What Should You Do After You Get into a Truck Accident in Pennsylvania?

Getting into a truck accident is stressful, and there are steps to take in the immediate aftermath.  Some of these are important to keep you safe and ensure you get medical care, while others help build a strong case.

In the broadest sense, after a crash, you need to get safe, call for help, collect the evidence you can, and call a lawyer.  Getting immediate medical attention helps you heal faster, prevents injuries from getting worse, and creates evidence through medical records.  Calling 911 helps get a report written and collect evidence, too.  If you can stay at the scene, you can get other evidence to give your lawyers.

Then, call our Philadelphia truck accident lawyers at The Reiff Law Firm at (215) 709-6940 for a free case review.

Getting Safe

Truck accidents can happen anywhere: city streets, highways, or back roads.  After a crash, you need to get to a safe location.

Whether you are on a wet backroad in the rain at night or on a highway on a scorching summer day, it is vital to get off the road and move your car to the side so you do not get hit again.  Stay in a comfortable, dry place – which may be in your car if that is safe – while you call for help.

If you cannot move, don’t force yourself.  Just do what you can to make your presence known and get help.

Call 911

When you call 911, ask for both police and EMTs – and if anything is on fire, call for the fire department, too.  Police usually respond first to ensure the area is safe for ambulances and firetrucks, and they may be able to help clear vehicles and move people to safety.

The police who respond will write up a police report.  They will interview witnesses and get the contact info and statements from the drivers and passengers.  You can obtain this information later, but it is good to write it down now if you can.

When the EMTs respond, they can stabilize you, examine you, and see if you need additional care.  If you do, follow their recommendations.

Get Medical Care

Many crashes with big commercial trucks involve very serious injuries.  Victims may be driven away unconscious in an ambulance or even medevaced away in a helicopter.  Others may be told to follow up with their doctor in the next few days.

If you do have immediate care needs, get treatment.  Go with the ambulance to the hospital if you need to be evaluated for head injuries or you need surgery.  Do not refuse care if they think you need it.

Sometimes ambulance crews might say you seem fine now but that you should go to the hospital or see your doctor in the next few days if anything gets worse.  You often need to go to the hospital, not a doctor’s office or urgent care center where difficulty billing your car insurance might let them deny care.

Having immediate medical records of what happened helps provide evidence and shows your injuries were linked to the accident.  This also shows the injuries were severe enough to get treatment.

If you do get treatment in the following days, we can still link that to the accident, although the defense might argue something else must have happened between the crash and your treatment.

Collect Evidence

Your medical records are one piece of truck accident evidence, but there is plenty of evidence you can collect at the scene.  If you need to go straight to the hospital, someone else can collect this info for you.  Police will also collect much of this evidence and put it in their report, though they might miss details you would not.

The evidence you need includes the following:

• The truck driver’s name and contact info
• The trucker’s employer and their contact info
• Contact info for any other drivers
• Insurance information for all drivers and witnesses
• The make, model, and license plate number for all vehicles involved
• Notes about where and when the crash occurred
• Notes about weather and lighting conditions
• Photos of the crash scene, vehicle damage, and injuries.

There may be other evidence you can collect at the scene, such as any statements made.  For example, if the trucker says anything about hitting you, apologizes for it, or says it was their fault, write down what they said.

On your side, do not admit anything or give up any evidence you are not required to.  Truck accident cases are as much about defense as they are offense; if you can use the trucker’s statements against them, they can do the same to you.  At the same time, do not hide any information or lie.

Call a Lawyer

There may be additional steps to take, such as filing a claim with your own insurance.  Pennsylvania is a choice no-fault state, which means your insurance policy might have first-party benefits you can use for immediate medical coverage.  However, you should avoid talking to insurance – or anyone – about the crash until after you call a lawyer.

Our attorneys can help you tell your story and avoid any language that might be misconstrued as an admission of fault or wrongdoing.  We can also advise you on what you should and should not say to insurance companies.  We can also help you lock down your social media presence and avoid unnecessary disclosures there.

We can accept any evidence you already have and seek police reports to supplement that.  We can also look for evidence you might have missed, such as sending letters to nearby homes and businesses to preserve security footage that might have caught the crash.

The defense will also have evidence we can get access to as part of your case, like employee records, logs, communications, maintenance reports, and more.

Call Our Truck Accident Lawyers in Pennsylvania

Call The Reiff Law Firm at (215) 709-6940 for a free case evaluation with our Allentown, PA truck accident lawyers.