The other day someone asked me why do I need to call the police after a car accident? Can’t the parties just exchange information and go on about their day? It seems like the police take forever to respond, take more time investigating what happened, and it seems like it’s just a complete waste of time?
The simple answer is that you need to call the police immediately after a car accident so that the accident can be properly documented. Believe it or not, even when people are at-fault in car accidents, their brain goes to work to justify the actions that they took, and their stories change after speaking to their friends. After thinking about it, they could come up with many reasons why they were not at fault.
So, the accident report serves several purposes. First, it is an exchange of information between all parties. The report contains critical information that you will need to pursue your claim against the other party’s insurance company and quite possibly your own.
Second, the report will have information about witnesses and any other factors that the investigating officer deems important. Remember, they are trained in accident investigations. They will listen to both drivers to see what they think happened. Plus, they look around at the damage, roadways, location of the accident, etc.
Next, the investigating officer will make a determination as to whether someone was at fault. Alternatively, the investigating officer may determine that no one was at fault, and not issue a ticket. This does not mean that someone did not caused the accident, it just means that they could not make a determination at the moment.
In a perfect world, we would not need accident reports from investigating officers. People would admit that they did something wrong and accept responsibility for it. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a world. It is not uncommon today for someone to cause an accident and then lie about it to the police. It is also common for people to rear-end another car and then speed off without thinking twice about it.
So, please protect yourself. If you were involved in an automobile collision, call 911 and immediately take photographs and videos of the accident scene, the location of the cars, damage to the cars and anything else you deem necessary before moving your vehicles, if at all possible.
Contact The Dellutri Law Group, PA Today
If you are injured in a car accident, please feel free to reach out to our offices to talk to one of our experience personal injury attorneys. We are here to help you and answer all of your questions.
