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The odds are that everyone will be involved in some kind of auto accident at least once in their lives. Your fault or not chances are you will hit or be hit one day while driving a car. Do you know what to do when it happens to you?
The majority of automobile accidents don’t make the evening news and usually result in damage to cars and minor injuries. In most cases, the police don’t even respond to the run-of-the-mill car accident unless it creates a traffic jamb or requires emergency services. You may want to call the police if you are involved in an accident but, the odds are you will be dealing with the other driver at the scene and with insurance companies after the accident.
The standard procedure following an auto accident is to find a safe locations and pull out of traffic to exchange information with the other driver. Typically, we are supposed to exchange:
- Names,
- Addresses,
- Telephone numbers,
- Drivers License Numbers,
- Year, Make and Model of cars,
- License Plate Numbers,
- Insurance Company Information,
- Insurance Policy Numbers
- The name and phone number for our insurance agents.
We are supposed to provide the information about ourselves to the other driver and both of us are supposed to contact our insurance agents and make a state accident report if required by our state motor vehicle department or insurance laws.
It can be intimidating while standing on the side of the road following some kind of accident and dealing with another person who may be angry, upset or even hurt. I advise that anyone involved in an accident with someone who appears to be hostile provide the information about their car, and their insurance information and let the other driver know your insurance agent will work out the rest of the details. Under normal circumstances exchanging information should be a simple business matter, but in a situation that seems abnormal for any reason I recommend simply providing the basic information the person might need to contact your insurance company and not personal identification or addresses.
The next Blog in this Series will discuss What to say at the scene of an Auto Accident.
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