Rebuilding Your Life After An Accident – What Can Help

A car accident can be devastating. Depending on the crash itself, you might be left with injuries, trauma, and financial consequences. As well as having to pay for potentially raised insurance costs, you might also have medical bills, and you may be unable to work for a while. Some people have to leave their careers due to long-lasting injuries.

But this article isn’t designed to scare people into thinking about the consequences of a car accident. Crashes are incredibly common, so it’s something that many people have to deal with. This post is designed to help you rebuild your life after going through a car accident, whether it was minor or serious.

After the Crash

First, it’s important to know what to do in the event of a car crash. Even if you do everything right, you could still get into a crash. You can’t rely on the other people on the road not to do something stupid or reckless. So, what do you do after a crash?

The priority should be to make sure everyone is safe. If you’re uninjured, check on the others involved in the accident. If people can move away from the cars under their own power, they should do so. You should also call emergency services right away, especially if someone has been injured.

Once the scene is safe and secure, you should collect evidence. This means photographing or filming the scene and getting contact details. This will help with insurance and the police report. 

Get checked out by medical services as soon as possible. Even if you feel okay, it can take a while for car accident injuries to kick in, often due to adrenaline. 

Dealing With Insurance

After emergency services, the next call should be to your insurance provider. The sooner they know what’s happened, the sooner they can work on it. This is also why you should swap insurance contact details with the other people involved in the accident. After your interview and any photos you’ve taken, you should be able to leave the case in the hands of your insurance provider.

They will determine who was at fault for the accident. Generally, the accident will either be deemed your fault, the other person’s fault, or there will be shared responsibility. In most cases, if you aren’t considered at fault, the claim will be paid by the other party’s insurance, meaning that any no-claims bonuses that you may have are safe.

Getting a New Vehicle

The insurance claim will cover the cost of repairs to your car or, if your car was written off, the cost of replacing it entirely. In the latter case, you will get the value of your car back from the insurance company, leaving you free to buy a new one.

Ideally, the insurance company will also provide a courtesy car, at least while your car is being assessed. This means that you aren’t stuck without a vehicle while it’s being inspected or repaired, giving you time to buy a new one if necessary.

When buying a new car, you could use this opportunity to upgrade your vehicle. While the insurance won’t cover the value of the new car, it can help you put down a deposit or cover the cost entirely. Otherwise, you should look for a vehicle that is safe and reliable to drive, but that still meets your household's needs.

You can also transfer your car insurance to the new vehicle. This is true whether you have to replace your car due to it being written off or if you’re simply buying a new car and don’t want to lose your policy.

Coping With Injuries

One of the most significant consequences of a car accident is the potential for injury. Even if you feel okay at the scene, you could be injured. This includes minor injuries like cuts and bruises, injuries like mild concussions that can heal without medical intervention but require monitoring, and severe injuries like spinal injuries or broken bones. Some injuries can even be life-threatening or may leave you with lifelong health problems.

As mentioned before, always get checked out after a crash, especially if it was at higher speeds. 

If you are injured, follow the advice of medical professionals and make sure you give yourself time to heal properly. Even an injury that should have healed well can cause long-term problems if you don’t let it heal correctly.

Therapy and Mental Health

As well as physical injuries, car accidents can cause mental and emotional health problems, especially if you were hurt or someone was killed. Car crashes are one of the most common causes of PTSD and anxiety disorders. Even if you walked away fine, you could still struggle with stress after a crash.

Some people can recover by seeking support among friends and family. Talk to people, give yourself time, and you may get back to normal. But if you have more severe problems that impact your daily life, seek professional help.

Therapy, combined with medication, can help you feel more like yourself again. Try not to get frustrated; mental health problems aren’t a sign of weakness; they’re a sign that you’ve been through a traumatic experience. So let yourself recover.

Managing Financial Loss

As well as coping with the potential health problems, both physical and mental, after a car crash, you may be left with financial consequences. Even if the insurance company decides that you were not at fault and covers all of the costs of repairing or replacing your car without impacting your no-claims rates, you may suffer financially.

You might have been unable to work for a while and, if you were left with long-term injuries or trauma, you may need to change your career. This could represent significant financial losses. In this case, someone like personal injury attorney Adam Kutner could help you manage financially, especially if the accident wasn’t your fault. While a court case might be difficult, it can be helpful in the long run.