What to Do in the First 48 Hours After a Car Accident

Almost every car accident claim that goes badly went badly in the first week. Not because the person did anything reckless, but because the small things that prove a claim are easiest to collect in the first two days and nearly impossible to recover later. This is the short version of what matters.

See a doctor the same day

This is the one that costs people the most money. Adrenaline hides soft tissue injuries, so plenty of people walk away from a crash feeling fine and wake up two days later unable to turn their head. By then the insurer has a gap in the record, and a gap is the first thing an adjuster points at when they want to argue the injury came from something else.

Go the same day, even if nothing hurts yet. Tell the doctor about every area that took an impact, not only the one that aches. If it is not written down, as far as the claim is concerned it did not happen.

Photograph more than you think you need

Phones make this cheap, so be thorough. The useful set is wider than most people expect:

• Both vehicles from four corners, close enough to show the damage and far enough to show where they ended up
• The road itself: skid marks, debris, the state of the surface, any missing or obscured signage
• The other driver’s plate, insurance card and licence
• Your own injuries on the day, and again at 72 hours when bruising is at its worst
• The inside of your car, including a deployed airbag or a seatbelt that locked

Photographs taken at the scene are worth more than any description written a month later, because nobody can argue with a timestamp.

Write down what was said

Memory fades faster than people believe. Within a few hours, sit down and write out what happened in order: the weather, your speed, which lane you were in, what the other driver said when they got out of the car. Admissions made at the scene matter, and they are much harder to stand behind if you first recall them six months later.

Report it, but keep the report factual

Call the police if anyone is hurt or the damage is significant, and get the report number. Notify your own insurer promptly, because most policies require it. Both of those are obligations, not concessions.

What you are not obliged to do is give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement in the first week. You are allowed to say that you will call back once you know the extent of your injuries. That sentence is the single most useful thing in this article.

Keep every receipt

Taxis to appointments, prescriptions, the brace you bought yourself at the pharmacy, the days you could not work. All of it is recoverable and all of it is forgotten by the time anyone asks. A folder or a photo album on your phone is enough.

The two things that quietly sink a claim

1. Stopping treatment because you feel a bit better. A course of physiotherapy abandoned halfway through reads, on paper, as an injury that resolved. Finish what the doctor prescribed or get it formally discharged.
2. Posting about it. A photograph of you at a barbecue three weeks after the crash will be found, and it will be used, with no context about how much you paid for it the next morning.

When to call a lawyer

If the injuries are minor, liability is obvious and the insurer is behaving, plenty of people settle these themselves. Call someone if any of the following is true: there is a dispute about who caused it, the injuries needed more than a couple of visits, a commercial vehicle was involved, or the first offer arrived before you finished treatment. That last one is not generosity. It is an attempt to close the file before anyone knows what it is worth.