Heavy rain and hail have hit parts of the city over the past few weeks, following the “fast-moving” storm warning for Sydney, the nation’s largest city and capital of New South Wales, by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
It was reported that the shopping centre was evacuated after the ceiling of a store selling clothes in the Westfield shopping centre in Sydney’s Mt Druitt district collapsed due to heavy rains.
Announcing that no one was injured during the incident, Westfield Mall’s statement said, “The safety of our customers, retail partners and employees is our top priority.” statements were included.
While some roads were covered with water in the sudden rains, it was reported that electric wires were also damaged because of the destruction of trees in settlements.
Noting that the roofs of the cars parked outside, and the roofs of the houses were damaged by the tennis ball-sized hailstorm that was effective in most of the city, the emergency service teams announced that damaged car accidents occurred during the heavy rains.
Although the weather conditions seem to have caused these traffic accidents, the carelessness of the drivers increased the number of car accidents that occurred. After car accidents, victims began to seek lawyers to seek compensation.
If you have been in a car accident, do you know what to do at the scene?
Having a traffic accident is a traumatic event for a person. After the accident, the person may be injured physically or psychologically. When people are injured in an accident, this may affect their life in the short term, as well as for a lifetime. A single accident can change a person’s entire life.
But despite that, there are a few important things you should do while staying calm at the crash site. These few details will become very important to you later on. You have to be conscious of this and get rid of the shock.
For this reason, you should collect information and evidence by throwing the shock as soon as possible after the accident. In this way, your post-accident compensation process will progress more easily.
The first thing to do after an accident is to help someone who is injured
Helping someone injured in a car accident should be your priority. Normally an ambulance is not free unless the person has insurance. But if the injured person needs treatment as quickly as possible, you may need to call an ambulance.
If a claim for compensation is made later, it may be decided to include the fees paid here in the compensation. It depends on the situation and conditions. For this reason, each treatment should be reported and recorded.
The accident should be reported to the police as soon as possible
If anyone is injured or property is damaged in the accident, the accident should be reported to the police immediately. This reporting can be done directly with the police or through the Online Accident Reporting Facility.
Reporting the accident is not a matter left to the discretion of the individual. If you do not report an accident, you may be penalised. For this reason, without taking such a risk, you should not neglect to report the accident as soon as possible in case of any accident.
Gather as much information as you can at the scene of the accident
If you collect the information in the list prepared below at the scene of the accident, things will become easier in your claiming process later. What is written on this list is, so to speak, the equivalent of taking an X-ray of the accident scene. In this way, it is ensured that even someone who did not witness the accident learns every detail and that the compensation conditions are discussed accordingly after the accident.
- Take pictures of property damage.
- Take a photo or photocopy the other driver’s license.
- Make a note of the list of events that caused the accident.
- Write down the names, addresses and insurance information of the people involved in the accident.
- Note the colour, model, license plate of the vehicles involved in the accident.
- If there are witnesses at the scene of the accident, write down their names, addresses, telephone numbers.
- Write down information such as physical conditions or weather conditions at the time of the accident.
As can be seen here, any information about the accident should be noted down as it may be needed later.
Make sure that the tow trucks coming to the scene of the accident are covered by your insurance
If a tow truck is arriving at the scene of the accident, find out where the car will be taken, the cost of storage, and whether your insurance covers it.
It should be noted that if you work with a different towing company than your insurance offers, the mentioned fees may not be covered.
Apart from these, you should pay special attention to…
Do not accuse anyone of causing an accident. Do not admit fault or reimburse the cost of damage without consulting with compensation lawyers in NSW and seeking legal advice.
Accident lawyers are there for you to compensate for your damage in your post-accident process. In addition, you will be able to focus only on recovery, as lawyers working on the no win no fee principle will not receive their own wages until you receive your compensation. If you are faced with such a situation, you can have a first initial meeting with Withstand Lawyers.
