Of course, no one wants to be involved in an accident, but some accidents and collisions are imminent, no matter how you try to control the car. When you find yourself involved in an accident and you’re still conscious, there are some important steps you should take to ensure your safety and allow rescuers to get to you in time.
Basically, the first thing to do when you survive a collision or accident is to find a safe place around the scene to stay and protect yourself. If you could still drive the car, try to drive it away from the road to prevent much traffic, while you seek solace. Notwithstanding, there are other things you should know too, and if you’re a passerby, there are acts you should do too, to help the victims.
First Steps After a Car Accident
These steps are for the direct victims who are involved in the collision or accident.
1. Stop and Stay Around
Don’t try to drive off or hide from the scene, instead, find a safe place to sit down or lie on your back. If you can, move the car away from the road (if it was blocking the road), but if you can’t drive, don’t bother. Also, if you’re stuck in the car and you try pulling out from the spot, but to no avail, stop trying and relax your mind while trying to raise an alarm or anything that could draw the attention of passersby to your car.
2. Help Other Passengers in the Car
If you were carrying other passengers in the car when the accident occurred, once you’re safe, look for means to get the other passengers to safety. If the car doors won’t open, use the windows – wind down the glasses and pull the passengers out of the car. This is one of the reasons to always ensure your car window regulators are working fine; a car window regulator should work well to allow you to wind down the glasses easily in emergencies.
3. Call for Help
Keep blowing your car’s horn or shout to draw the attention of any one close by. If the collision scene is such a bad one, definitely people would come around even without you calling out for help. Also, reach for your phone and call 911 or any emergency contact you can easily reach.
4. Open Up to People Who Come to Help
If anyone comes to help you get to safety or pull you out of the car, when you’ve gotten a good rest, be sure to open up and explain what happened in detail while waiting for the police and medics to arrive at the scene (depending on the intensity of the accident).
What to do at the Scene of a Car Accident
If you come across an accident scene, or an accident just happened right before your eyes, you have to act immediately to help the victims.
1. Quickly Scan the Area to Find a Safe Spot to Evacuate the Victims
Your first act should be to quickly scan the accident scene and look for a place where you can evacuate the victims without putting them at additional risk. When you have found this spot, then act quickly to evacuate the driver and passengers of the affected vehicle(s) to a safe spot.
2. Help Call 911 or the Police
Whether the victims were able to reach the police or 911 on the phone, you should give it a shot too. Call 911 and report the situation as you see it. If you could access the victim(s) phones, call their emergency contacts and inform them about the situation.
3. Remaining Willing to Help
Depending on how critical the situation of the victims may be, avail yourself to assist in any way you can to stabilize the victims until the medics arrive to give them proper care. If you’ve got a first aid kid in your car trunk, use it to attend to the victims.
What More?
These are the prior tips to keep at the back of your mind just in case you encounter a scenario like this. As the victim, it is important to inform your vehicle’s insurance company on time about the accident and comply with the police – when they arrive at the scene.
Further Reading: Car Accident Statistics – driverknowledge.com.
