Car crashes are frequent, with thousands happening all over the country every day. You should understand, though, that while there are certain car wreck universalities, you must conduct yourself a little differently after you have one in each state.
It pays to know what to do about a car wreck in your state since it can happen at any time. Even if you feel like you’re a great driver, that doesn’t mean that some careless person will not hit your vehicle.
In this article, we’ll talk about what you need to do following a car accident in Missouri. Specifically, we’ll cover the three situations where you must report your Missouri car wreck to the proper authorities.
If You Hit an Uninsured Driver
If you’re wondering when you must report a Missouri car accident, the first time you’d have to do it is if you hit an uninsured driver or vice versa. If you consider for a moment, it makes sense the police would want a report of such an occurrence.
No one who does not have the proper car insurance should be on the road, and the police and court system will want to penalize anyone who doesn’t follow the rules. You should have no issue calling the cops if the person you hit or who hit your vehicle tells you they don’t have an insurance policy or their policy has lapsed.
You have to hope that the person who struck your car does not try to flee before the police arrive. If that happens, you’ll need to see if anyone nearby saw their license number, or you might get that number off a traffic camera or nearby store camera.
If the Wreck Causes More than $500 in Property Damage
In Missouri, you must also report the wreck if it caused more than $500 in property damage. If you consider this for a moment, you’ll realize it means you’ll have to report nearly any accident you have.
There are very few accidents where you’ll hit something, or a vehicle will hit you, and the collision will not cause more than $500 in damages. Even if a fender bender is all that happens, that’s likely to generate $500 in damage or more if you decide to take it to an auto body shop where they can repair it. Certainly, if you were going at a decent speed, or the person who hit you was, you’re looking at damage exceeding $500.
The Crash Kills or Injures Anyone
It also makes sense why the third reason you’d need to notify the Missouri authorities of a crash would be if you killed or injured someone. In wrecks with an injury or death, you might have to appear in court because you’re suing the other driver, or they are suing you.
In car wreck lawsuits, you’ll need to rely on things like a police accident report to establish that the wreck happened that day like you said it did. If the other driver claims that you’re lying or misremembering events, you can prove things happened like you said by showing the jury the police report, along with whatever other evidence you can find.
You can often use camera footage to prove what you say happened that day, but it all starts with the basic facts on that police report. You’ll be glad that official documentation exists from the day the wreck happened.
What About if You Can’t File a Report that Day?
You will be happy to know that if you can’t file a police report the same day the accident happened, that’s not the worst thing in the world. The state of Missouri gives you thirty days after the wreck to file that report with the authorities.
This might happen if the police never show up at the scene for any reason. You can head to the nearest police station to file that report during the thirty days afterward.
You don’t need to get a form to fill out at the police station, though. You can certainly do that, but you can also get a blank report online and fill it out.
Even if your accident did not meet any of the three qualifications in Missouri that we mentioned, it’s still not a bad idea to have a report on file. You never know if another driver you hit might suddenly decide to sue you, and if that happens, the documentation should benefit you.
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