SOP for Car Accidents?

[ATOMonkey]

Ok, IMNAL so I need to know. If you are in a car accident do you have to "play it where it lies" and just leave your vehicle where-ever it happens, or is it ok to move off to the side to allow traffic around you? I was always taught that if you can move your car, then get it out of the way.

Just wondering because 3 people closed down the entrance to I 70 this morning for no good reason as far as I could tell.

 

[jsharmon7]

If there are no injuries and the cars are able to move, I always have the drivers move the cars off the road. If not, there's a good chance of having another accident as traffic tries to figure out how to get around them. I can write the crash report based on the damage I see and what the two drivers tell me.

 

[ATOMonkey]

This is good to know. I can not count the number of times that I've seen people with VERY minor damage literally standing in the middle of the road like their fender bender just became the most important issue in the known universe.

 

[HoughMade]

"If it Steers, it clears"

Learn it. know it. Love it. Live it.

....just don't leave the area.

 

[jkaetz]

Since people now days seem to think they can deny anything, I can see why people don't move their cars until emergency personnel arrive. While things can be determined most of the time, there are times when it will be ambiguous and insurance companies will pounce on the opportunity to not pay out. I make the decision based on where I am and what's around me.

 

[Bill B]

For my company truck the policy is don't move it until photographs have been taken and then if it can be moved, move it out of the way.

 

[RedneckReject]

Common sense would dictate that you move it out of the way if you can and there aren't any injuries. In the defense of people who do just leave their still operable vehicles in the middle of the road, I did get an ear full one time after I was t-boned on 31 by a guy who didn't see my bright red car at 4pm on a sunny day. I got hit pretty hard but I and the other driver were both okay and the cars were both driveable. I moved out of the way so that traffic could get by. When officers arrived I was told that I should never under any circumstances move the car until I was told to by emergency personnel. Fortunately I haven't had any further incidents, but now I know.