By Ashley Thompson
Disclaimer: The information presented below discusses some of the things for you to consider from a legal standpoint if you get caught up in a vehicular accident and isn’t a substitute for qualified legal advice. For further information on what to do in case you become involved in a vehicular accident, you should call a licensed lawyer who has dealt before with cases like yours as soon as you can.
No driver in their right mind would ever want to be on the receiving end of a bad situation that can put them in grave danger. Unfortunately, the very minute that you step inside your vehicle also makes you susceptible to getting involved in an accident. So as much as you might be reciting your driver’s prayer every single time before you hit the road, no amount of prayers can save you from a vehicular accident that might happen to you. What you would want to do then instead of wishing that it wouldn’t happen to you at all is to read the following things for you to consider legally in case you get caught up in a vehicular accident:
Don’t drive or run away from the scene of the vehicular accident that you got involved in even if you know to yourself that you didn’t cause it to happen at all.
Every single one of us has a fight or flight response when faced with certain situations that we didn’t expect to happen at all. But if you got yourself entangled in a vehicular accident, your flight response might prevail over the fight one, especially if you were the victim instead of the culprit.
However, regardless of who’s at fault for causing the accident to happen, you shouldn’t flee from the scene of the crash itself as doing so can lead law enforcement to assume that you have a certain degree of fault in the said incident.
You may even get charged with various penalties, and your vehicle’s insurance can get canceled despite being on the receiving end of the accident itself.
Thus, no matter what your exact involvement is in a vehicular accident that happened to you, you should stay right where you are, stop your vehicle’s engine from running, and turn its hazard lights on so that anyone else who would drive by the scene of the accident itself would know about it. If you go by the information shared on this site, https://www.rileycate.com/personal-injury/car-accidents/, you must understand that most injuries during an accident are compensable. So, you must get in touch with a lawyer right away!
Call your state’s designated emergency numbers for police and medical services.
Every state’s vehicular accident laws require you to call the police or emergency medical services so that they can immediately respond to the scene of the crash itself.
If you caused the accident to happen, you shouldn’t try to move any piece of wreckage in an attempt to help the victim driver as you might inflict further harm on them instead of helping them. You would want to leave that in the hands of qualified professionals like police and emergency medical services instead.
You would also want the police to respond to the accident that you got involved in if it had caused significant road blockage so that they could redirect incoming vehicular traffic away from it.
Don’t apologize or even say the word “sorry” regardless if you were the victim or the culprit in the vehicular accident.
Another basic human instinct that you might exhibit in the event of a vehicular accident is to automatically turn apologetic whether you did it or you were its victim.
However, apologizing or simply uttering the word “sorry” can lead the police to assume that you might have some liability for causing the vehicular accident to happen even if you didn’t at all.
Thus, you would want to curb your apologetic instincts and narrate only the facts surrounding the accident itself.
Give your details to the other driver, or write them down on a piece of paper and tuck it on the windshield of the other driver’s car if they’re not around at the time of the accident.
Another requirement of vehicular accident law is that you should leave your details to the other driver so that they’d know where to reach you in case of an insurance claim dispute or even a lawsuit.
When driving, you should always have a piece of paper and a pen with you so that you can write down your name, address, contact number, vehicle insurance information, and a brief explanation of the accident in case one happens to you.
But in the explanation of the accident part of your written note, you shouldn’t write how you were distracted by something else while driving or any other reason that can incriminate you.
If you’re leaving your note on the windshield of the other driver’s car, you should ensure that you didn’t write it using a pen whose ink can easily fade away once exposed to rain.
According to a joint report published by the United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, and Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, a vehicular accident occurs every five seconds. Thus, as much as you’re ensuring that you won’t get involved in anything that can put you in harm’s way, you can sadly still get caught up in a vehicular or motorcycle accident. Should it happen to you, the above-listed things for you to consider legally can help you get compensated for any injuries and damages that you’ve sustained as a result. But you would also want to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as you can, and you may click here for more information.
Ashley Thompson
Ashley Thompson is a promising young law writer. She hopes to apply her years of study into helping explain legal issues to the public. Ashley loves cooking and often cooks for her family during weekends.