It’s a traumatizing experience to get involved in a car accident in any way or form. Time slows down or ceases to exist entirely, and the chances are, you might be feeling quite disorientated. However, there are things that you need to do should you ever find yourself caught up in a car accident, and the truth is, it’s better to be prepared so that you deal with the situation in the best way possible.
Get Away From The Car
Initially, the first thing you want to make sure of is that you can move, and how serious your injuries are. If you’re able to move, check on anyone else that may have been in the car with you, and get out of the car immediately.
With a car crash, you simply don’t know how much damage has been done to the vehicle itself, and there are instances where the vehicle may catch fire. This is why it’s important to first and foremost keep a safe distance away from the car, and then check on any of the other cars that were involved to get them to do the same.
Call The Ambulance
The next step is something you want to do immediately, as soon as you can get away from the car. Regardless of whether you believe you’ve been injured or not, it’s important to call the ambulance right away. First, for the obvious fact that you need to ensure everyone’s health and safety, and secondly because you will need the medical record as part of the proof if you need to take the incident further in court, or present it to your insurance company.
Call Your Lawyer
After you’ve called the ambulance, it’s advisable that you contact your lawyer immediately and ask them for any advice and if there’s anything that you need to do in terms of health and damage to your car or the other person’s car as well. In the US, for example, specialized lawyers at https://www.brookslawgroup.com/tampa/car-accident-lawyer/ emphasize the importance of understanding the details in regards to insurance.
When you have a car accident, different cities and states have different laws and this is very valid in terms of how the insurance company deals with the situations. This is why having an experienced lawyer on call will do you great favors moving forward after the accident so that things don’t get messy.
Take Pictures Of The Scene
Be sure to not move your car, even if you’re able to, because you need to ensure that you take photographic evidence of the scene, the people involved, and the outside and inside of the car itself. This might seem a bit weird for you to do, given the circumstance, but you’ll find that this is extremely important to do and will go a long way in case you have to file a claim with the insurance company or deal with the incident in court for whatever reason.
Collect Information
To the best of your ability, you need to get the contact information of everyone involved in the accident. This too, will be useful moving forward when you file for your insurance or if you need to have something fixed in your car, or if the person you’ve hit needs to have something fixed with theirs.
Try To Stay Calm
It’s certainly much easier said than done, especially in a situation where you find yourself having to deal with fear, shock, and even possibly anger and pain. But the best way to get through the event is to consciously force yourself to breathe evenly and stay as calm as you possibly can. This is important so that you can just get through the event itself as practically as possible, get the care you need, and also the information you need.
Getting into a car accident is something that obviously no one wants to experience. But unfortunately, it does happen from time to time, and there is always a possibility that it might happen to you. This is why it’s important to keep the factors mentioned here in mind so that you are able to cope with an otherwise high intensity situation in the best way possible.
Remembering to breathe, ensuring that neither you nor anyone else is severely injured, and making sure that all the necessary people and authorities are reached, is imperative to ensure that you go about the situation correctly. It’s difficult to think about anything else in the moment itself, but you also have to prepare for what comes next after that too.
