawyers, it is good to understand that no good deed goes unpunished, and that everything you say really can be used against you.
You can also hurt yourself by going too far the other way. Imagine that you are involved in a serious accident. It is possible, even likely, that people have been injured. You come storming out of your car screaming “Why the —- weren’t you watching where you were going?”. When it comes time for me to talk to the insurance adjuster, the adjuster is going to tell me that you are an incompassionate jerk and that the jury is going to hate you if this case ever goes to trial.
It is better that you stick to the business at hand. It is certainly appropriate to ask the other driver if the occupants of the other car are alright. If the answer is “no”, please do not say that “I am sorry” or even “I am sorry to hear that”, because that will be repeated back as “I am sorry I caused their injury”. Say simply, “we should call an ambulance. Would you like for me to call one”. Hopefully, you already called the police, in which case you can say “I have already called the police and an ambulance should be here shortly, while we are waiting we should probably go ahead and exchange our information”. In this way you are neither coming across as an incompassionate jerk, nor saying something that will come back to haunt you later. Always remember that when you are in the world of insurance companies, as unfortunately you are after an accident, normal rules of human behavior do not apply.
Document the Scene (take pictures)
I have written a blog “I Wish More People Would Take Pictures at the Scene of an Accident”. You can find that blog here. As the name of the article implies, not enough people take photos at accident scenes. They can be a huge help when there is a dispute over how the accident happened or how hard you were hit.
Get in the Ambulance (if needed)
I would say that in more than half of my cases in which my client was not transported to the hospital by ambulance, my client has wound up at the emergency room or another acute care facility within forty-eight hours of the accident. I would also say that in most of the cases in which my client did not wind up in a hospital or in an acute care facility within forty-eight hours of the accident, they probably should have. Most of the remainder are people whose condition took some time to develop.
There are any number of reasons for why these people declined to get into the ambulance and go to the hospital, but the main two reasons are that they are unaware of just how serious their condition is or they are concerned about things that they probably should not be so concerned about, such as payment, or some combination of the two.
By far the most common problem is people not realizing how seriously hurt that they are. This occurs for a number of reasons. The first is that an accident is an exciting and traumatic event. People become very emotional. People get an incredible jolt of adrenaline, which masks a lot of their problems. People get literally shaken up, such that their minds really are not functioning properly. Concussions of various sorts and of various severity are extremely common in collisions. In addition, one way that the mind deals with pain and trauma is simply by shutting down. That coupled with the general distraction of having to deal with the other things that I say to do at the scene of an accident makes it very difficult to be self aware and to understand fully your condition immediately after the collision takes place.
Another reason people may not be aware of the severity of their injury, is because most musculoskeletal injuries, such as sprains and strains, and even herniated discs may take time to develop fully and reveal themselves through pain. Most people feel worse the day after a collision than they do the day of. Many feel still worse the following day. It is common to feel worse still the next day or even the next week. Injuries that cause misalignment of joints or damage to the supporting structures of joints, such as many injuries to the neck, back, shoulders, knees, wrists and jaw always take time to develop as joint damage sets in motion a chain of events that fester and worsen with time and movement. Most muscular and ligamentous injuries involve swelling and inflammation that takes time to develop. Concussions always get worse before they get better. Muscles that have been traumatized at an accident scene may actually feel nicely stretched out and loose at first, but will tighten over the next several hours and days.
The other reason people tend to avoid getting into the ambulance even though they need to is because they are concerned about other things. The big one, of course, is who is going to pay for the ambulance and hospital, and the other one is what is going to happen to the car. In terms of who is going to pay for all of this, the answer is the insurance. First of all, your Massachusetts (PIP) automobile insurance has $8,000.00 of no fault coverage called “Personal Injury Protection”. Unless you opted for a deductible, which very few people do, that is available to pay the ambulance. In addition, if you have private health insurance, that too is available to pay. It is very rare that a trip to the hospital by ambulance results in an ambulance co-pay when there is private health insurance. The vast majority of health insurance plans pay 100% for ambulances. However, if there is a co-pay, PIP will pay it. Most states, including Massachusetts and New Hampshire offer optional medical payment coverage as part of their auto insurance, and if you purchased that, it may pay as well.
However, if you have private health insurance and you have been involved in a motor vehicle accident, your insurance benefits are leveraged in an unnecessarily complicated way. The car insurance pays your first two thousand dollars of medical bills, and then your health insurance kicks in. To the extent that there are co-pays, deductibles, or simply non-covered services, such as acupuncture or massage, you go back to the car insurance. This process, called “coordination of benefits”, extends that $8,000.00 dramatically. I indicate that it is unnecessarily complicated, because unfortunately it leaves the ambulance in a position in which they do not know where to send the bill. I actually think that my office spends more time coordinating benefits than we do working bodily injury claims. However, it makes the question of who is going to pay for this not an issue. There is insurance coverage to be had.
What truly amazes me is the number of people who will turn down medical attention that they need because they are worried about their cars. One funny thing about practicing personal injury law in one place for as long as I have is that I have come to know a lot of police officers, firefighters, and EMTs, and we tell stories. I have actually been told stories of people who have jumped out of the ambulance when the tow truck showed up to tow their car away. That is ridiculous. The car will be fine. It will go to a tow yard where it will be safely stored. If you have collision coverage, the cost of all of that is covered by the collision coverage. If the other car is at fault, then that insurance company will be responsible for the tow, reasonable storage, the repair, the car rental, and everything else involved with this. Cars are easy to fix, and when they cannot be fixed, they are easy to replace. You only get one body and when you break it that is it.
There are some issues that arise concerning what happens, at home, at work, or to the kids and these are more case specific. However, if you have kids with you at the accident scene, they will be transported with you to the hospital. If they are not treating, there will be no charge. If you have things to do at home, at work, or what have you, please keep in mind that you are hurt. How useful do you think you are going to be? It is better to get yourself put back together so that you can actually do things. In the meantime, ask somebody else if they can pitch in for you while you get taken care of. Otherwise, you may need them to pitch in for you for a lot longer later.