What to Do After a Car Accident in California: A Step-by-Step Guide

Car accidents are disorienting, and the decisions you make in the first few minutes and days can affect your health and, later, your ability to recover compensation. This is general information, not legal advice for your specific situation.

Immediately After the Crash

1. Check for injuries and call 911 if anyone is hurt or if the vehicles are blocking traffic. California law requires a police report for crashes involving injury, death, or significant property damage.
2. Move to safety if the vehicles are drivable and it's safe to do so, to avoid a second collision.
3. Exchange information — name, phone number, insurance company and policy number, and license plate — with the other driver(s).
4. Photograph everything: vehicle positions, damage, license plates, skid marks, traffic signals, and the surrounding road conditions, before anything gets moved or cleaned up.
5. Get witness contact information if anyone stopped to help or saw what happened. Witnesses are often hard to track down later.

In the Following Days

• See a doctor even if you feel "okay." Adrenaline can mask pain, and some injuries (soft tissue injuries, concussions) don’t show symptoms immediately. A gap between the accident and your first medical visit is one of the most common things insurance adjusters use to argue an injury wasn’t serious or wasn’t caused by the crash.
• Be careful what you say to insurance adjusters — including your own insurer, at least about the specifics of your injuries, until you understand how that statement could be used. You generally aren’t required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company.
• Keep every document: medical bills, repair estimates, pay stubs showing missed work, and the police report (CHP or local department) once it’s available.
• Don’t post about the accident on social media. Insurers routinely review claimants’ public posts for anything that can be taken out of context.

Why the First Few Weeks Matter for Your Claim

Insurance companies evaluate claims based on documentation. A clear record — photos, a police report, consistent medical treatment, and a written account while details are fresh — makes it much harder for an adjuster to dispute what happened or minimize your injuries later. If another driver was at fault, California follows a "pure comparative negligence" rule, meaning you can still recover even if you share some of the blame; the documentation above helps establish exactly how the fault should be allocated.

If you’re not sure what to do next, a free consultation costs nothing and can tell you quickly whether you need a lawyer at all.