I Got Into an Accident. Now What?

The first hour after a car accident is when most of the expensive mistakes happen. Not because people are careless, but because they're shaken, the other driver is talking, and nobody has ever told them what to do. This is the article to read now, before you need it, and the one to pull up on your phone at the side of the road if you didn't.

It's organized the way the day unfolds: what to do at the scene, what to say and not say, how and when to tell your insurer, which coverage pays for what, how the claim actually moves, and what happens to your rate afterward. There's a glovebox checklist at the end.

At the scene: the first fifteen minutes

1. Stop and check for injuries. Yours, your passengers', the other car's. If anyone is hurt or might be, call 911. Don't move an injured person unless they're in immediate danger.
2. Get out of traffic if you safely can. If the cars are drivable and no one is seriously hurt, most states want you to move to the shoulder or a nearby lot. Turn on your hazards. If a car can't move, get the people away from it and off the roadway.
3. Call the police. Every state requires reporting a crash with injuries. Most also require a report when property damage exceeds a threshold, commonly $500 to $1,000 (a few states set it higher, up to $3,000), which almost any modern bumper exceeds. Even where it isn't required, a police report is the single most useful document you'll have later. If officers won't come to a minor crash, ask how to file a report yourself; many states let you do it online or at a station within a few days.
4. Exchange information. Photograph the other driver's license, insurance card, and license plate rather than copying by hand. You want: name, address, phone, insurance company and policy number, plate number, and the vehicle's make, model, and color. If the driver isn't the car's owner, get the owner's name too.
5. Photograph everything. All four corners of both cars, close-ups of damage, the wider scene showing lane positions, skid marks, debris, traffic signs and signals, weather, road conditions, and any visible injuries. Take a short video walking around the scene. You cannot take too many pictures.
6. Get witnesses. Names and phone numbers of anyone who saw it happen. Independent witnesses are worth more than anything you or the other driver say.
7. Note the details while they're fresh. Time, location, direction of travel, speed, what you saw, what the other driver said. Type it into your phone before you leave the scene.
8. If the car is towed, know where it's going. Get the tow company's name and the lot address. Storage fees start immediately, and your insurer will need to inspect the car there.

What to say and what not to say

Be polite, be factual, and say less than you want to. Three things to avoid:

Don't admit fault. Not to the other driver, not to the police, not on the phone. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you" feels like basic decency and reads like a confession in a claim file. You may not know who was at fault. The other driver may have been speeding or on their phone. Fault is determined later from evidence, and your job at the scene is to make sure the evidence exists. Describe what happened; don't characterize it.

Don't say you're fine. Say you're not sure. Whiplash, concussions, and soft-tissue injuries often don't hurt for hours or days. If you tell the police and the other driver you're uninjured, that statement will come up if you need treatment next week.

Don't take or offer cash. The other driver may propose settling without insurance. Decline. Damage that looks like $800 at the roadside becomes $3,400 once a shop finds a bent reinforcement bar, and you have no recourse once you've taken the cash. The same goes in reverse: if you offer to pay out of pocket, you've admitted fault and lost the protection of your policy.

And once you get home: stay off social media. Insurers and attorneys look.

Telling your insurer

Report the accident to your own insurance company promptly, even if you believe the other driver was at fault, even if the damage looks minor, and even if you aren't sure you'll file a claim. Four reasons:

• Your policy requires it. Nearly every auto policy includes a duty to give notice of an accident "promptly." Waiting weeks can give the insurer grounds to deny a claim later.
• The other driver's story may change. The person who apologized at the scene sometimes tells their insurer something very different the next morning. Your early, documented account matters.
• You may need your own coverage. If the other driver turns out to be uninsured, underinsured, or disputes fault, your collision, medical payments, PIP, or uninsured motorist coverage is what pays. You can't use it if you didn't report.
• You may be sued. If the other driver claims injuries weeks later, your insurer needs to have been on notice to defend you.

Reporting an accident and filing a claim are not the same thing. You can notify the insurer and tell them you're deciding whether to make a claim. Ask how the report will be recorded; some carriers log it as an "incident" with no payment, which generally doesn't affect your rate, while others treat any report as a claim. If the damage is clearly under your deductible and no one else is involved (you backed into your own mailbox), paying out of pocket is reasonable. If another car or person is involved, report it.

Which coverage pays for what

After an accident, the question "whose insurance pays?" has several answers at once, because different coverages handle different losses. This table assumes an at-fault (tort) state; in the twelve no-fault states, your own PIP coverage pays your initial medical bills regardless of who caused the crash.

If you don't know which of these coverages you carry, this is the moment to find out. Your declarations page lists each one with its limit, or you can upload it to the free Dec Page Analyzer and get the list in plain English.

Your insurer or theirs?

When the other driver is at fault, you have a choice: file a third-party claim against their liability coverage, or file with your own insurer under your collision coverage and let your company recover the money from theirs. This recovery process is called subrogation, and when it succeeds you get your deductible back.

Going through your own insurer is usually faster and simpler. Your company owes you a contractual duty of good faith; the other driver's company owes you nothing beyond what the law requires. You'll pay your deductible up front and get it back if subrogation succeeds, which it does in the large majority of clear-fault cases. The downside: the claim appears on your record. In many states and with many insurers a not-at-fault claim doesn't raise your rate, and California prohibits surcharging for one, but it can affect which rating tier you're placed in at renewal.

Going through their insurer avoids the deductible and keeps the claim off your collision coverage. The downside: their adjuster works for them. Fault may be disputed, payment may be slow, and you may be offered less than the repair costs. If liability is clear and their company accepts it quickly, this works fine. If there's any dispute, file with your own company and let it fight for you.

If you have no collision coverage and the other driver is at fault, the third-party claim is your only route for the car. If they're uninsured, your uninsured motorist property damage coverage (in states that offer it) or your collision coverage is what's left. Our article on what happens when you're hit by an uninsured driver covers that scenario.

How the claim moves

1. The claim is opened

You'll get a claim number and an adjuster. Write both down. Everything from here on references that number.

2. Statements

Your own insurer will ask for a recorded statement, and your policy requires you to cooperate. Be accurate and brief. The other driver's insurer may also call and ask for one. You are generally not obligated to give a recorded statement to another company; it's reasonable to decline and tell them to work through your insurer or to provide a written account instead.

3. Inspection and estimate

The insurer inspects the car, increasingly from photos you upload. You can then take it to a shop. Most insurers have a network of preferred shops that guarantee their work and bill the insurer directly, which is convenient. In most states you also have the right to use any shop you choose. If you do, the insurer may dispute the shop's estimate; the shop will typically negotiate a supplement for damage found during teardown, which is normal.

4. Repair or total loss

If repair costs approach the car's actual cash value (ACV), the insurer declares a total loss. Each state sets a threshold, typically 70% to 80% of value (ranging from 60% in Oklahoma to 100% in Texas and Colorado), or uses a repair-plus-salvage formula, as about twenty states do. The insurer owes you the ACV, which is what the car would have sold for the moment before the crash, plus in many states the sales tax and fees to replace it. It does not owe you what you paid or what you owe on the loan. If the loan is larger than the ACV, gap coverage (if you bought it) covers the difference; if not, you owe your lender the balance on a car you no longer have.

ACV offers are negotiable. Ask for the valuation report, check its comparable listings against what's actually for sale near you, and send the adjuster listings that support a higher number. Receipts for recent tires, brakes, or other work can also raise the figure.

5. Settlement and release

Property damage usually settles quickly. Injury claims take longer, and they should. Once you sign a release, the claim is closed forever, including for injuries you don't know about yet. Don't sign an injury release until your treatment is complete or your doctor can say what's coming.

6. Payment

If you have a loan or lease, the repair check may be made out to you and the lender together, and the lender has to endorse it. Build a few days into the timeline for that.

How fault is decided

Adjusters assign fault from the police report, the statements, the photos, and the traffic laws that applied. They often assign a percentage to each driver. What that percentage means for your recovery depends on your state:

• Pure comparative negligence (about ten states, including California and New York; Florida and Louisiana recently switched to modified rules): you recover your damages reduced by your share of fault, even if you were mostly at fault.
• Modified comparative negligence (most states): you recover reduced damages as long as your fault is below 50% or 51%, depending on the state. At or above the bar, you recover nothing from the other driver.
• Contributory negligence (Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia): if you were even 1% at fault, you recover nothing from the other driver. Your own collision and medical coverages still pay.

This is why "don't admit fault" matters. In a contributory negligence state, "I may have been going a little fast" can cost you the entire claim.

When to call a lawyer

Most fender-benders don't need one. Property damage claims are straightforward, and attorneys' fees (typically a third of the recovery) would eat anything they gained you. Consider a consultation, which most personal-injury attorneys offer free, when any of these apply:

• Anyone was seriously hurt, or your injuries are still being treated after a few weeks.
• Fault is disputed and the other insurer is denying or delaying.
• The other driver was uninsured or underinsured and your UM/UIM claim is being contested.
• The injury settlement offer seems far below your medical bills, lost wages, and ongoing care.
• You're being sued, and your insurer's defense doesn't seem to be covering the exposure (for instance, the claim exceeds your liability limits).

Also know your deadline. Every state has a statute of limitations for injury lawsuits, often two or three years from the accident, and a shorter one in some states. The claim process does not pause that clock.

What happens to your rate

An at-fault accident typically raises your premium at the next renewal and keeps it elevated for three to five years, with the surcharge shrinking each year. The size depends on your state, your insurer, and how much was paid. Many insurers sell accident forgiveness, which waives the surcharge on your first at-fault accident; check your Dec page to see whether you have it.

A not-at-fault accident generally should not produce a surcharge, and some states prohibit one. It can still show up in your claims history for seven years and influence your rating tier when you shop. Our guide to how auto insurance is priced explains how that works and how to shop around it.

One practical rule: if the damage is modest, no one else is involved, and the cost is less than your deductible plus a year or two of the surcharge you'd expect, paying out of pocket can make sense. If another person or vehicle is involved in any way, report it and let the insurer handle it. The downside of an unreported accident that turns into an injury claim is far larger than any surcharge.

The glovebox checklist

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to call the police for a minor fender-bender?

Legally, it depends on your state's damage threshold, and in many states a minor crash in a parking lot with no injuries doesn't require a report. Practically, call anyway. A police report settles arguments about what happened and who was there. If officers won't respond, ask how to file a report yourself and do it within the state's deadline.

Should I tell my insurer about an accident if I'm not filing a claim?

If another driver or anyone else was involved, yes. Your policy requires notice, and you can't predict whether the other party will file a claim against you. If it's a solo incident with damage only to your own car and clearly below your deductible, you can reasonably skip it.

Does the other driver's insurance company have the right to a recorded statement from me?

Generally, no. You have a contractual duty to cooperate with your own insurer, not with theirs. You can decline, offer a brief written account, or direct them to your insurer. Be courteous; you may still need them to pay your claim.

How long do I have to file a claim?

Your policy requires prompt notice, so report within days, not months. The deadline to sue over injuries is set by your state's statute of limitations, usually two to three years. Property damage deadlines are often similar but vary. Don't test either one.

Will my rate go up if the accident wasn't my fault?

Usually not directly. Most insurers don't surcharge not-at-fault accidents, and some states prohibit it. The accident does go into your claims history, and a pattern of claims, even not-at-fault ones, can affect your rating tier when you shop or renew.

What if the other driver wants to handle it without insurance?

Say no, politely. Exchange information and let the insurers sort it out. Roadside damage estimates are almost always too low, and a handshake deal gives you no recourse if the other driver stops answering the phone.