If you were involved in a car accident in Texas where someone was injured, chances are the police were called and you were given a police report number. This police report is important for several reasons.
First, the police report is going to give you all the other party’s information. If you were whisked away in an ambulance headed to Corpus Christi Medical Center Bay Area or any other hospital shortly after the accident, you may not have gotten the other driver’s information. The police report will list the adverse driver and all their vehicle information.
The second thing the police report is great for is getting the insurance information from the adverse driver. For a personal injury attorney working in south Texas, it’s important to know there’s insurance on the other vehicle that struck your client. The police report is a great tool to use in order to set up that claim and get the ball rolling on fixing my client’s property damage.
Police reports are also tremendous for determining liability in an automobile accident. Police reports have narratives that are typically on the second page of the report. The narrative tells the story of how the accident took place according to the officer and even sometimes have a picture portraying how the even occurred.
Other contents that the police report includes are:
- Date, time, the location of the accident.
- Description of the weather that day. Eg. Snowy, rainy, foggy etc.
- Description of the property damage to the vehicle
- Where the vehicle was towed
- Who the reporting officer was
- Who left the scene by ambulance and where they went
- Who was in all the vehicles and their ages
- Reason why a citation was given
One thing that may be frustrating to a client is the delay in the report becoming available. Sometimes it takes up to two weeks for a police report to be ready. Meanwhile, the client has been waiting with their car in the tow yard. This can be an anxious two weeks for a person who is banged up from an accident and only has liability coverage for their automobile.
In conclusion, police reports are a great tool and resource for someone that has been struck by another vehicle. Attorneys rely heavily on them when setting up a claim and determining liability and coverage. While some cities do not fill out police reports for run of the mill car crashes, we’re fortunate enough to have police reports available at our disposal here in Corpus Christi, Texas.
