Today it's winter driving season here in
Wisconsin and regardless of where you
live you know that oftentimes the roads
can be slippery and the weather
unpredictable so I wanted to talk about
a few tips of what to do if you're ever
in a motor vehicle accident I know
myself I had the unfortunate experience
of being in a motor vehicle accident on
the first day of school when I was going
to my first day of university as a
college student and I was traveling to
school when another driver turned into
me t-boned the front of my car totally
wrecking the car and totaling the car
and I got out of the car I was just
sort of shocked initially and I saw the
damage to the car but physically I felt
okay or so I thought
but I remember waking up the next
morning and trying to go to class and I
couldn't turn my head hide the from side
to side and sitting and walking were
painful and that's because I had
whiplash and soft tissue injuries so if
you're ever in a car accident the first
thing you want to do is make sure you
and others are okay so if it's you in an
accident you wanna check for injuries
get yourself out of the car away from
danger but if it's someone else you see
don't try to move an injured person what
you want to do is call police and/or the
ambulance if necessary but make sure you
report the collision to the police so
they can get on site and start helping
you if it's your car damaged and you're
able to get out and walk around you
might want to snap some pictures on your
smartphone of the damage in the accident
scene while you wait for police turn on
your hazards if they're working on the
car try to get out of the way so you
don't get injured by other traffic and
again if it's snowy conditions there
could be others having
the same problem near where you are if
you have road flares or something like
that you can set those out then you want
to exchange information with the other
driver if the other driver was involved
and again the same advice about if
they're injured don't try to move them
but get their name address phone number
exchange insurance information you could
take a picture on your smartphone and
give that information about yourself to
the other driver if you have any
witnesses around try to get their
information - and then when the police
officer comes ask for his business card
and the incident ID number because that's
gonna be key to getting the accident
report later if you are thinking and
have time you might want to jot down
some basic notes about what happened
while it's fresh in your memory and
again you could do that on a notepad or
open a note app in your smartphone and
take it down and date it now even if you
think the accident is your fault it's
often best to just stay silent at this
point the other driver may or may not
have been partially responsible as well
and there's other variables such as road
conditions and traffic and other factors
that will come down to assigning fault
in the accident so an admission of fault
that the scene could be used against you
later as a legally binding admission so
it's general in general it's better to
just stay quiet at that point make sure
everyone's okay but avoid making a
statement of fault to anyone even though
your impulse might be to be nice and say
something to that effect it's in general
it's better to just wait and deal with
that later because I know from
experience you're often in the shock of
the moment and I recall in my own
accident me saying oh I think I'm okay
and I mean what I meant was I physically
could get out of the car but I didn't
know later the next day I would not be
feeling okay at all and I don't
recall if we got into the fault as I
recall I think the other driver
acknowledged that she hit me right away
but again just avoid making any
statements about the fault
who's at fault even if you think it may
be partially your you are to blame and
then just wait for the police to arrive
and cooperate fully when they get to the
accident you want to say stay there at
the scene until the police say you can
leave now if you have a medical
condition let them know if you really
need to get to the hospital obviously
that's where you need to get going but
if you can stay at the scene while they
collect information for the accident
report that's the best and when you
speak to the police only tell them the
facts of the accident you don't need to
draw a conclusion to say I think or this
or that just tell them what happened in
your own words from what you know the
responsibility for the accident is a
matter of law in the state and it may or
may not be clear right away what was the
cause of the crash so again you just
want to make sure you're reciting the
facts as you know them and you don't
need to get into drawing conclusions or
assigning blame at that point now after
the police say it's okay for you to
leave you need to go to a health care
provider as soon as possible and get
checked out similar to my story you may
not realize right away the full extent
of your injuries in fact I was an 18
year old college student and never been
injured before in my life and like I
said I felt fine the day I got out I
even recall I forget if I had to work
that day but it was only after sleeping
the next morning that I woke up
with the severe neck and back pain and
that pain stayed with me for many months
so my advice is to go see the doctor
right away
because in my case I didn't know that
and it I did go the next day I woke up I
was so stiff then I realized I needed to
go to see the
chiropractor and get treatment but if you're
in the accident you should go to a
health care provider right away because
even a minor ache can be indication of a
serious problem and looking back I
should have gone right there to get
checked out the day that accident
happened as well so you should do that
if there's any chance you were injured
you want to see the doctor as soon as
possible so they can look you over and
put in your medical records what's going
on and so the other thing is if you wait
too long
later the insurance company could say
maybe that injury wasn't from the
accident it was from something else so
the best thing is to get to the health
care provider as soon as you can after
the accident to be checked out the
longer you wait the harder it may be to
connect your injuries to the accident
and be sure to tell the doctor as much
as you can about the accident and any of
your injuries including you know
dizziness nausea memory loss whatever
you're feeling after the accident I know
in my case it was that severe neck and
back pain and my chiropractor worked
with me for many months and that greatly
alleviated the pain but again I felt so
naive I didn't know what to do so I did
go to the chiropractor but I believe it
was a few days later the other thing I
remember being concerned about was as a
college student without health insurance
I was concerned about paying the bill
but thankfully my chiropractor held the
bill until I was able to settle the case
with the insurance company and pay them
and many health providers will do that
if you make them aware that this is from
a car accident injury so don't let your
lack of funds prevent you at least from
going and getting checked out after the
accident and as I mentioned earlier you
want to take pictures of your injuries
if you have any visible
that you can see and damage to your
motor vehicle and then collect all your
motor vehicle insurance policy and
information for your lawyer to look
through and make sure you inform your
insurance company about the accident
I recommend talking to a lawyer before
you fill out any of the insurance forms
or before you give any recorded
statement to the insurance company or
prior to meeting with the insurance
company representative it's important to
get the legal advice before you talk to
the insurance company and to consult
with an experienced personal injury
lawyer before you sign any checks or
documents from the company now I
remember in my case the insurance
company called me pretty quickly after
the accident and again I was very naive
so I started talking to them and my main
concern was paying the chiropractor back
because I was worried about that bill I
didn't understand back then that in
their industry they're used to some
bills building up while the claims
process is ongoing but I recall the
insurance company offered me just
exactly about what the cost of my
chiropractic bill was on that date to
settle the case and go away and I didn't
know anything about pain or suffering at
that time I hadn't been to law school
but I recall thinking boy this other
driver hit me and here it wasn't my
fault at all and I'm having to go take
time out of my school day and work to go
to the chiropractor and I have this pain
and all they're offering is to cover the
chiropractor bills that I never would
have had if she hadn't hit me so at that
time I as a university student could go pay a fee and talk to
the university lawyer someone the
university had Student Senate paid to
consult with students about rental
issues and small matters and he gave me
very good advice and helped me negotiate a higher
settlement with the insurance company
for the pain and suffering I had
suffered from that accident and I can
tell you for many years after I had low
back pain from that accident and looking
back now I wish I had waited longer to
settle the case because I recall for a
period of several years I couldn't drive
longer than an hour to an hour and a
half without stopping to take a break to
stretch my back something I'd never had
before the accident so my advice is wait
even though it's your insurance company
understand they're not that may
contact you and the adjuster they are
not necessarily on your side so you
don't want to act like they are
representing you like a lawyer would so
I would go contact a personal injury
lawyer before you do anything further
and at my office you can always contact
me and I'll help connect you with a good
lawyer in the area if it's around where
I practice or if it's farther away
there's many of my classmates and
friends I know I can try to talk you
through this process and then get you to
someone who can help handle your case
because I know as for me as a young
college student I just didn't know where
to turn and I'm so thankful I was able
to go to the campus attorney and get
that good advice before I took that low
settlement offer that the adjuster
initially offered so again stay safe out
there on the roads in Wisconsin and I
hope this overview has been helpful to
you of what to do if you're ever in an
auto accident thanks for watching and
we'll see you next time.
