There are a bunch of different things that you should do in the immediate aftermath of a car accident. From determining whether or not you’re injured to getting in touch with your auto insurance company, you’ll need to make sure all of these things get done.
But there is one extra important thing that you’ll need to do following a car crash. You’ll need to get in touch with the police and have them create a police report for you.
Technically, you might be able to get away with not doing this when you’re in a very minor fender-bender. But even if that’s the case, you still might want to think about contacting the police so that you can get your hands on a police report.
Here is what might happen if you don’t file a police report after a car accident.
You Might Be Charged With a Crime
As we just alluded to a moment ago, there are some states in which you don’t necessarily need to stick around for the police to show up following a car crash. If no one was injured in the crash, you might be able to get away with driving off without a police report.
But if you were in a car accident that involved any injuries—even minor ones—you might be charged with a crime if you leave the scene prior to the police getting there. You could actually face a crime as serious as a so-called “hit and run” if you don’t stay on the scene of the auto accident.
This should be reason enough for you to remain on the scene of a car crash, even if you don’t think that you did anything wrong during it. It’ll eliminate the chances of you facing any crimes in the near future.
You Might Have a Tough Time Filing a Car Insurance Claim
One of the many things that you’ll need to do following a car accident is call your car insurance company and let them know about it. It’s the only surefire way to file a claim so that you can have any damage done to your car fixed. It’s also the only way to get your insurance company to pick up the tab for any injuries you may have suffered.
But you’re typically going to run into issues when you call your car insurance company to tell them about a car crash that you were in when you don’t have a police report to provide. They might still be able to process your claim for you. But they might also deny your claim without an official police report that spells out what happened.
That could make not having a police report a very costly mistake on your part. You might get stuck paying for auto repair and hospital bills because you didn’t make it a point to speak with police after an auto accident.
You Might Lose Your Car Insurance Policy
If you’re the type of person who doesn’t realize the importance of securing a police report following a car accident, your car insurance company might not see you as someone that they want to do business with. It could be reason enough for them to give you the boot and not provide you with car insurance anymore.
The good news is that you should be able to find another car insurance policy that can extend a policy to you. But why go through all the trouble of doing that when you could just do the right thing in the first place by getting a police report and sticking with your current insurance company?
You Might Get Hit With a Lawsuit (and Lose Any Leverage You Would Have Had!)
Just because there wasn’t a police report filed after a car accident that you were involved in doesn’t mean that you can’t still face a lawsuit at some point. Another driver that was also involved in the car crash could file a lawsuit against you.
And you’re going to be in a very difficult spot if this happens. You aren’t going to have a police report to fall back on while pleading your case.
You won’t have to worry about this type of lawsuit coming in your direction when you take the time to obtain a police report following a car crash. But just in case you do ever face a lawsuit following a car crash, you should go here so that you can hire a lawyer to help you.
You Might Come to Regret the Way You Handled an Auto Accident
You obviously can’t go back in time. So you’re only going to have one chance to get a police report following a car crash. And if you don’t take it, you’re going to have to live with the regret that will come along with this decision.
You’ll regret not knowing better, and you’ll wish that there was a way you could hop into a time machine so that you could call the police after an accident you were in. To steer clear of having to live with this regret forever, you should call the cops from the start. They’ll come out to the scene fast, create a police report for you, and give you a copy so that you can use it to your advantage.
Always Stick Around to Secure a Police Report After Getting Into a Car Accident
People are always in such a big rush these days. So they don’t always think that they can afford to spend a bunch of time waiting for police to arrive on the scene of a car accident. But the truth is that you can’t afford not to stick around so that you can get a police report.
As you’ve seen here, there are going to be all kinds of consequences that you’ll have to deal with for not getting a copy of a police report. If you want to avoid them, you should make every effort to get the police report that you’ll need.
Browse through our other informative blog articles for additional tips on how to handle the aftermath of a car accident.
