A vehicle accident, particularly one in which there are injuries, is a traumatic and stressful situation. Your primary and immediate concerns should be getting to safety. As well as getting the medical attention that you need. In such a situation, details are easily overlooked or forgotten later. The accident report completed by law enforcement at the scene of the accident can help provide us with a lot of the information that we will need to pursue your personal injury claim.
We often ask that you bring your accident report in with you when you come to see us. There are different ways to get your accident report, based on which agency completed it. If you contact the law enforcement agency that responded to your car accident, they can provide that information. If you can not get your accident report, though, don’t let that stop you from coming to see us. We can most likely get that accident report for you.
The accident report has the following information:
- The responding law enforcement officer’s summary of what he or she thinks caused the accident
- his or her observation of the scene combined with witness interviews
The officer most likely did not see the accident happen, so they rely on witness reports and observations. Sometimes the report is correct as to how the accident happened, but not always. It does, however, give us a diagram of the scene of the accident, including locations of vehicles and street names.
Potential witnesses will be on the report. The report will include driver information from all vehicles involved in the crash. It will also include contact information for any witnesses with whom the officer spoke with. This is valuable information, as we will want to contact these witnesses when investigating your case.
The report gives us all sorts of details that we will use, like insurance information. The insurance company of the at-fault driver will be one of the first places that we contact. The insurance policy is there for just this type of situation, so we want to take advantage of it. These companies will not volunteer information and they will not give you anything entitled to you unless you make them. This is why an experienced personal injury lawyer is a necessity if you suffer an injury in a car wreck.
Other useful information in the accident report includes the driver license number and other information of the at-fault driver. We will use this information to pull a driver history, among other things. The accident report will also tell us where the vehicles were towed, if they had to be towed from the scene, so that our investigators can inspect the vehicle and take photographs. The accident report is a treasure trove of information for an experienced personal injury attorney. Knowing that all of this information is being collected for you allows you to focus on the most important thing – your own health.
Attorney Steven A. Harris regularly blogs in the areas of family law, bankruptcy, and real estate closings on this website. He is always available in any of the firm’s offices or by phone anytime for a consultation. Mr. Harris tries to provide informative information to the public in easily digestible formats. Hopefully you enjoyed this article and feel free to supply any feedback. We appreciate our readers and love to hear from you!