What to Do After a Car Accident: The Complete Checklist

Nobody thinks clearly right after a crash — which is exactly why the checklist exists before you need it. Everything that happens later, from the repair estimate to a fault dispute, is built from what gets collected in the first half hour. Here is the sequence, assembled from state insurance department and NAIC guidance, in the order things should happen.

First: people and safety

• Stop. Check yourself, then everyone else. Call 911 immediately if anyone may be hurt — injuries outrank every other step on this page.
• Assess before exiting. The NAIC's guidance is blunt: do not get out of your car if it is not safe to do so. On a highway shoulder, stay belted until traffic allows.
• Move vehicles out of traffic where they are drivable and the law allows; hazards on either way.
• Never leave the scene, however minor it looks — that is how a fender-bender becomes a criminal matter.

Second: call the police

Call for any crash with injuries, meaningful damage, a dispute brewing, or a driver who seems impaired or uninsured — and always when the other driver has fled, since a hit-and-run claim leans on the police report. If officers respond, note names and badge numbers and ask how to get the report; if they cannot come for a minor crash, many jurisdictions let you file an incident report at the station or online. That report number is the spine of the insurance claim.

Third: exchange exactly enough information

The Texas Department of Insurance checklist: photograph the other driver's insurance card and license, or record their name, phone number, insurer, and policy number — and give yours in return. Collect witness names and numbers before they drive off; they are the first thing lost and the hardest to recover.

The NAIC adds a boundary most people don't know: in most cases you only need to provide your name and insurance information. Your address, license number and phone on a stranger's phone is identity-theft raw material — share the minimum the law and the claim require.

And the sentence worth memorizing verbatim, from the NAIC: be courteous, but do not admit fault. Not "sorry, I didn't see you," not speculation about speed. You describe; adjusters decide. Fault at a crash scene is a legal conclusion drawn later from evidence you are about to collect.

Fourth: document like the adjuster you'll meet

• All vehicles: damage close-ups plus wide shots showing positions relative to lanes and signals.
• License plates, street signs, road angles — the Texas Department of Insurance specifically lists signs and angles because they reconstruct right-of-way.
• Skid marks, debris fields, traffic signals, and anything obstructing sight lines.
• Time, date, weather, and road conditions, written down while fresh.
• Nearby cameras — businesses, doorbells, dashcams — noted now, requested soon, because footage gets overwritten in days.

Fifth: the insurance call

Notify your insurer promptly — the same day where possible. The NAIC's reasoning is practical: start the claims process while details are still fresh in your mind. Prompt notice is also a policy condition, and it applies even when the other driver was clearly at fault, because their insurer stalling is exactly when your own coverage becomes the fallback.

If the other driver caused it, you will likely also file with their insurer as a third-party claimant. Send the police report to whichever company is paying, keep every receipt — towing, rental, medical — and get your own repair estimate as a check on the adjuster's.

The days after

• See a doctor if anything hurts, even mildly — soft-tissue injuries surface late, and an early record ties them to the crash.
• Request the police report when available and read it for errors; factual mistakes can be corrected, and doing it early is far easier.
• Log every insurer contact with dates — your evidence if handling drags.
• Do not cash a settlement check while you are still disputing; acceptance can close the claim.
• If a claim goes quiet, ask the adjuster in writing what they still need and when the decision is due — insurers work under state deadlines, and citing them moves files.

The bottom line: people first, police second, minimum information exchanged courteously with no fault admitted, aggressive documentation, then prompt notice to your insurer — and discipline about records and checks in the weeks after. Reporting thresholds and claim deadlines are state law, so your state insurance department is the authority on the specifics where you live.