After being involved in a serious truck accident, you may be too hurt or confused to follow the right steps to protect your legal rights. In these cases, the victims sometimes fail to do the right things to preserve evidence that will strengthen their case if they plan to pursue legal action against the liable party. The truck accident lawyers at Kogan & DiSalvo in Florida have provided some important steps to take after a truck accident to protect yourself.
Call law enforcement officers
Contact the police and report the collision. You should tell them all the relevant details, such as where the crash occurred and the injuries you sustained. The police officers will come with the emergency responders to help you and any other casualties. In addition, the police will also file an accident report and give you a copy, which you can use as evidence if you plan on filing a lawsuit against the liable party.
Get medical assistance
In some crashes, the victims may sustain internal injuries which may take days to manifest as pain, swelling, or bad odor. Therefore, if you have had an accident, you should be checked by a doctor. In addition, when you seek medical attention, you will create evidence like the medical records, which will show that your injuries were caused by the vehicle crash and not by other previous incidents. Moreover, the medical documents will be used to calculate your past and current medical expenses and the compensation amount you should receive.
Take pictures of the crash
You should take pictures of the damaged vehicles from different angles to show the extent of damage they sustained from the crash. In addition, you should take pictures of the condition of the road, the accident scene, and the other vehicle’s license plates.
Gather contact information from other parties
You can get contact information from the other parties involved in the vehicle collision, like their name, phone number, and insurance company details. In addition, you can collect information like the type, color, and model of their vehicle, as well as the names and addresses of the other people involved in the collision, like the passengers and witnesses.
Do not admit fault at the scene
You should refrain from saying you caused the vehicular crash, even if you think you did. This is because the cause of the crash is not always visible and there may be some other underlying factors that contributed to the crash, like vehicle malfunctions, bad road conditions, and distracted or drunk driving by the other driver. In such cases, if you say you are guilty without waiting for investigations to be carried out to determine the underlying causes, you can completely ruin your chances of getting a fair settlement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, after a nasty truck collision, you should call the police, get medically checked, snap pics of the crash scene, not admit fault and gather contact information from other drivers, passengers, and witnesses. Additionally, you should hire an experienced lawyer who can give you legal counsel concerning your case.