When you’ve been hurt in a motor vehicle accident, the steps you take in the immediate aftermath of the accident can have a significant bearing on your success or failure in recovering full and fair compensation for all your losses.
Take Care of Your Medical Needs
Your first concern after a car crash should always be your health. You don’t want to take any risk that you’ll make the injury worse. If you are unable to move under your own power, or if you experience pain when you try to do so, don’t move. Wait until emergency medical personnel have arrived and defer to their training and judgment. If they determine you need to go to the hospital in an ambulance, do it. It’s not a time to be strong or heroic—it’s a time to paramount attention to your physical well-being.
If you are able to move under your own power, take yourself to the hospital, an urgent care facility or to your family doctor as soon as possible. The more time you put between the accident and your request for medical care, the greater the risk that you’ll have an intervening accident, or that defense attorneys will try to argue that there was some intervening event.
When you get medical care, make certain that the doctor puts everything in writing. Tell the doctor exactly what happened, and about anything that seems out of the ordinary. Don’t focus on the obvious injury to the exclusion of seemingly less serious issues. Often, what seems like a minor injury (lower back or legs, for example) can be the most debilitating in the long run.
Get Information
If you can do so without putting your health and safety at risk, gather as much information as you can, including:
- Names of all involved parties, as well as any witnesses
- Contact information, including e-mail address, phone number and street address
- Take pictures of everything—the camera on your phone is fine—get shots of the damage to all vehicle, any injuries you have, weather conditions, any roadway issues or defects, and anything that might be relevant (such as skid marks)
Contact Our Office
At the Cintron Firm, LLC, we bring more than 14 years of experience men and women in New Jersey who are involved in or contemplating filing for divorce. To set up an appointment, contact our office at 201-791-1333 or 917-494-5695 or send us an e-mail.
