What To Do After A Motorcycle Accident
What To Do After A Motorcycle Accident
If you or somebody you care about has been injured in a motorcycle accident caused by the actions of another driver in California, you should be able to recover compensation for your losses. However, you need to follow various steps after the crash occurs in order to recover maximum compensation. Here, we want to discuss the most important steps to take after a motorcycle accident occurs.
1. Call 911 Immediately
Somebody at the scene of a motorcycle accident needs to call 911. Often, this call gets delayed because everybody at the scene assumes that somebody else is calling the police. If you do not see someone else physically speaking to the police on the phone, you need to call 911 if you were able to do so. There is no harm in multiple reports.
2. Seek Medical Care
After a motorcycle accident, there is no wiggle room on this bullet point. Immediate medical care is important for a few reasons. First, this ensures your well-being after the incident occurs. The signs and symptoms of some motorcycle accident injuries do not appear until hours or days after the crash occurs. Do not become a statistic because you failed to seek immediate medical treatment, and a delayed injury worsened beyond the point of repair.
Second, seeking medical care quickly establishes a solid link between the motorcycle crash and your injuries. This will be important when it comes to securing compensation from the insurance carriers or when making your case in front of a personal injury jury.
3. Evidence Gathering
There are various ways that you can gather evidence at the scene of the crash, though you should only do so if you are not injured severely and if the scene is relatively safe. You can use your cell phone to take photographs of everything you see, including vehicle damage, injuries, traffic and weather conditions, skid marks, debris, and more.
Please make a note of any video or surveillance cameras on nearby buildings that may have captured the incident on the footage. Additionally, if there were any eyewitnesses to the incident, you need to get their names and contact information as soon as possible.
4. Insurance Reporting
You need to report the motorcycle accident to your insurance carrier as soon as possible. Failing to promptly report a motorcycle crash could result in the insurance carrier delay or denying the claim. You do not need to go into much detail at all when you make your initial report, but they do need to know the crash occurred.
5. Speak to an Attorney
You need to contact a San Bernardino motorcycle accident attorney as soon as possible. When an attorney gets involved early, they can take the steps necessary to obtain evidence, negotiate with other parties, and obtain the compensation you need.
6. Journal or Diary of Daily Events
You need to keep a daily journal (written, audio, or video) of the day-to-day events following the accident. This includes discussing your level of physical and emotional pain and suffering, whether or not you are able to work, as well as your total medical recovery process.
7. Continue Medical Treatments
You need to continue all medical treatment recommended by your doctor until you have reached maximum medical improvement. If you discontinue your care before a doctor says you have fully recovered or reached maximum medical improvement, this can be taken as a sign by the insurance carriers that you are not really as injured as you originally said you were.