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Accident with an Uninsured Driver? What to Do Next
You’ve just purchased a new insurance policy to protect yourself against the uninsured driver, or maybe you have just added uninsured driver insurance coverage. However, your agent hasn’t told you very much of what to do if you get into an accident with an uninsured driver. Insurance companies sometimes have specific rules and procedures that must be followed. If you haven’t purchased the policy yet, have the agent walk you through any special requirements that the company has for this unhappy occurrence. Here’s what you should do when you’ve been in an accident with an uninsured driver.
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Step 1: Move out of Traffic
Make sure that everyone is okay first. If so, and moving the cars is possible and won’t injure anyone or injure anyone further, move the cars out of the lanes of traffic so as not to be an obstruction. There is one proviso here: Check your motor vehicle code. Some states or localities may not allow you to move the cars after an accident until an officer arrives.
Step 2: Call the Authorities
Call the police immediately. Make sure they dispatch an officer to do a report filed. This way the fact that there was an uninsured driver involved is known to the authorities.
Step 3: Standard Information Trade
Once out of the way of traffic and after the police have been called, get the other driver’s information. This includes everything. You will obviously need their name, address and phone number, along with their driver’s license number. Also, get their vehicle’s year, make, model and color. Get the vehicle license plate, and, just to be sure, the VIN. Write down your information and give it to the other driver.
Step 4: Police Report
Once the police have arrived on scene, give the officer all of your information and any other information he or she requests. Be completely open and honest without being overly emotional. Once the reporting process is complete, make sure you have the officer give you a copy of the Field Interview Report card, which will have the incident and report numbers. You’ll need these later. Before he or she leaves, ask when and where you can go to receive a copy of the official and complete police report, as your insurance company is most likely going to want this. Make a copy of this, because sometimes the insurer is going to want you to give them a copy to verify all information in the report you give them from your point of view.
Step 5: Call Your Insurer
Most insurance companies have 24-hour, toll free customer service numbers for their customers to call and report accidents. When you call this number, make sure you have all the information that the officer gave you, including the police report number. Some of the information you may be asked for includes date and time, location and direction of travel, weather conditions and if there were any injuries.
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