Car accidents

What to do after a crash

1. Check yourself and your passengers for injuries.
2. Call 911, or have a passenger call.
3. Turn on your hazard lights, and put out flares or cones if you have them.
4. Get the other driver’s name, license, registration and insurance, and note whether the driver is the registered owner.
5. Get the names and numbers of witnesses.
6. Photograph the vehicles, the road, and anything that contributed — a sign, a pothole, the weather.
7. Do not leave before the police and the other driver do.
8. Get the report number and the insurance information for every vehicle involved.
9. If you or a passenger is hurt, go to the hospital, or see a doctor the same day.

Insurance will not cover everything

Most people assume that having insurance means being covered: that their own policy pays if the crash was their fault or the other driver has none, and that the other driver’s insurer pays everything if it was not. Neither is reliably true. Policies have limits and exclusions, medical payments coverage may be small or absent, and the other driver’s insurer works for the other driver.

Part of the job is reading the policies — yours and theirs — to see what each actually covers, and then dealing with the adjusters so the claim is valued on the record rather than on the first phone call. If that does not resolve it, the claim goes to court.

An adjuster is not on your side, and that includes your own insurer’s adjuster once your interests and theirs part ways. They have lawyers looking after them. You are allowed to have one as well.

What a policy covers depends on its terms. Nothing here describes a particular policy.

If the other driver is uninsured or underinsured

Missouri requires drivers to carry only a minimum liability policy, and the minimum is often not enough to cover a serious injury. Some drivers carry nothing at all.

Missouri requires every personal auto policy to include uninsured motorist (UM) coverage, which steps in when the other driver has no insurance. Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage, for when the other driver’s coverage runs out, is optional, and most people do not know whether they bought it, or how much. Either way, talk to us before you settle with anyone: a settlement with the other driver’s insurer can affect what your own policy will pay.

Negligence and shared fault

Negligence is the failure to take reasonable care. In a crash it usually looks like one of these:

• a moment’s inattention that ends in a rear-end collision or a drift across lanes
• running a signal or a stop sign
• failing to signal a turn or a lane change
• driving too fast, or too slow, for the road
• ignoring the weather or the traffic
• following too closely
• driving impaired

Missouri compares fault. If the other driver says you contributed to the crash, and an adjuster or a jury agrees, your recovery is reduced by your share; it is not, by itself, ended. Arguing about that share is where many of these cases are decided, which is why the record from the scene matters.

Truck accidents

A crash with a commercial truck is a different kind of case, for three reasons.

• The injuries. The size and weight of the vehicle, and sometimes its cargo, make them worse.
• The rules. Federal regulations govern the trucking industry: rest periods between driving shifts, licensing and training, routine inspection of the vehicle, and the securing and transport of cargo. A broken rule is often part of why a crash happened.
• The parties. The driver may not be the only one responsible. The trucking company, a contractor, the shipper, a maintenance provider and each of their insurers may be involved, and identifying them is part of the work.

Trucking companies keep records — driver logs, inspection reports, electronic data from the truck itself. They are not kept forever. Ask early.

Also under personal injury

• Slips and falls When a property owner is responsible for a fall.
• Bicycle accidents How drivers cause them, and why the first days matter.
• Dog bites Missouri holds the owner responsible without proof that the dog was vicious.
• Personal injury What a claim has to show, what it can include, and how it moves.