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What to do in case of a car accident

While we’d all like to focus on the positive aspects of life and try to forget about what could happen, it’s still a good idea to be prepared. Especially if you’re heading out on a longer road trip or if you’ve just upgraded to a new car; the road, in particular, tend to introduce a lot of emergencies.

That’s why you need to be prepared. The more you’re able to keep your head cool and focus on what to do next, the better off you’ll be in the future - and the easier it’s going to be for you to put the incident behind you so that you can get back behind the steering wheel.

Here is a quick checklist of what to keep in mind when you’re on the road in case of an emergency. It just makes it a bit easier to drive with confidence.

First: Report the incident

In this guide, we’re going to assume that you as well as all of the passengers are unharmed after the accident. It might not always be the case, though, so have a look at this article so that you can make yourself useful in case someone should need your help. You might be able to save their lives by just reading up on it quickly.

As long as you and your fellow passengers are unharmed, on the other hand, you should exit the vehicle and call the police to report the accident. Remember to never admit any fault at the scene if you didn’t do anything to cause it - that’s the kind of stuff that might be used against you later.

Make a not of the other driver’s details as well, by the way, and write down the name of the police officer you spoke to. After you’ve done this, you should wait for the help to arrive.

Next: Document the accident

More likely than not, you’re going to need a car accident lawyer after an incident like this. It may not be what you want to focus on right now, but it’s necessary in case the other driver should try to push the blame over on you.

Start to prevent this by documenting the accident. Take some photos of what happened, while you still have the other driver there, and ask the police officer who arrived at the scene if you can obtain an accident report as well. It’s the kind of stuff that’s going to help you out a lot if you need to protect yourself.

Try to see if you can get some pictures of the other driver’s licence plate as well, by the way, or write it down together with their other details.

Last but not least, you should have a chat with some of the other witnesses around as well. This will be easy for you if you’ve gone through a similar incident before, but it can be difficult to realize how important it is at first; if you have witness statements of what happened as well as everything above, you can consider yourself safeguarded.

When everyone is unharmed after the accident, the only thing you have to focus on is to make sure you’re protected against any lawsuits - and mentally prepared to deal with all the paperwork.