In a word, yes. In addition to notifying the police of an accident you should also let your insurance company know, as most policies require that you give “prompt notice” of any car accident or loss. You should file a report with your insurance company and let them know where they can send an insurance adjuster to have a look at the vehicle and assess the damage.

If you don’t notify your auto insurance company of an accident right away it could prevent them from investigating your claim thoroughly. If this happens they can reduce the amount offered for the claim or even deny it completely.

To help your auto insurer provide the best service you should get both the name and badge number of the police officer(s) that comes to the scene. You also need the other driver’s name, address, phone number, type of vehicle, license plate number, driver’s license number and their insurance company’s information. And if there were any witness or passengers get their contact information as well.

Also, take complete notes about the acceded, everything from the vehicles involved and how fast they were traveling to the weather and road conditions should be remembered if possible. Make sure you don’t make any verbal or written statements about who was at fault. And be careful about payments that are offered on the spot. If you accept these you can still be held liable at a later date for the same damages.

Just keep in mind your insurance company is there for times like this. Keeping them informed of exactly what happened can help them help you.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 10:06 am and is filed under Auto Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.