Auto Accidents
Picture your commute to and from work. You take the same route every day, at around the same time; the commute becomes so familiar that each trip starts to blend together. Then one day, as you're sitting in traffic on the highway home, starting and stopping, going with the ebb and flow of the cars around you, you take your eyes off the road for a few seconds to adjust your radio—when the car in front of you stops sooner than you thought, and you drift into its rear bumper. As easy as that, you find yourself in a collision.
Try as you may to avoid them, there may be a time when you will get into an accident on the road. In 2006 there were 5,973,000 accidents reported. Around 2.5 million people were injured in accidents for the same year; and there were 42,642 deaths as a result of car crashes.
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Things to Keep in Mind if You Get into a Car Accident
First things first: if you are in an accident, your first priority is to check for injuries. If anyone is hurt, call for medical assistance right away. It is also a good idea to call the police, if they are not already on the scene. Police officers have been trained to handle traffic accidents. The police can help you gather information from everyone involved in the accident: their names, addresses, phone numbers, and auto insurance information. The officer must then write-up the initial police report, which will come in handy should you need to file a claim.
It is also a good idea to jot down any damages to your vehicle resulting from an accident. If you have a camera with you, even better. Take pictures of any bumps, scrapes, scratches, broken headlights, or any other damage to your property. You may consider keeping a disposable camera in your glove compartment specifically for this purpose—it won't help you avoid any more accidents, but it will help you gather all the information you need to expedite the claim.
You should contact your insurance company as soon as possible after an accident. In addition to the information the police gathered, write down your own detailed recollection of the incident to give to your claims representative as a statement. Do not speak to anyone else about the accident, except for the police and your insurance company.
If a representative from another insurance company calls you, do not agree to give them a statement on the record, and refer all questions to your claims representative.
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Last Updated: February 14, 2008
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