One of the most frightening situations you’ll ever encounter when you’re on the road is meeting a truck accident. If you’re lucky, you’ll only have to deal with a minor accident. In many unfortunate instances, however, the enormous size and weight of trucks lead to more severe accidents.
Given the complexity of truck accidents, it’s completely understandable if you may not know what you should do when you’re involved in a truck accident. This tragic experience may cause you to be highly emotional. In addition to being anxious and scared, you also have to deal with high levels of stress and physical injuries. You need medical aid from doctors and legal aid from the authorities and law firms like Kreeger Law.
In this article, you’ll be given the best insights into how to handle truck accidents.
Assess Yourself For Any Injuries
Immediately after the accident, one of the very first things you’ll have to do is to check yourself for any injuries. Your health and safety should always come above any concerns of property damage.
So, as a first step, call 911 or emergency services if you or any of the parties involved in the truck accident are injured. If you’re seriously injured, don’t move and wait for help to come. You can significantly improve your chances of getting treated or cured when you’re able to receive the medical care and attention you need as soon as possible.
Report The Accident
If you don’t have injuries and you’re well and able, do your best to report the accident to the authorities. However, remember not to move any of the vehicles involved yet without the authorities making their report and taking photos.
The earlier this is done with, the better. For one, the truck accident scene can be cleared for other motorists. Otherwise, traffic problems and congestion will last longer than they should. More importantly, you can prevent the accident from causing any more accidents or dangers to motorists who will be passing by.
Moreover, it’s best to resolve the accident as soon as possible so that all the parties involved in the accident can move on to the next things they need to do. The police report is important to set the legalities into motion. After all, it’ll form the foundation of all the other documents and reports that have to be done regarding the truck accident.
Get To Safety
If you’re physically able, get to the side of the road for safety. Don’t stay in the vehicle longer than you have to. You may not know the extent of the damage to the cars and trucks involved. For instance, this site gives you insights into the different types of accidents that can arise with cars and trucks and their impact on the people involved.
The safety of all the parties involved in the truck accident should be the top priority. If you can move relatively freely and you see other parties in the accident stuck in what would be a dangerous situation, help them get to safety as well.
Don’t Drive Away
This next tip might seem like an obvious thing to do during a truck accident (or any accident, for that matter), but it’s still worth stressing.
There are still so many drivers, particularly those who are obviously at fault, who choose to leave the accident scene and drive away. Don’t be one of those motorists. If you drive away, it’ll only make you look bad, as if you were running away from something. Apart from the legal implications involved, you could be driving off with an unsafe car. You can cause or meet another accident on the road by driving the same car that has just been in a truck accident.
So, stay put and don’t drive away. When you meet a truck accident, always stay at the scene unless the authorities have cleared you to leave or if you need immediate emergency medical treatment.
Seek Medical Treatment
If you have physical injuries, seek medical treatment as soon as possible. And don’t just focus on the emergency aspect of your injury care. You have to be diligent in following through with all of your doctor’s orders. Be sure to obtain all the medical care you need until you’re able to fully recover from your medical injuries.
You need to seek medical treatment even if you don’t see any immediately apparent injuries. Because of the adrenaline rush you experienced due to being involved in a truck accident, it’s normal for you to be unable to fully feel the pain or notice an injury.
Following through with the medication recommendations is also an important facet of your claims for compensation later on. If the truck accident was caused by the other motorist’s negligence, you’re entitled to compensation for the following:
- Expenses incurred due to the accident;
- Financial losses due to inability to work, whether temporarily or permanently;
- Other damages like moral compensation for stress and trauma brought about by the accident.
However, to support your need for compensation, you need to provide documentation for all the medical expenses and treatments you incurred. In the absence of that proof, you might not be able to seek compensation for all the injuries you sustained. Visit here to learn more about compensation arising from vehicular accidents.
Exchange Information With The Parties Involved
While the authorities are going to make their own record of the accident details, this doesn’t mean that you should rely solely on those records. You also have to do your part in exchanging information with the other parties involved.
It’s to your advantage to keep your own records. This can help make communication easier between you and the other party. Should you have concerns, you’ll have contact details in your own file to reach out to the other party yourself.
Consider the following in keeping records of essential information relevant to the accident:
- Note and take photos of the exact accident location;
- Full name and contact information of all the other parties involved;
- Type, color, and model of all the vehicles in the accident;
- Insurance company and contact information of the insurance company.
Conclusion
Most motorists have an awareness of the severity of trucks accidents. For this reason, there is a great effort to prevent them from happening in the first place. You can click here to learn more about developments in truck safety. However, despite everyone’s best effort to prevent truck accidents, tragedies can still strike unexpectedly. Fortunately, you don’t have to suffer alone or in silence. There are certain ways for you to resolve, move forward, and recover from the truck accident successfully. The guide above can help you out.
