What Should I Do After a Car Crash?

Knowing what to do after an accident can be difficult. If you’ve been injured, seeking medical attention should be your first priority. However, if you weren’t seriously injured in the accident and you are able to safely move around the accident, there are several steps you can take to make sure you are fully protected. What are those steps? What should you do?

In this FAQ, Gary details the steps you should take immediately following an accident to ensure that your claim is protected. Guess what? The insurance company is most likely going to try to limit the amounts you can recover, and they’re going to try to say the accident wasn’t as bad as it actually was, or they are going to try to claim that you are partially at fault. If this sounds like your current situation, give our personal injury lawyers in St. Louis a call at 314-542-2222 or 618-272-2222. We can help you. We don’t charge any fees for our consultations, and we never take any attorneys fees unless we win your claim.

What should I do after a Car Crash?

I’m Gary Burger. Welcome to the Burger Law Firm. What do you do if you’re in an auto accident? First, you want to make sure that you and your car are in a safe place. If you are not safe right where you are, move your vehicle to a safe place. Secondly, what you want to do is help anybody in your car with any injuries and address any injuries you have. Once you’ve established and done initial first aid to make sure everybody’s safe, you want to call 911. You want to get the police and any ambulance that you need to attend to you.

Then the next thing you want to do is you want to talk to the other driver. When you talk to the other driver, you want to make sure you get their name, address, phone number, their insurance company, their insurance policy number, and the phone number for the insurance company. And, you can also easily take a picture with your phone of their insurance card and of their driver’s license. You want to see it personally. You don’t want to just have them write their information because we’ve had folks where that’s not accurate.

After you get all that information and the police arrive, you want to talk to the police and make sure the policemen clearly understand why the accident was not your fault and was the other driver’s fault. The next thing you want to do is make sure that if there are any witnesses there, that you get those witnesses’ name and phone numbers yourself. Write it down. Take a picture of their information. You do not want to trust that the officer — and the officers do a great job — but we’ve had cases where the witness is not on the police report and then we don’t know who to contact.

Everybody’s got a cellphone these days. You want to take out your phone and take some pictures. Show where the cars were in the incident. Show skid marks. Show property damage. Then, after you do that, you want to get your medical care, whether it’s from the scene via ambulance, whether it’s later that day, whether it’s the next day, whether you go to the ER, your primary care doctor, or urgent care. You want to get medical care right away to address your injuries, and you want to keep getting your medical care.

And lastly, if you have questions about this and need a lawyer, call me. I’m Gary Burger again. I’m at 314-542-2222. You can click on my website at and contact us via contact form. You can email me at [email protected]. We answer all questions for free for anybody on auto accident issues but many other issues as well. If we represent you, we do not take a fee unless we recover money for you. Thank you.

Gary Burger

Founder | Injury Attorney
Gary Burger has dedicated his career to standing up against bullies. The founder and principal attorney of Burger Law | St. Louis Personal Injury Lawyer has helped hundreds of Missouri and Illinois individuals and families recover th …
Years of experience: 30 years
Location: St. Louis, MO

Chat With Us