No one ever wants to be in a car accident but they happen and when they do, you better know what to do. In case that you were not the one who caused the accident, then I have listed here some guidelines that you can follow when it comes to handling the situation. It would surely help a lot to know these things:
• The first thing for you to do after you have made sure that no one was hurt is to gather information that you are going to need afterwards. You need to take note of the plate number of the car, its make, and the model. If you can not write it down for the moment, you should just keep on saying it out loud until you can.
• If the accident happened at night, you better turn your hazard lights on. You don't want to cause another traffic accident.
• It does not matter how minor an accident it is, the police should still be called in right away. The police report is going to be needed by the insurance company and you might need the police officers to officially determine what actually happened. So, be sure to call the police right away and don't leave that to others.
• Try to look for witnesses in the area. If the accident happened in a crowded area, then that might not be a problem, but if it happened in an isolated location, where there are no other vehicles, then that might complicate things. Still a witness' testimony could help you out a lot.
• If there are no arguments as to what had happened, then you should exchange information with the other driver. You should get their name, driver's license number and their car insurance company - and you should provide the same. That information would be needed in the processing of the claim.
• This is the part where you tell the police officer what actually happened. Be sure that you tell things exactly as it happened and do not exaggerate, which might cause the other party to disagree. If the damage was minor and there were no injuries then you should not try to complicate things further.
• File a claim with your company in order to cover for the expenses of the damage that was caused to your vehicle. There are cases though when the damage is too slight that it would actually be wiser for you not to file a claim at all.
• When the damage is too small, you might just file an insurance notification with your company. This is when you tell them that an accident has happened but you're not seeking compensation for it. That might have some long term benefits for you.
These are the steps that you can follow when the accident that you were involved in was just a minor one. In cases where there are some serious damage and the amount of the claim involved is rather large then it might make sense for you to hire a personal accident or personal injury attorney.
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