Gathering the right evidence can make or break your car accident insurance claim or lawsuit.
To file a successful car insurance claim or win a car accident lawsuit, you’ll typically need to prove who caused the accident (fault) and how much the accident cost you (damages). To prove fault and damages, you’ll need evidence.
Evidence can come in many forms. Your own statement about how the accident happened, for example, is important evidence. But you’ll typically need other evidence to back up your claim, especially when others involved in the accident have a conflicting story about what happened. Helpful evidence often includes:
- A car accident police report
- Physical evidence
- Third-party witness statements
- Expert witness reports
- Medical records
- Official documents (like medical bills, pay stubs, and receipts).
The evidence that’s available to you will depend on many factors, including the seriousness of the injuries involved and the time and location of the accident.
Collecting Evidence at the Scene of the Accident
Safety should always be your number one priority after a car accident. Call 911 if you or anyone else involved or impacted by the crash needs medical help.
Get a Police Report
Even if the accident involves only property damage or minor injuries, call the police. Some evidence can only be gathered at the scene of the crash and the police are best equipped to do it.
If an officer responds to the scene of your accident, the officer will likely write a police report. Police reports typically include:
- Details of the crash, including the people and vehicles involved
- Statements from drivers, passengers, and witnesses
- Photographs
- A drawn diagram of the accident (location, path of vehicles, point of collision)
- An officer’s opinion about how and why the accident happened
Take Photographs of the Accident Scene
If you can, take your own date-stamped photographs of the scene. No one is as invested as you are in your case. You’ll know all of the important angles to thoroughly document the scene. You’ll want to capture:
- Damage to all of the cars involved in the accident
- Traffic signs and signals in the area
- Road conditions
- The exact location of the crash from different angles
- Vehicle debris and skid marks
- Your injuries
Don’t just take still photographs, take videos too if you can.
Talk to Witnesses
You are required to exchange information with other drivers involved in the accident, including names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, license plate numbers, and insurance information. If anyone was driving for an employer at the time of the accident, get the employer’s name and contact information too.
Look for uninvolved witnesses—anyone who may have seen or heard the crash, including pedestrians, cyclists, and people in nearby homes and businesses. You’ll want to get the witnesses’ names and contact information. Insurance adjusters often place a high value on the statements of uninvolved witnesses who have no stake in the outcome of the case.
Check for Video
A clear video of the car accident and its aftermath can answer a lot of the questions an adjuster, judge, or jury may have about how the accident happened. Potential sources of video footage include:
- Private property surveillance cameras
- Traffic cameras
- Dashcams
- Social media
- Police body cams
Video evidence is powerful, but it can be difficult to locate and collect. You typically have to act quickly. We can help you request, collect, and preserve video evidence before it’s deleted.
How the Evidence Will Be Used
Accident and crash reconstruction experts can use the evidence described above to make lots of useful findings. For example, using information about road surfaces, road conditions, weather, the vehicles involved, and post-impact travel distances, experts can estimate vehicle speeds at the point of impact.
Experts can also explain angles of impact, post-impact distances and directions of travel, and other vehicle mechanics (like a spin or a rollover). The evidence can be used to describe what happened to drivers and passengers inside the vehicles during and after impact, and to explain how different injuries occurred.
It might be possible, using things like video footage and eyewitness reports, to make findings about who was at fault. Perhaps one driver tried to beat a yellow traffic light. Or maybe a driver was speeding through a parking lot and hit someone pulling out of a parking spot.
An absence of skid marks left by a fast-moving vehicle approaching a stop sign could indicate that the driver never saw the sign. Perspective photos, on the other hand, might show that the driver’s view of the sign was obstructed by overgrown trees or other vegetation, suggesting that faulty road maintenance could be partly to blame. Or weather conditions like snow, ice, or other moisture might explain the lack of skid marks.
At a minimum, the evidence will give insurance adjusters and attorneys a more complete picture of what happened, so they can make informed decisions about who or what caused the accident.
Should you or a family member be in an accident which injuries are sustained, the first thing you should do is contact a personal injury attorney. When you are represented by a skilled attorney, you’ll have your best chance of being fairly compensated for any injuries that you sustain in an accident.
Call Jacobson, Schrinsky & Houck in Milwaukee TODAY at (414) 223-4444 to have one of our caring lawyers come out to meet you and get car accident help TODAY and money for your injuries. There is no fee until we win.
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