The First Thing To Do After a Car Accident

Attorney Ben Dominguez | 888-981-5244 | Free Consult

Do you know the first thing to do after a car accident?

Ben Dominguez is a Houston injury attorney with Ben Dominguez Law Firm. He has 20 years of legal experience. In this Quick Question, he explains the first thing everyone should do after a car crash.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-981-5244 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Contact law enforcement.

Immediately after a car accident, it is essential that you contact law enforcement. Police officers are trained to deal with these situations and will be able to secure the scene of the accident to make sure it is as safe as possible for everyone involved.

Additionally, law enforcement will know exactly what information to gather regarding how the accident came about, including the other driver’s information, testimony, and the contact information of any witnesses to the accident who can confirm or deny the driver’s report. In situations where the other driver clearly violated a traffic rule resulting in the accident, law enforcement can document the fact, ensuring that official evidence exists to support your case.

Seek immediate medical care.

This is important even if you do not immediately feel an injury. Some injuries can take days or even weeks to become symptomatic after a car accident, and this ensures that a medical record exists confirming the existence of your injury. Additionally, waiting to seek medical care could result in an argument against the severity of your injury if you choose to file a claim down the road.

It’s also a good idea to request a copy of your medical records after a car accident. Keep your copy in a safe place where it cannot be lost or deleted in case you need it in the future.

Some evidence from the scene of the accident can be documented by the victim or a loved one of the victim.

While it’s important to remember that the police are highly trained and cooperating with them will generally help the entire situation resolve as smoothly as possible, it doesn’t hurt to gather some evidence on your own. Examples of evidence that can be collected from the scene include pictures of both vehicles, damage to the vehicles, surrounding environment, other property damaged in the accident, and the injury itself.

Additionally, it’s important to get the contact information of the other driver as well as any witnesses nearby and record their testimony if they agree to it. This allows an attorney to contact these witnesses and use the photo evidence from the scene of the accident to immediately begin building your case. If you are too injured to collect evidence at the scene, a family member, friend, or attorney can do so on your behalf.

To learn more, contact Ben Dominguez directly by calling 888-981-5244 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Video Transcript:

Christine Haas:

This is another Quick Question from AskTheLawyers.com: what's the first thing you should do after you've been in a car crash? Houston attorney Ben Dominguez has these tips.

Ben Dominguez:

The first thing you need to do after a car accident is definitely call the police, call 911. You need to document how this accident happened, and of course if someone ran the red light, you don't want them later on to say, "Oh, well, I didn't run the red light, you did."

So you want the officer to go get to the scene, take the details of the people involved in the accident, find the witnesses, put that in the police report, and then document how it happened, and if there are any citations that need to be issued the police, the police officer, the deputy the sheriff, whoever they're very well-trained. They know how to handle these situations, and they're polite about it, they're diplomatic about it, if they think he ran a red like, they'll issue a citation. They won't hesitate to do that.

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