What to do after a car accident in California

Most of what decides a claim happens in the first two days, before anyone has thought about a claim. Not because of anything clever — because evidence is still there and then it is not. This is general information, not legal advice.

At the scene

1. Check for injuries and call emergency services if anyone is hurt. Everything below is secondary to this.
2. Move out of traffic if the vehicles are drivable and it is safe. Secondary collisions happen to people standing on a live roadway. If you cannot move, get behind a barrier rather than staying by the car.
3. Exchange information. Name, address, vehicle registration, and a licence on request are what the Vehicle Code requires after an injury crash. Take the insurer and policy number too, and photograph the licence and insurance card rather than copying them out.
4. Call the police and ask for a report number.
5. Get witnesses before they leave. Name and phone number is enough. This is the step people skip and regret, because independent witnesses outweigh both drivers and the report often lists none.
6. Photograph more than you think you need. See below.
7. Say you are hurt if you are. Do not tough it out for the officer.

What to photograph

• All vehicles, from a distance and close, on every side — including the undamaged sides.
• Final positions before anything is moved, if it is safe.
• Licence plates, the other driver's licence, and their insurance card.
• The wider scene: signals, signs, lane markings, skid marks, debris, sight lines from each approach.
• Road surface and weather, including anything wet, loose, or under repair.
• Any visible injury, and again over the following days as bruising develops.
• Buildings facing the scene — you are recording where cameras might be.

Sources: Veh. Code, § 20001 (duty to stop, exchange information, and render reasonable assistance after an injury or fatal collision).

The same day

• Get medical attention. Urgent care or an emergency department is fine. Describe everything that hurts, not just the worst thing — undocumented complaints are treated later as though they did not exist.
• Report to your own insurer. Reporting is not the same as making a claim, and policies require prompt notice.
• Write down what happened while it is fresh. Direction of travel, speeds, signal colours, what you heard and in what order, what was said. Memory reorganises itself within days.
• Do not authorise repairs that destroy evidence if fault is disputed or a defect is possible. Photograph thoroughly first.

The first week

• Follow up with your own doctor and follow the treatment plan.
• Ask nearby businesses for footage in writing, quickly. Most systems overwrite within days.
• Keep everything: bills, mileage to appointments, time off work, the tow and storage paperwork.
• Get the collision report when it is available.
• Expect a call from the other driver's insurer, and know what you are agreeing to before it happens.

Dealing with the adjuster · recorded statements · how to read a traffic collision report.

What not to say

Two categories cause the trouble. The first is guessing — a speed, a distance, a signal colour you did not actually see. An estimate offered helpfully at the scene becomes a fixed position you are held to later, and being wrong about it damages your credibility on everything else.

The second is reflexive apology. "I'm so sorry" is what decent people say when something bad happens near them. It gets recorded as an admission. Check that everyone is all right without accepting blame for anything.

And do not say you are fine before a doctor has said so. That sentence appears in more claim files than any other.

Then what

From here the claim follows a standard sequence — notice, treatment, demand, negotiation, and either settlement or filing. That whole arc, and how long each part takes, belongs to the claims process. The deadline that governs all of it is at deadlines on a California injury claim, and it is much shorter where a public entity is involved.

Common questions

What am I legally required to exchange?

After a crash involving injury or death a driver must stop at the scene, give their name and address and the vehicle registration, show a driver’s licence on request, and render reasonable assistance to anyone injured (Veh. Code, § 20001 and the sections it refers to). Get the same from them, plus insurer and policy number.

Should I call the police for a minor crash?

Usually yes. A report fixes the date, the parties, the vehicles, and often the statements while memories are fresh. Its absence is used later to suggest nothing much happened. The report is not admissible at trial in California and does not bind anyone, but it shapes the claim.

I feel fine. Do I still need to see a doctor?

Get checked. Adrenaline masks a great deal, and soft-tissue and head injuries commonly declare themselves a day or two later. A gap between the crash and the first visit is the single most common argument used against an injury claim.

What should I not say?

Anything that guesses. "I’m fine" before you have been examined, "it was my fault" before you know what happened, and estimates of speed or distance you are not sure of. Describe what you saw and did. Apologising out of ordinary courtesy is regularly written down as an admission.