What to do After a Winter Car Accident?

Being seriously injured in a car accident is horrible no matter what time of year. It can turn your life upside down as well as your family. However, because the roads are more dangerous during the winter season, these accidents can seem much worse. Even though North East Tennessee usually has mild winter weather, we can still experience winters storms, sleet, and icy roads.

If you are ever involved in a winter car accident, there are things that you should do immediately after the crash. If you ever find yourself in an accident because of winter weather, follow these steps to ensure your safety:

1. You need to stay calm. The last thing anyone needs in this situation is to panic. Frustration will only make the situation worse when trying to resolve the issue at hand. You need to keep a calm and cool head so that you can prevent more injuries such as secondary collisions or injuries from hypothermia or shock.
2. Check for injuries. If anyone in your car is injured, call 911 immediately and try to stay warm until help arrives. If you or your passengers get too cold, shock could set in, especially if you or they have serious injuries. Also, be aware of hypothermia. It doesn’t take too much time and the temperatures don’t have to be very cold for hypothermia to set in.
3. Do not leave the scene of the accident (if it’s safe enough to remain there) until after law enforcement officials arrive on the scene if others are involved.
4. Ask people who may have been witnesses to provide their names and contact information for later use, if necessary. If you are seriously injured, your Tennessee car accident lawyer will want to take recorded statements from those witnesses as soon as possible. The sooner witnesses tell what they know the more accurate it usually is. You don’t want to take a witness’ statement a year after the crash. They might not remember important information that would help answer the question of who was at fault.
5. If no one is injured, move your vehicle off the road to a safe location out of traffic, if possible. One issue that often occurs with car and truck crashes during wintery weather conditions is multi-vehicle crashes. We often see stories of these types of crashes on highways that involve 10, 20, or even 30 cars and tractor trailers smashing into each other, one after another, because drivers can’t stop in time because they are driving too fast for the road conditions.

The law office of Robert Bates & Associates represents seriously injured people in and around Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City, and throughout Tennessee. We have been successfully representing car accident victims for over a decade. Contact us for a free consultation .

Robert BatesRobert is a Kingsport trial lawyer who handles car, truck and motorcycle wreck cases across the Tri-Cities. Every client gets his cell number.