What To Do in the Event of an Accident
26 October 2007 This article is going to focus on minor and relatively minor traffic accidents. The kind that you can at least hobble away from. Accidents that require the jaws of life should be left up to the professionals, otherwise they would be out of a job.
First Reactions
The appropriate first reaction is to curse. This goes for everyone from gang members to Buddhist monks. Your exact amount of cursing may vary, depending on the value of your car. Once you have that out of your system, you need to exit the vehicle. The most effective way is to run screaming from the vehicle. This will alert other drivers that something might be amiss. Just don’t run into traffic, that’s counter-productive.
Go ahead and panic, just don’t attack anyone. You can provide some much needed comic relief. Be sure to whine about your beloved car and how it will never be the same again. Get creative. After a half-hour or so you should give it up, however. If you don’t the police officer will probably tase you.
If you’re not the panicky type then you could always try to get the other driver to hit you, that way you can sue them. This doesn’t work all the time. For instance if you are a 250lb man and you get a 150lb woman to hit you, it won’t be very convincing. And if you are a 150lb man who is trying to provoke a 250lb man, you’re an idiot.
Insurance Exchange
Yes you have to, it’s the law. You may like to think that you can stick it to the man anytime you want, but in reality, the man’s going to stick it to you. Get over it.
Police Report
Always blame the other driver. You may think this is a given, but there are a lot of people out there that either don’t know, or don’t remember. Honesty should be avoided if necessary. If somehow the accident really wasn’t your fault then great, but for normal circumstances, dishonesty will help keep your insurance premiums down.
Cleanup & Aftermath
Let’s assume that your car is undriveable, because otherwise this paragraph would be pointless. If the police officer didn’t already call a town truck, go ahead an call. In all likely hood, the police officer already did call a tow truck, along with the fire department, an ambulance, roadside assistance, and national guard.
Take the car back to your parents and tell them it’s broken. Don’t pretend that they didn’t give it to you cheap or free. If you play you’re cards right, you might even get another car out of them.
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on November 9th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
[…] Remedy the Situation: You probably have several things to remedy at this point. You likely got rear ended when you slammed on your brakes. That’s okay, if you play it right, you can get their insurance to pay for your repairs. Do your normal accident routine. Or better yet, refer to our guide: What to do in the event of an accident. […]