First Things To Do After A Truck Accident in Virginia

If you have been involved in a truck accident in Virginia, the following is what you should do as soon as the accident takes place according to a Virginia truck accident lawyer. For information on filing an injury claim, call today and schedule a free consultation.

Steps To Take Directly Following An Accident

As is the case with all accidents, call the police, check for injuries, seek medical attention, if you can, and then try and collect driver information or insurance information and take notes and pictures of the scene. A lot of the times, the insurance policy on a truck their registration and proof of insurance may not actually identify the specific driver. So make sure to see their driver’s license as well. All commercial truck drivers should have a CDL.

After this, it is important you communicate with the driver and establish their relationship with the insured party as this can really help down the road in making sure that you get all of these relationships figured out. Taking down detailed notes as far as where and when the accident happened, what the weather was like, if there were any potential witnesses, other vehicles that you notice that may have seen the accident can also help. If you write down the DOT number of the truck, that can always be helpful, along with any license plate information, if there’s any company logo or anything on the side of the truck, if the driver is wearing a company uniform, and other factors such as those.

Taking Pictures of An Accident

Taking pictures from the scene is also extremely helpful, so to be able to get pictures particularly before the vehicles are moved, that can be really, really useful and kind of putting back together how the accident actually occurred.

Now, oftentimes these truck accidents happen on highways, so it’s not practical to try and get pictures in the middle of the highway. If you’re able to get pictures of the accident even if the vehicles did have to be moved, if you can get pictures that will show skid marks or damage to the highway from debris or fire or something like that, those can really be useful down the road.

Should You Move Your Vehicle Before The Police Arrive?

That depends on where you are. Some places it’s required by local ordinance or law to move your car. If you’re on a highway, a lot of the time just as a matter of safety, you’ll need to move your vehicle. The attorneys always like to be able to see a picture of where the two vehicles came to rest  and a lot of the time that’s something that’s a fact that’s in dispute. So, if you can get a picture of those things, that’s great, but frankly the reality is that a lot of the time you can’t do that.

Contacting An Attorney As Soon As Possible

One should contact an attorney as soon as you’ve been involved in an accident and think that you’ve been injured. The sooner the better, the sooner the attorney can start conducting their investigation, contact witnesses, putting the necessary parties on notice, and starting to develop your claim. The sooner the better.

The longer you go without an attorney, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your case will be doomed, it just makes it that much harder. And the sooner you get an attorney involved in most cases the better.