Key Mistakes to Avoid After a Car Crash

by Craig Aronow, Esq.

What You Don’t Want to Do After a Car Wreck

In 2019, there were roughly 2.75 million motor vehicle accident injuries in the United States, and there were more than 38,000 motor vehicle fatalities that same year. Driver impairment, poor road conditions, and poor visibility are all cited as common reasons for why car crashes occur. If you’ve been involved in an accident, here’s what you need to know.

Don’t Leave the Scene of an Accident

Leaving the scene of an accident is perhaps the biggest mistake that you can make. State law generally requires you to stop, call for help, and wait for help to arrive. If necessary, you can move your vehicle to a safer location away from traffic or from other hazards.

These rules apply even if your vehicle was the only one involved in the crash. For example, if you slid off the road and hit a tree, you’ll likely need to at least report the accident and wait for authorities to arrive. This is almost always true regardless of how much damage was done to your car or to other items in the path of the wreck.

In addition to being in violation of state law, leaving the scene of a crash may imply that you’re trying to hide something. Ultimately, you may have a harder time obtaining a favorable outcome in your case even if you did little or nothing to cause the wreck from occurring.

Don’t Skip a Trip to the Hospital

Ideally, you’ll seek medical treatment as soon as possible after a motor vehicle accident. This is often a good idea even if you don’t feel any obvious signs of a concussion, internal bleeding, or broken bones. It’s fairly common for symptoms of crash injuries to take hours or days to present themselves, and by that time, it may not be possible to treat them with rest or medication alone.

Seeking medical attention after a motor vehicle wreck may also be a good idea because it allows you to create a paper trail. The records that are generated during a trip to your doctor or to a medical facility may be introduced as evidence during settlement talks or at trial.

A doctor’s note may be proof of a link between the accident and the injuries that you sustained, while medical bills can be proof that you incurred a financial loss. These are both important elements that will need to be established if you hope to prove that the wreck was caused by the defendant’s reckless behavior.

Don’t Talk About the Case More Than You Need To

Within a few days of the crash, you’ll likely need to make a statement to your insurance company. This statement will ideally be as concise and objective as possible without lying. For instance, if you’re asked whether you applied the brake prior to the collision taking place, it’s generally best to answer with a simple yes or no. If you can’t remember if you applied the brake or not, you should simply acknowledge this to be the case.

It’s generally in your best interest to stick to this principle as it relates to any other questions asked by your insurance company. It’s worth noting that you’re generally not required to talk to the defendant’s insurance company. Instead, your coverage provider will likely send a copy of your recorded or transcribed statement to that entity.

Refraining from talking about the case on social media or through other digital platforms may be ideal for several reasons. First, you can’t be sure that the defendant, the defendant’s legal counsel, or others who are sympathetic to that person’s cause won’t see a post and use it against you. It’s also possible that an altered version of a post may be circulated online, which could make it harder to refute during the legal process.

Finally, what might seem like an innocent post might actually be damaging to your case. For example, if you upload a video of yourself walking without crutches or carrying a package, it could be used as proof that you didn’t suffer a broken leg or a torn muscle.

You should keep in mind that social media content, emails, or text messages don’t truly disappear. Any posts that are deleted will likely still exist on a server hosted by the social media company or cellphone service provider that you used to create or send them. A car crash lawyer may be able to provide more insight into how digital messages or any other statements might impact your case.

Don’t Apologize to Anyone

You may be tempted to apologize to the other driver, a pedestrian, or others at the crash scene in the moments immediately following the collision. This may be because you’re in shock, you actually believe that you caused the crash to happen, or you simply don’t like conflict and want to diffuse a potentially tense situation. However, apologizing is rarely a good idea because it may imply that you’re liable for the crash before you know whether that’s true or not.

It’s also rarely a good idea to tell anyone that you’re not hurt in the immediate aftermath of a crash because you can’t know for sure that this is the case. By making such a statement, it may be harder to prove a connection between the crash and subsequent injuries. If anyone asks about your medical condition, you can simply state that you can’t know for sure until being examined by a doctor.

Don’t Wait Too Long to Take Legal Action

New Jersey law gives you two years from the date of an accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. This doesn’t mean that you have to resolve the matter within two years. It simply means that you have to notify the court that you want to reserve your right to sue if settlement talks don’t work out.

The statute of limitation clock will typically toll if you were a minor when a car accident took place. In such a scenario, you’ll have two years after reaching the age of majority to take legal action against a defendant. If you’re incarcerated, incapacitated, or otherwise not of sound mind, the statute of limitation clock may also toll until you’re capable of taking legal action.

It’s worth noting that you can continue to engage in settlement talks even after a trial starts. In fact, the judge in your case may require that all parties involved in the matter make a good faith effort to resolve the matter outside of court before setting a trial date. It may also be possible to settle the case even after the trial has come to a close and a verdict has been rendered.

If you’re in need of a New Jersey motor vehicle accident lawyer, the team at RAM Law is ready to help. Contact us in Somerville or New Brunswick today by calling (732) 394-1549 or by using the form on our website.