The first thing you’re going to do, if you’re the driver of the vehicle that is hit by another car is, you’re going to want to check to see if any of the other passengers in your vehicle are injured. And you’re also going to check on yourself and see if you personally have been injured. And one thing that’s important to note about injuries resulting from motor vehicle collisions, is that they’re not always immediately apparent. So a lot of times when you’ve been in a car wreck, your adrenaline is going to be flowing, you’re going to be anxious, you’re going to be excited. You might be upset that someone’s hit you, you’re probably feeling a flood of emotion.
And other than just checking to see, “Okay, you know, am I breathing? Are my passengers breathing? Is there blood? Does anybody have broken bones?” Those sort of things. It can be difficult beyond that kind of initial triage assessment, to determine at that very moment if you have been injured or if someone else in your vehicle has been injured. So I would encourage you to just try to do a quick assessment of the scene. And, of course, if someone is severely injured, nonresponsive, the first thing you’re going to want to do is call 911, because it’s important that you get, the police on the scene.
They can help you in terms of, they will take a police report. They will take down your information. They will document who was in the car with you. They will take down the information that the driver of the other vehicle. They will document who, if anyone was in the other vehicle, and they’ll also ask questions about how did the collision occur. And they will sometimes take photographs. They will also prepare a report that frequently has a diagram about how the collision happened.
And it’s important that you just do your best to remain calm, and try to deal with any immediate and emergent medical and physical injuries initially, and then after that point, kind of go through the process of speaking with the police. The police will probably ask if you or anybody in your vehicle needs an ambulance. And that’s really just going to depend again on the severity of the collision. If there’s a question about needing an ambulance, you are so much better off having the ambulance come to the scene, help you make an assessment about whether or not you need to go to the hospital. Contact us if you need help after your accident.
*This is a transcript of the Facebook Live video from 6-21-18 Click here to watch the video.