What to Do After a Car Accident in Nevada

A car accident is never convenient. After an accident, your routine has been thrown off, you likely have damage to your vehicle, and you may be dealing with injuries and pain that make your day-to-day life difficult.

In the immediate hours after an accident, the adrenaline from the crash can make it difficult to think clearly about what needs to be done and what should be preserved to support a successful personal injury claim.

#1: Seek Emergency Medical Attention 

Once it is safe to do so, assess yourself for immediate medical concerns and determine the severity of your injuries. Even if you believe your injuries are relatively minor, it is still important to seek medical care. In many instances, injuries can appear minor at first. So minor, in fact, that a hospital visit might seem unnecessary. It can take hours or even days for the full range of symptoms and limitations to emerge.

Seeking medical attention also creates an important record. If you later pursue a personal injury claim, the timing of your treatment, your reported symptoms, and your medical provider’s findings may help connect your injuries to the accident.

#2: Contact Law Enforcement

If you are able to do so safely, contact law enforcement and/or emergency personnel immediately after your accident. Contacting law enforcement after an accident allows you to establish your position on what occurred.

The responding officer will typically produce an official crash report once all parties have had an opportunity to explain what happened. When filing an insurance claim for damages, having a police report can greatly speed up the processing of your claim and help document the basic facts of the accident.

#3: Preserve Evidence 

In some cases, the best opportunity to gather evidence from an accident is only minutes after the crash. Begin by photographing all vehicles involved. Take photos of your vehicle from different angles, as well as the vehicles of the other parties involved in the accident. The filing of an insurance claim can be greatly expedited with photos.

Consider taking photos of the road or street, the location of each vehicle after the accident, skid marks, debris, traffic signals, weather conditions, and any visible injuries you or another person involved suffered. There may be no future opportunity to document the scene the way it appeared immediately after the accident occurred.

If available, speak to any witnesses to the accident. A witness is a person who actually saw the events of the accident as they occurred. If the witness is unwilling to speak to you at the scene, consider asking for their contact information. The witness may be willing to provide a statement to an insurance company or attorney later.

#4: Contact an Experienced Nevada Car Accident Attorney

After a car accident, insurance companies may begin gathering information quickly. They may ask for recorded statements, request medical information, evaluate vehicle damage, or attempt to resolve the claim before the full extent of your injuries is known.

An experienced Nevada car accident attorney can help you understand your rights, preserve important evidence, communicate with the insurance company, evaluate available coverage, and determine the value of your claim. Early legal guidance can be especially important if there are serious injuries, disputed fault, multiple vehicles, commercial drivers, rideshare vehicles, uninsured drivers, or questions about insurance coverage.

Loftus Law can review what happened, identify the liability and insurance issues involved, and help determine the best next step for your case. Contact us today to get started.