4 Common Car Accident Varieties and What Happens After Each One

If you drive, you’ve probably seen car accidents occur on the road. Maybe you’ve seen two vehicles strike each other, or perhaps you’ve seen some other type. Maybe you’ve had an accident, so you know about the headaches you can experience afterward.

Negligence causes the vast majority of traffic accidents, but other things can cause them as well. Distracted driving causes many collisions, but you may also have a speeding driver, an intoxicated one, or someone who crashes because they lose vehicular control in bad weather.

However an accident occurs, if it does, you must take action afterward if the crash involves you. We’ll discuss several accident types right now. We’ll also go over what you must do afterward if one of these involves you.

Cars Hitting Other Cars

Let’s say you’re driving, and a car hits your vehicle. You should pull off the road if you can. If you can’t, you must abandon the vehicle in the street and get to a safe location. Once you’re on the sidewalk or in a nearby parking lot, you can assess your condition.

At this point, you must determine whether you should call an ambulance. If you call 911, the police should come, even if you don’t feel like the accident hurt you.

You can get insurance information and the other person’s name, telephone number, and license plate number. You can then tell the police what happened.

After you’ve gotten the car into a garage where a mechanic can look at it and ascertain the damage extent, you can call your insurance company and tell them what happened. At that point, you can also figure out who caused the accident.

If you caused it, you might consider contacting a lawyer if you feel you’ll need one. You may also need an attorney if you didn’t cause the crash but the other person says you did. You might bring a lawsuit against them or their insurance company if necessary.

Cars Hitting Pedestrians

Maybe you’re walking along the road, and a car hits you. Perhaps it’s a busy road, and make there’s no sidewalk. Maybe you’re on the sidewalk, but a vehicle loses control and hits you anyway.

If this happens, you must call 911 if you have your smartphone on you and the car hurt you. You might not feel sure whether you’ve sustained any injuries for a few moments. Maybe you have an adrenaline rush going, so you can’t feel a pretty serious injury for a while.

Hopefully, the driver stopped, and they’re giving you medical attention. If they sped off, which does happen sometimes, then you must hope a passerby or another driver got their license plate number.

If no one did, maybe a traffic camera got the plate number. However you can find out about the car and driver, you must do that. If the driver did not stop, that’s illegal.

The police might catch them, but even if they did stop, maybe you can press charges if the accident injured you, and now you can’t work. If you can prove the driver’s negligence, or if they ingested alcohol before driving and you can prove that, you might win a lawsuit against them.

Cars Hitting Cyclists

Cars hit cyclists sometimes as well. If you’re on a bicycle and you’re riding on the road, larger vehicles should share it with you. If they don’t, and they hit you through aggressive driving, you might have a lawsuit on your hands in that instance as well.

If a car hits your bicycle, you’d hope the driver stops. This situation works just like a car hitting you while you’re walking.

You must get the driver’s information, assuming they stopped. They can also give the police their report when they arrive. You can give your report as well.

You might sue the driver later if you feel the situation warrants it. You may need the money you’ll get from the driver if you must miss some work or if you sustained a permanent and life-altering injury.

Cars Hitting Inanimate Objects

If you’re driving and lose control, you might crash your car. You don’t hit any other vehicles, but maybe you’ve hit a building, a telephone pole, or something else.

If this happens, you must check for injuries and then call the police. If you call 911, the police should come, and also an ambulance if you need one.

If you can’t call because you injured yourself too badly or you don’t have a smartphone on you, then you can hope someone nearby can help. Someone walking or driving past might have a phone. Most people have phones these days, so you should find someone with little trouble.

If you crash on a lonely highway somewhere and you have no phone, maybe there’s no one around. If so, you might use your car’s capabilities and call the police or an ambulance.

If you have a newer-model car, you can probably do that. Many modern cars can sense when you have crashed. The vehicle can call the police or paramedics on its own. They can come and help you even if you’re unconscious and don’t know what’s happening.

In single-car accidents, you must prove that you didn’t do something reckless that crashed the car. If the police come, they might give you a breathalyzer test. They will determine whether you’ve ingested any alcohol, and they’ll probably ask about other drugs or intoxicants as well.

If you’re sober and you lost control through no negligent behavior, you shouldn’t face any serious consequences. You can probably repair your car if you have the right insurance policy. Maybe you lost control in some bad weather. That’s hardly your fault.

You might see your insurance company raise your premium. That’s unfortunate, but you can’t avoid it sometimes.

If you crash your car, you must take some time and regroup. You can usually get back on the road again soon after.

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