3 Biggest Mistakes Lithia Springs Residents Make After a Car Accident

Jul 29, 2015

Check out the three biggest mistakes Lithia Springs residents make after a car accident, which can cost you in pain and money.

(In case you don’t consider losing money and pain the same thing.)

#1. Don’t collect the right data.

After you’ve been in a car accident in Lithia Springs – whether it’s a fender-bender or a tangle of twisted metal complete with property damage, you need to make sure you take note of everything that happened in the right way.

According to the law in Georgia, you’ve got to file a report.

There are two kinds. One is an official police report, and the other is a report that you file yourself. Call 9-11 after an accident to get the cops on the scene, and you’ll get an APD report.

This is the first important step because very often your insurance won’t cover you if you’ve failed to obtain an official report of the accident.

If you need to get a police report, you’ll need to get in touch with the officiating officer who wrote it, which you can do through the Atlanta Police Office of Public Affairs.

Additionally, it’s always a good idea to get the information of the opposing driver, including his or her insurance company. Lastly, you’ll want to take some photographs of the accident, which will be of help to you in proving the details when you’re trying to get benefits.

#2. Don’t get after accident care.

If you’re hurt in an accident, there could be a lot of things wrong. But the most common injuries are whiplash, concussion, and abrasions or soft tissue damage in your back. Fractures can also occur, such as if you were clenching the steering wheel at the time of impact.

The ER is usually just the first step in after injury care, but for many people, they see it as the last. Just because you’ve been let out of the ER doesn’t mean that you have a clean bill of health. It just means you have no life-threatening or immediately debilitating injuries. However, over time, the pains and soft tissue damage that you’ve sustained can significantly decrease your quality of life if left unattended.

The outlying time that it takes to qualify as the bearer of chronic pain is just 12-14 weeks. If, after that long you’re still in the same or a similar amount of pain you were in the days after your accident, it’s time to see the doctor.

Soft tissue injuries can be tough to solve – which is why it’s to your benefit to get them checked out by a chiropractor or orthopedic doctor immediately after you’ve been discharged from the ER. Or, even if you never needed to go to the ER.

#3. Don’t get an MRI.

At the hospital, you probably didn’t receive an MRI, which is the only way to tell if you have a soft tissue injury.

Usually, people get X-rays, which are much cheaper to administer and can tell doctors if you have serious skeletal problems that need prompt attention, realignment, and casting. Less serious threats are usually beyond the purview of ER visits in the wake of an accident and will have to be scheduled later.

However, getting an MRI isn’t always offered at the hospital. If you’re feeling pain and think you might need an MRI, consider approaching an accident injury clinic that specializes in getting quick answers for you with the use of MRI or CT technology. These are the only scans that reveal the extent of your soft-tissue damage, which incidentally is hard to prove in court when the only evidence you’ve got is your word that you’re in pain.

Because that’s evidence is so important, it’s also something that your insurance company will probably want to see to ascertain the extent of your injuries, and if those injuries are as worthy as you might say they are for compensation.

That’s another reason why getting the MRI is a very good idea, and opting out of the painless, radiation- scan can cost you both health and money in the medium to long run.

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