What To Do After A Hit-And-Run Accident In Tennessee

Posted in Car accidents on October 26, 2022

If you or somebody you care about has been injured or sustained property damage due to a hit-and-run accident, there are various steps that you can take to help ensure your well-being and that you recover any compensation you may be entitled to. Here, we want to review these steps, but we also encourage you to reach out to a skilled Nashville hit and run accident attorney who has experience handling these claims and can guide you toward the best route for recovering compensation. 

Call the Police – Do Not Pursue the Vehicle

Immediately following a hit-and-run incident, you need to get your car to a safe location if possible and dial 911. It may be very tempting to pursue the driver who struck you and fled the scene, but please do not do this. This will only place yourself and others in harm’s way, and pursuing a hit-and-run driver is also illegal.

You need to take note of any identifying factors about the driver in the vehicle, relay this information to the dispatcher, and let the police do their job in locating the other driver. Try to remember any physical descriptors of the driver, the make, model, and color of the vehicle, and the direction the vehicle was going when you last saw it.

Seek Medical Care Immediately

We encourage any hit-and-run accident victim to seek medical treatment immediately, possibly even taking the ambulance to the hospital if the injuries are severe. However, even if the victim does not take an ambulance to the hospital, they should still go to an emergency clinic or emergency department for treatment. A doctor needs to conduct an evaluation to check for any unseen injuries that they may not be aware of. Not only does this help ensure that their well-being is the number one priority, but it will also establish a link between any injuries they do sustain and the crash. This will be important for insurance claims.

Gather Evidence

It may be possible at the scene of the incident to gather some evidence related to the incident. The other vehicle may have fled the scene, but you can still use your phone’s camera to take video or pictures of everything around the scene. This can include damage to your vehicle, debris that may be left on the ground, skid marks, traffic and weather conditions, injuries, and more.

Additionally, if you happen to see any eyewitnesses around the area who may have seen the hit-and-run crash, please write down their names and contact information so they can give statements later on to the insurance carriers or add a personal injury trial. Additionally, try to make sure that these eyewitnesses give their statements to any responding police officers.

Call Your Insurance Carrier

Reach out to your insurance carrier the same day the incident occurred. You do not have to go into much detail, but they do need to know about the crash. If you have any uninsured motorist coverage as part of your policy, you will be able to use this coverage to pay for compensation while awaiting the apprehension of the hit-and-run driver.

Continue Your Treatment

We encourage all hit-and-run accident victims to continue their medical treatment until their doctor says they can stop. Discontinuing medical care against the advice of a medical professional is always a bad idea, particularly if you want to recover full compensation for your injuries through an insurance settlement.