Be Sure to Take These Photographs After Your Car Accident in Apollo Beach, Florida
Chances are you’ve all heard, whether it be somebody telling you to do this, or maybe you saw some lawyer advertisement discussing it, that it’s important that you take photos of the damage to your car after an accident. And that’s 100% true. But what a lot of lawyers don’t tell you in those ads is that more often than not, there are other things that you should’ve taken photographs of, besides the damage to your own car, that can be just as valuable for your case. So what photos should you take after a crash?
1. Take Photos of the Damage to Your Car
Photos showing the damage to your car are extremely important, and they can be used in a number of different ways in your case.
First off, photos of the damage to your car will show the severity of the impact to your car. This is not to suggest that there is any correlation between the amount of property damage and the severity of an injury, because most medical professionals will tell you that there is no correlation, and many people who’ve been injured in a low impact collision have still suffered serious, and permanent lifelong injuries. In fact, statistics actually show that most neck injuries occur when the vehicles are traveling at 12 mph or less, and most chronic neck pain cases are due to low impact vehicle crashes.
With that said, insurance companies believe – or at least they like to argue this in a lot of cases –that there is a direct correlation between property damage and the extent of injury. So if you have significant damage to your car, photographs of that damage will go a long way with the insurance company in trying to resolve your injury claim. Without them, you would just be relying on an estimate of the damage, which even if high, doesn’t pack the same sort of punch as a photo.
Secondly, photographs of the damage to your car will show where the initial impact to your car took place, which can be very important. For example, if your accident took place in an intersection and the photos show the damage to your car near the rear of your vehicle, that would suggest that you were already established in the intersection when you were hit. This can especially be important in a comparative fault case where there is a dispute as to who may have run a stop sign or who may have had a green or red light.
Lastly, photos of your car’s damage are also very important in cases where it becomes necessary to hire experts like an accident reconstructionist or a biomechanical engineer. These experts will use these types of photos to reconstruct how the accident happened, or in the case of a biomechanical engineer, to explain how the force of the impact and the location of impact on your vehicle caused or contributed to your specific injuries.
2. Photos of the Damage to the Other Car
These photos are commonly overlooked but are often times the most important photographs to take, especially in the case of a low impact collision.
Insurance companies love low impact collisions because your car will, more likely than not, have suffered little to no visible property damage. The insurance company will use the photographs of your car showing the very minor damage to support paying you very little money by claiming that there was no way you could have been hurt in such a minor accident. They make this argument all the time.
However, what often happens is that the other car – the one that hit you, more often than not will have more damage to it than yours. So to counter the insurance company’s argument, being able to show the insurance company photos of the damage to the other car can be beneficial to your claim. But if you didn’t take any photos of the other car, you’ll have nothing to show the insurance company to prove them wrong – and good luckk getting a copy of their photographs, because they’re never just going to hand them over to you.
Photos of the other vehicles involved in the crash are also important in conducting any accident reconstruction or analysis of the biomechanical aspects of the crash – in other words, the forces involved, body movements, things of that nature to help prove causation of your injury.
3. Photos of the Roadway in the Area of the Crash
Now anybody can go back after a crash and look at the area where the crash occurred. But unless they get out there on the same day as the crash, they’re not going to see exactly what the conditions were like at the time the crash occurred. Taking photos of the roadway after a crash will show, for example, whether the road was wet and, if so, how wet was it? Was it just wet, or was there standing water? These photos are also important because they will show whether there were any conditions or hazards that may have contributed to the crash, like in the case of standing water, there could be an ongoing drainage problem with the road, or maybe there is a large pothole or other deterioration of the roadway. If conditions like those exist, and if you can show that they somehow caused or contributed to the crash, then you may have identified another party who could be held responsible for the accident, and ultimately for your injuries.
4. Photos of the Surrounding Area
Again, anybody can go back after a crash and look at the scene and surrounding area. But in reality, most people don’t get out there right away and, conditions do change – so it’s best to document them right away.
Photos of the surrounding area can be extremely important. And by surrounding area, that means taking photos of any landscaping, any construction taking place, and of any signage in the area. Photos like these can sometimes help to identify other responsible parties. For example, if your accident took place at a corner intersection, maybe there were overgrown bushes or other shrubbery that impeded your vision, or the vision of the other driver.
When taking photos of the surrounding area, it’s also important that you photograph all the buildings in the vicinity as well. In today’s day and age, many buildings have surveillance cameras on them and you can often get lucky and find one that captured your crash as it occurred. This can be gold if there is any dispute as to how the crash happened.
So to sum this all up, if you’re in a car accident, the more photographs you can take of everything around you, the better off you’ll be when pursuing a claim for your injuries.
Call Jim The Lawyer, Accident and Injury Attorney,
After Your Apollo Beach, Florida Car Accident
Hiring an experienced car accident lawyer can make all the difference in the outcome of your Apollo Beach car accident case. If you’ve been injured in an Apollo Beach, Florida car accident, Jim The Lawyer is here to help you fight to get the maximum compensation you deserve for your injury. If you’ve been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, contact Jim The Lawyer, Accident and Injury Attorney, at (813)937-9907 for a FREE Consultation and Case Evaluation.
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