When you drive New Haven’s busy streets, you share the road with strangers, and you never know what to expect. While many motorists drive safely, others commit risky acts that endanger everyone. You can’t always prevent a bad driver from crashing into your car and injuring you, but you should know what to do after a car accident in New Haven.
When you consult with a car accident lawyer, you’ll have a legal team working to protect your rights. Unfortunately, during those critical moments immediately following the crash, you must deal with several challenges on your own.
When Someone Crashes into Your Car
A legal representative can take immediate steps to determine liability for your accident. Until you find an attorney to represent you, it’s your job to protect your legal rights. Your responsibility begins immediately after a crash.
Call 911
If your accident involves injury or death, Connecticut’s Vehicle Highway Use Statutes requires you to notify local law enforcement authorities. You have the option to file your report at a nearby precinct, but during an on-site investigation, officers document the evidence first-hand.
- Inspect, evaluate, and photograph the accident scene
- Obtain statements and personal information from drivers and witnesses
- Confirm insurance information
- Give an opinion on causation: speed, distracted driving, substance use, etc.
- Confirm violations, issue tickets or make an arrest
An officer’s formal on-site report provides the most credible documentation for an insurance company’s investigation. This is especially important when a hit-and-run driver causes your accident.
Think Before you Speak
Before you react after an accident, remember that your words can be evidence. An accusation, apology, or post-accident rant may end up in a police report, witness statement, or deposition. Courts accept such statements as spontaneous utterances that represent your “then-existing” mental state.
Insurers use your words to judge you as a potential witness, dispute liability, or discount your claim value during negotiations. Even if you’re feeling angry, remorseful, or distressed, you must think before you speak.
Never Admit Fault
When you’re involved in a New Haven accident, never tell anyone the accident was your fault. Never admit liability even if you think you did something wrong. It’s your insurance company’s and attorney’s responsibility to make those judgements on your behalf.
Post-accident legal issues can be complicated, even for those who handle claims every day. Insurers and attorneys conduct an investigation and take time to evaluate the evidence. Juries and judges hear days and weeks of testimony in court. Each carefully determines liability based on evidence and legal principles. This isn’t something a driver can do while waiting for the police to arrive.
If you admit fault at the accident scene:
- You may undermine a legitimate defense.
- You might not know that, in Connecticut, all involved drivers may be partially at fault.
- Your admission may jeopardize your insurance company’s position.
Never Apologize
When you apologize after an accident, You may sound as though you did something wrong. Whatever your intent, the other driver and witnesses may identify your apology as a confession or an admission of fault.
Don’t Speculate or Guess the Accident Facts
When a police officer interviews you at an accident scene, say only what you know for sure, just the facts.
- If the officer asks you a question, only answer the question.
- If they ask a yes or no question, answer only yes or no.
- Offer only factual statements based on what you know.
- The light was red.
- I was driving at 25 miles per hour.
- The road was wet.
- I applied the brakes.
- Don’t try to explain what the other driver was doing if you don’t know for sure.
- Even if you believe you’re at fault, don’t say that to anyone.
- Never decide you did something inappropriate. You might be wrong.
Keep these things in mind if an investigating officer asks you to describe what happened.
Never Say, “I’m Okay”
You may feel just fine, even after a severe crash, but never say that to anyone. If you say that to the other driver or investigating officer, your comment will likely end up in the a police or claim report.
Soft tissue injuries, internal damage, traumatic brain injuries, and other conditions might not produce symptoms until days or weeks later. If you decide later to file an injury claim, the person investigating your claim may label your injuries as “questionable.” Instead of saying you’re “just fine,” tell anyone who asks that you will likely see a doctor.
Try to Preserve Evidence at the Accident Scene
A car accident scene begins changing immediately after a crash. This transition usually begins long before the police arrive. If someone is blocking traffic, they may move their vehicle. Even if a driver doesn’t intend to hit and run, they sometimes reconsider and leave the scene before the police arrive. Some witnesses simply walk away.
While you can’t prevent these things from happening, it’s up to you to capture evidence before it goes away. Your smartphone’s camera can be an efficient tool for this purpose. If an accident has immobilized you, ask a passenger or bystander to assist you with these tasks.
- Take a photo of the other driver, his license, and insurance card. Confirm their current address. Some drivers might not want to cooperate, but Connecticut’s Vehicle Use statutes require them to provide this information.
- Photograph the involved vehicles, documenting the make, model, license plate number, points of impact, and also current and past damage
- Take photos of the accident scene. Include any traffic control devices, skid marks, accident debris, etc.
- Get witnesses’ contact information.
Seek Emergency Medical Treatment
When an accident severely damages your vehicle, the impact often traumatizes your body as well. Whether or not you feel immediate pain, visit the emergency room or contact your doctor for a post-accident checkup. Whether you seek treatment or not, your actions will affect how an insurance adjuster perceives your injury claim.
File a Claim With Your Auto Insurer
Even if the other driver’s company agrees to pay your claim, report your accident to your insurance company anyway. This is important for several reasons:
- Your Personal Auto Policy requires that you report any claim for which your insurance might apply.
- Your insurer has the right to decide whether to investigate your claim.
- You may have a liability exposure due to Connecticut’s Comparative Negligence statute. Your insurance company may choose to investigate.
- If the other driver doesn’t have bodily injury liability coverage or a high enough limit to pay your claim, you may have a valid Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Claim.
- If you jeopardize your insurer’s position by not reporting an accident, they may have the right to deny coverage for your accident.
Follow Your Doctor’s Orders
At some point, a claim representative, attorney, or jury will evaluate your injury claim. Before they make an offer or award damages, they review your medical records for injury confirmation. Your course of treatment becomes a major factor in how an adjuster, attorney, or anyone else evaluates your claim.
- When someone requests a medical report, your attending physician can only share what they know based on your treatment history.
- If you have a legitimate injury but don’t follow your doctor’s orders, whoever evaluates your case will question its validity.
- If you don’t fill your pain medicine prescription or keep your physical therapy appointments, your actions suggest that you aren’t experiencing pain.
- If you never see a doctor, your injuries may seem questionable or fake.
Track Your Injury and Recovery
As you’re recovering from injuries, you endure daily reminders of your suffering, disabilities, and every painful moment. By the time you discuss settlement or give a deposition, you will have forgotten much of your healing and recovery experience. When you track and document your injury, your claim evaluation can incorporate your day-to-day healing and recovery experiences.
When insurers, attorneys, and juries evaluate claims, they rely on a number of factors. They look at other claims and court cases with similar injuries. They obtain medical reports from your doctor and may submit you to an independent medical exam. These resources are essential but your experiences make a claim evaluation more personal to you.
- Start an injury journal as soon as possible following your accident. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just a simple notebook with chronological entries.
- Document your medical experiences from emergency treatment through recovery.
- Describe your treatment, physical therapy, and medications. Explain any pain or discomfort, and how these experiences made you feel.
- Share how your injuries restricted your activities, altered your holidays, or prevented you from earning a living or interacting with your family
Don’t Talk About Your Accident or Injuries
Insurers will do whatever it takes to get the information they need to evaluate your claim. As the International Risk Management Institute explains, insurers set a reserve that reflects your claim value as accurately as possible. Reserves are a statutory obligation, so insurance investigators seek information through a variety of activities you might not anticipate.
- Ask your neighbors and friends for insight
- Observe you, looking for signs that you’re not injured or in pain
- Sit outside your home, observing you and obtaining videos of you entering, leaving, or working in your yard.
- Conduct social media investigations, looking for videos or posts that confirm your injury status
- Obtain credit report to review your finances
When a car accident lawyer is protecting you, they keep your information private until they present a settlement demand. It’s essential that you keep your information private as well.
Consult With a New Haven Car Accident Lawyer
Car accident injury claims can be complicated. When you schedule a consultation, you can learn more about your legal options. When you’re ready, you can establish a working relationship with a seasoned legal representative.
A law firm can protect your rights, investigate your accident, and intervene with insurers on your behalf. When appropriate, your attorney can initiate settlement negotiations to resolve your claim.