After an Auto Accident. What Should You Do?

Lately I have seen an increase in the amount of time it takes some carriers to accept or deny liability after an accident. If you have Collision coverage on your vehicle, this is not a problem. You can begin repairs right away using your policy, and the worst case scenario is you will pay your deductible up front.

But if you drive paid for cars like me, and don’t carry Collision coverage, what should you do when someone runs into you? Smart phones have made this part much easier.

1. Get photos of the other car and be sure to get one with the vehicle’s license plate in it.
2. Take a picture of the other party’s driver’s license.
3. Take a picture of their registration.
4. Take a picture of their insurance card.
5. Get their phone number.
   

Of course the other party may want this information from you as well.

It can still take several weeks for their insurance adjuster to make a decision if they cannot reach their client to get a statement of what happened. But having these items will help, especially if the other party is uncooperative.

An additional item to get if possible is a police report. This is actually the best item you can get, but because police departments are stretched thin these days, they will not always send an officer out if there are no injuries or traffic being blocked.

The best thing to do though, is to stay out of the way of the knuckleheads although this gets more difficult everyday as they seem to be breeding very fast.