When you experience a vehicular accident, you need to take immediate steps to ensure your safety and your personal injury claim. First, you should contact 911 if you or another person involved in the accident is injured. Even if no one is hurt, you need to call the police to report the car accident.

While you’re at the scene of the accident, you should record the incident and obtain evidence if you’re physically able. You need to record the names and contact information of anyone involved in the accident, and you should also record the contact information of anyone who witnessed the event. You can also gather evidence by taking photos and videos of the wrecked vehicles, road conditions, and weather conditions.

You should never apologize or admit fault while at the scene. Even if you weren’t primarily responsible for the wreck, admitting fault can be used against you. When the police arrive, answer their questions honestly, but avoid apologizing or admitting fault.

Even if you think you’re uninjured, you should seek medical attention after your accident. You could have injuries that don’t have symptoms yet. Failing to seek immediate medical attention can hurt your claim if you do end up requiring treatment.

Finally, you need to contact a personal injury attorney after your Indiana car accident.

Every state has its own statute of limitations when it comes to reporting personal injury claims, including car accident injury claims. In Indiana, you have two years to file a personal injury claim after the event occurred, meaning you have two years to file after suffering from a car accident, but there are important exceptions. If you’re a minor, you have until two years after your eighteenth birthday to file your personal injury claim. In the event that the accident physically or mentally disables you, you have until two years after you recover from your disability to file your claim.

When filing a personal injury claim, you can qualify for different kinds of damages depending on your unique case. You could receive compensation for vehicle damages, past and future medical bills, rehabilitation expenses, home care and domestic assistance expenses, lost wages, loss of future earnings, emotional distress, disabilities, disfigurement, loss of consortium, and pain and suffering.

If you lost a loved one in a car accident, you may be able to recover wrongful death compensation against the negligent party, which can include funeral and burial costs, medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and loss of a parent.

Police reports serve as vital evidence for insurance and personal injury claims. The process of receiving a copy of the police report differs depending on your city and which police department has jurisdiction. You should speak to an officer who responded to your wreck to find out the process of receiving a copy, or you can contact their police department.

Additionally, you can purchase a copy of your police report through the website buycrash.com.

If you didn’t suffer any serious injuries during your car accident, you may be tempted to avoid seeing a medical professional, but this can have very serious consequences for your health and your claim. Many different types of car accident injuries have delayed symptoms, so you may not be aware of the severity of your injuries until you receive medical treatment.

Further, failing to receive medical attention shortly after your accident can hurt your insurance claim or your personal injury claim. If you don’t seek immediate medical attention, an insurance company may attempt to avoid paying your full claim by arguing that your injuries aren’t serious. Additionally, if you don’t receive a diagnosis for your injuries until long after your accident, the negligent party’s insurance company or legal counsel could also argue that there’s not a direct link between the accident and your injuries. They could say that you sustained your injuries elsewhere, so you don’t qualify to receive compensation for your medical expenses.

If you started an insurance claim, you have every right to cancel it, but you cannot cancel a claim if someone files against you.

You are not legally obligated to stop and assist others as long as you weren’t involved in the wreck. Fortunately, if you do decide to stop after witnessing an accident, Indiana has Good Samaritan laws that protect your rights. If you attempt to help after a wreck, victims cannot sue you.

If you do decide to stop to help, make sure to call 911 and report the accident. You should also report if the victims sustained any injuries. Finally, you need to cooperate with authorities once they arrive.

If a driver involved in the accident does not have a license, that doesn’t impact who will be seen at fault for the wreck. One substantial factor that impacts your claim is whether insurance will cover the unlicensed driver’s vehicle. If the driver is borrowing another person’s car with their consent, it will be the responsibility of the car owner’s insurance company to cover the damages. If the car is stolen or no one has insurance on the vehicle, your insurance company will be responsible for covering your vehicle’s damages.

Indiana is a comparative negligence state, meaning that your degree of fault in the accident will impact the amount of compensation you can receive. When two or more drivers are at fault for an accident, the different parties will receive a percentage of the blame. For example, if you were speeding while the other driver was drunk, you could receive 15% of the blame while the other driver receives 85%. Your percentage of blame will then reduce the amount of compensation you can receive.

Additionally, Indiana has a modified comparative negligence law that says you cannot collect compensation if you were 51% or more at fault for the accident.

The legality of using a cell phone while at the wheel depends on the driver’s age. If you’re under 18, you are not allowed to use a cellphone or any other electronic device even if it’s a hands-free device. Drivers over the age of 18 are allowed to use hands-free electronic devices, but they are not allowed to handle their cellphones while driving, meaning you cannot text or email.

These are considered primary laws in Indiana, so a police officer can pull you over for these offenses even if you didn’t break another traffic rule at the time of your cellphone usage.

States can either be “no-fault” or “at-fault” when it comes to handling traffic accident claims. In “no-fault” states, drivers receive compensation from their own insurance companies after an accident. The liable driver is not responsible for covering the other driver’s damages. “At-fault” states, on the other hand, require the liable driver to cover damages. If someone else was liable for your wreck, it’s up to them and their insurance company to cover your vehicle damages, lost wages, medical bills, and other expenses associated with your wreck.