Getting the evidence you need after a car accident can seem intimidating. Especially if you are injured and are busy dealing with your recovery, securing evidence might be the last thing on your mind. However, our attorneys can help you with this process.
Most evidence you gather at the scene of the crash will be information: who was involved, what happened, where did it happen, when did it happen, and why did it happen? If you can, you should also take photos of the vehicles and injuries – but you will not always be able to collect physical pieces of evidence like vehicle debris. Also keep in mind that police reports contain a lot of the evidence you need – and your attorney can help you recover other evidence you might not think of at first, such as security camera footage.
For help with your car accident case, call the Westchester car accident attorneys at The Martello Law Firm today. Our phone number is (914) 600-3391.
How to Collect Information at the Scene of the Accident in New York
To collect most of the evidence you will need for your injury case, you will simply have to ask some questions and record some information that is readily available to you after the accident. Using a pen and paper is one of the best ways to collect this information, but you can also use the notes app on your phone or even snap pictures or take video of a lot of the evidence you need.
What Information to Collect
As mentioned, a lot of the information you need is the “Who,” “What,” “When,” “Where,” and “Why” information:
- Collect the names and contact info of any drivers or victims involved in the accident.
- Also collect names and contact info for any potential witnesses.
- Keep notes about what vehicles were damaged (including the license plate number, make, and model for each vehicle).
- Keep notes about what injuries resulted (especially your own injuries).
- Note when the accident happened.
- Document where the accident happened, including the street name; a nearby cross street, address, or mile-marker; and whether any signs or traffic signals were present.
- Note what lighting, weather, and road conditions might have affected your accident case.
- Record your immediate thoughts about how the accident happened and who caused it.
There is also some specific information that you should get, such as the other driver’s insurance information. The law might also require you to display your driver’s license, and you can also get the other driver’s license information to help ID them.
Also report the accident to the police – they will collect a lot of this same information and make it available in a police report later.
Keep in mind that the information you collect will be given to your Mount Vernon car accident lawyer and later shown to a judge and jury. Try to write as neatly as you can and avoid personalized notations and abbreviations that someone else might misunderstand.
How to Collect and Organize Car Accident Evidence/Information
A lot of the information you collect at the scene of a car accident will be names, contact info, license plate numbers, and addresses. One of the best ways to collect this information is by keeping a notepad and pen in your car.
If you do not have a pen and paper, you can often use your cell phone to take photos of the information:
- Snap a picture of the other driver’s license and insurance card
- Take a photo of the nearest street sign and where your car is located nearby
- Take pictures of the vehicles involved, including clear photos of their license plates
- Take photos of the people involved and any injuries they might have
You can also keep notes in a digital form on your phone through your notes app. If you are truly in a pinch and cannot focus on writing down information, try opening an audio memo or recording a video of yourself reciting the information aloud.
However you track the information, clearly label it as information related to your car accident and keep it in a safe place. If you have to go to the hospital, make sure that the information is preserved in a safe location while you undergo treatment. When you get time, consider labeling digital files and physical documents to help your White Plains car accident lawyer identify and sort through the information.
Taking Photos of Your Car Accident in New York
As mentioned, photos your car accident make excellent evidence of what happened. Photos can show the court the vehicle damage, allowing the judge and jury to see physical proof of who hit whom and how the crash occurred. Photos of the damage can also show how severe the crash was, and photos of the intersection or street where the crash occurred can help the jury determine fault.
If you are taking photos with your cell phone camera – which is the most common way these photos are taken – you might want to double check that your phone is set to take high-resolution photos. Especially if the accident happened at night, you might want to check your flash settings or look for a low-light mode to take photos with.
Photos should include a few important things:
- Wide shots establishing where the cars are in relation to one another
- Photos you can use to identify the vehicles involved
- Photos of the damage to each vehicle
- Photos of any injuries you faced
We have also noted some other things you can take pictures of, such as insurance cards or even the people involved in the crash.
What Evidence Can My Lawyers Collect for Me That I Can’t Get on My Own in a NY Car Accident?
Gathering evidence after a crash is sometimes a daunting task, and there are many pieces of evidence and information that you might not have the experience or knowledge to collect on your own. Fortunately, our NY car accident attorneys can step in and use official letters or even the powers of the court to obtain additional evidence.
Police Reports
You can get a police report on your own, but understanding which police department has the report or where to actually get a copy might be hard to do – especially if you are laid up in a hospital. Our attorneys can look into which department responded to your accident and seek out a report through them. There are often online resources that claim to host police reports, but they may only have redacted reports that leave off vital information like witness contact information.
Through a police report, we can get witness and defendant contact information to help us figure out who to sue and where to send a copy of the complaint, set up depositions of witnesses, and know who to interview about what facts. We can also see how much of the crash and its aftermath the responding officer witnessed, whether tickets were issued, whether the driver was arrested for DUI/DWI, and so on, all with the goal of determining what testimony from the police officer might help your case.
Camera Footage
There are traffic cameras in various parts of the state, as well as security cameras owned by local stores and homeowners. In a car accident case, footage from these cameras can be vital, as it may have actually captured the accident on tape. Our attorneys can send letters to store owners and homeowners along the stretch of road where the accident occurred to ask them if they have any footage, plus we can ask them to save a copy of the footage so that it will be available for trial. Many camera owners are also willing to just turn over the footage when a lawyer asks them to, providing us with additional evidence you might have had difficulty obtaining on your own.
Appraisals
In some areas, we might have shops and crash reconstruction experts that we trust to examine vehicles for our cases. If not, we can see if the insurance companies involved have any preferred mechanics or shops, and we can ensure that appraisals seem fair. We may even be able to set up competing or alternative appraisals of your vehicle damage if the insurance company’s appraisals seem off or questionable.
Evidence We Can Subpoena
Once your case is filed in court, we can ask the court to use its subpoena power to force parties with relevant information to turn it over to us. This can also include the power to subpoena witnesses, forcing people who might otherwise not want to cooperate to come into court or to take depositions in our office. This can help us get a hold of records and evidence that people might be reluctant to hand over.
One common example of evidence that might need to be subpoenaed or turned over under court order during discovery is trucking company records. If you were hit by a truck driver, the company they work for likely has logs and records about vehicle maintenance and the driver’s hours, both of which can help us look for potential problems that might have caused the crash or violated state and federal trucking regulations.
Insurance Policies
Our lawyers might be able to find insurance policies on record that you might not have thought of. This can include your own insurance coverages that you might not have realized were part of your policy, such as additional uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage that can help you pay for damages if the other driver’s insurance is missing or too low to cover your case in full. We can also track down insurance from any employers if the driver was a commercial driver, from Uber or Lyft if the driver was working for a rideshare service, or from rental insurance if the driver’s car was rented.
Criminal Records
It’s not often that a criminal record is admissible evidence in a traffic accident case, but some records of conviction can help with your case.
One major way this applies is if the driver was convicted of a crime for this crash. You likely would know that that conviction was out there, as you might have been a witness in the initial criminal case, and our lawyers would be monitoring it from the beginning. In any case, once the conviction is entered, our lawyers can get the proper evidence and records to introduce that conviction as evidence in this case.
Sometimes, past records of crime and traffic offenses can also be admissible. For example, if we are suing a commercial driver’s employer for negligent hiring and retention, evidence that the driver had past driving convictions or vehicular assault convictions would be good evidence to show that the company failed to run proper background checks or that they should have fired their driver long before this crash.
Past convictions usually cannot be used to show the defendant’s character or point out flaws, such as showing off past DUI/DWI convictions when the driver was stone sober in the case at hand.
For a Free Case Review, Call Our NY Car Accident Lawyers Today
For help with a car accident case, call the Yonkers car accident injury attorneys at The Martello Law Firm today at (914) 600-3391. We offer free case reviews.
