What to Do Immediately after a Road Accident: A Step-by-Step Guide

A road accident happens in a split second, but the decisions you make in the minutes, hours and days that follow will stay with you for many months. Precisely at the moments when you are stunned, in pain and under stress, facts are established that will affect your medical treatment, the insurance company's recognition of your claim and the compensation you receive at the end of the road.

From years of experience accompanying injured people, it can be said clearly: many cases do not fail because of the question of who was at fault for the accident, since for bodily injury the Road Accident Victims Compensation Law, 1975 (Israel) imposes absolute liability, but because of gaps in documentation. An injured person who did not write down the details of the driver who hit them, who skipped seeing a doctor "because it will pass", or who forgot to report to the insurer in time, discovers too late that the legal difficulties were born on the day of the accident.

This guide is arranged in the correct order of actions: from the scene itself, through the police and medical treatment, to notifying the insurance company and keeping the documents. Save it, and pass it on to family members who drive.

At the Accident Scene: Safety First

The first thing is not legal but a matter of safety. Stop the vehicle at the side of the road if possible, turn on the hazard lights, put on a reflective vest and place a warning triangle at a suitable distance. If anyone is injured, call Magen David Adom immediately on 101, and do not move an injured person who is not in immediate danger, since moving them incorrectly may aggravate spinal injuries.

If you yourself were injured, even if the injury seems minor, do not rush to get up and move around the scene. Adrenaline masks pain, and neck, head and abdominal injuries often appear only hours later. Stay calm, breathe, and let the rescue services do their work.

It is forbidden to leave the scene of an accident when people have been injured. Leaving a scene where there are injured people is a serious criminal offence, even if it seems to you that the injury is minor.

Details of Those Involved and of Witnesses: The Full List

Once the scene is safe, this is the most important stage in terms of evidence. Collect and document, preferably by photographing with your mobile phone:

• Details of the drivers involved: full name, ID number, address and telephone, driving licence number.

• Vehicle details: licence plate number, make and model, name of the vehicle's owner if not the driver.

• Insurance details: the name of the insurance company and the compulsory insurance policy number of each vehicle involved. Photograph the insurance certificate itself.

• Eyewitnesses: name and telephone number of everyone who saw the accident. Witnesses disappear within minutes, and tracing them afterwards is almost impossible.

• The scene itself: photograph the vehicles before they are moved, from several angles, the damage, the skid marks, the condition of the road and the traffic signs, and the general location of the accident.

If the other driver refuses to give details, at least photograph the licence plate and call the police. Do not get into a confrontation; documentation matters more than the argument.

The Police: When You Must Report

Many people do not know that there is a distinction between an accident with property damage only and an accident with injured people:

• An accident with bodily injury: you must call the police to the scene or report at a police station shortly after the accident. In minor accidents the police will not always come to the scene, and then you must go to the police station and file a report of the accident yourself.

• An accident with property damage only: as a rule, exchanging details between the drivers is sufficient, and there is no obligation to involve the police.

The critical point for people with bodily injury: reporting to the police is the basis for obtaining a police confirmation of the accident, a document that insurance companies require as part of a bodily injury claim. Injured people who felt "fine" on the day of the accident gave up on reporting, and when the pain worsened they had to deal with the insurer's suspicion. If you were injured, even slightly, report it.

Immediate Medical Treatment: Even When Everything Seems Fine

Go for a medical examination on the day of the accident or as soon after it as possible: an emergency room, an urgent care center or your family doctor. The early examination has two functions. The first is medical, to detect injuries that are not visible. The second is evidentiary, to create the first link in the chain connecting the accident and the injury.

At the examination itself, list all your complaints, including those that seem marginal to you: mild neck pain, dizziness, numbness in the fingers, difficulty sleeping, anxiety when driving. What is not recorded in the medical record almost does not exist as far as the insurance company and the court are concerned. Make sure it is recorded explicitly that this was a road accident and what its date was.

Continued Treatment and Continuous Documentation

The first visit is not enough. If the pain continues, keep reporting it and being examined: family doctor, orthopedist, neurologist, physiotherapy, according to need and referrals. Continuity of treatment is necessary for two reasons:

• Medical: injuries that are not treated in time heal more slowly and sometimes leave a permanent limitation.

• Legal: a long gap between medical visits is interpreted as recovery. If you stopped complaining for six months and then came back, it will be argued that the new pain is not related to the accident.

Keep every document: emergency room summary, referrals, imaging results, sick leave certificates, treatment summaries. A single chronological file of documents will save you running around later on.

Notifying the Insurance Company

Report the accident as early as possible to the insurance company that issued the compulsory insurance for the vehicle. For bodily injury, the claim is directed to the insurer of the vehicle you were travelling in: a driver and passengers claim from the insurer of their own vehicle, and a pedestrian or cyclist hit by a vehicle claims from the insurer of the vehicle that hit them.

In the report, give facts only: when, where, how, who was involved and what the injuries are. Do not minimize the injuries ("it's nothing, just a scratch") and do not exaggerate. Remember that calls to insurance call centers are recorded, and anything you say may be used later. You are not obliged to sign forms you do not understand or to give detailed statements before consulting a lawyer.

Keep Receipts for Every Expense

From the moment of the accident, every expense connected to it should be documented: co-payments for medication and treatments, medical equipment, travel to and from treatments, parking near the hospital, help at home that you hired, lost workdays. Collect receipts, invoices and employer confirmations in a dedicated folder. Compensation for past expenses is awarded on the basis of supporting documents, and expenses that were not documented are very hard to reconstruct.

Were You Injured on the Way to or from Work? There Is Another Address

A detail many injured people miss: a road accident that occurred on the way from home to work, from work home or in the course of the work itself is, as a rule, also recognized as a work accident. In such a case a parallel track opens with Bituach Leumi (the National Insurance Institute), which includes injury allowance for the period of incapacity, coverage of medical expenses, and later, if a disability remains, a grant or pension according to the degree that is determined.

What is required of you at the early stage? Notify your employer of the accident as soon as possible, tell the treating doctor that this was an accident on the way to or from work so that it is recorded, and file a claim for recognition with Bituach Leumi on the designated form. Note that Bituach Leumi benefits are deducted from the compensation the insurance company will pay, so managing both tracks together, in the right order, directly affects the overall result.

Common Mistakes Worth Knowing in Advance

• "I'll feel better tomorrow": putting off seeing a doctor is the most common and most harmful mistake. A gap of days between the accident and the first complaint opens the door to the argument that the injury is not related to the accident.

• Not reporting a "minor" injury to the police: without a report there is no police confirmation, and without it the bodily injury claim becomes complicated.

• "Under the table" arrangements: a promise by the driver who hit you to "settle it between us" leaves you without documentation and without anyone to turn to when it turns out that the injury is serious.

• Oversharing on social media: photos from a trip or a sports workout while you are claiming a limitation are used by insurance companies against injured people.

• Hastily signing waiver documents or a quick compensation offer: an offer that arrives early, before the disability has settled, is almost always lower than what you are owed.

• Waiting too long: a claim under the Road Accident Compensation Law generally becomes time-barred after 7 years, but gathering evidence and testimony becomes harder with every month that passes.

Summary

The first days after a road accident are the foundation of everything that follows: documenting the scene and those involved, reporting to the police, an immediate medical examination and continuity of treatment, notifying the insurer and systematically keeping documents and receipts. These are simple actions, but anyone who skips them pays dearly further down the road.

If you were injured and are not sure what the next step is, the Yaniv Gavish Law Office accompanies road accident victims from the time of the accident to the end of the proceedings: 4 Berkowitz Street, Tel Aviv, telephone 076-5385862.