Questions about how the accident happened

Your personal injury lawyer will need to learn a lot of things about your lawsuit and will ask you a lot of questions when you first meet.

Some of those questions will be about how the car accident happened, and those types of questions may include some of the following things.

Date, time and weather

What was the date of the car accident?
What was the day of week?
Was it a holiday or special occasion?
Is there a special reason to remember this date?

What was the time of the car accident?
Was there daylight?
Was there a problem with glare?

What were the weather conditions?
Was it raining or snowing?
What were the ground conditions?

Accident location

Where did the car accident take place?
Describe the street.
What was the nearest cross street?
What was the distance from the cross street?

Area of accident

What is area around the car accident like?
Is the area a residential area?
What stores or landmarks are in the area?
Are there restrictions on visibility?
Is there traffic and congestion in the area?

Accident description

Did the car accident happen at an intersection?
Was the intersection controlled by lights?
Was there a stop sign?
Was there a turn arrow light?

Was there a hit in the rear or chain reaction?
What caused traffic to slow?
Had slowing been going on for a while?
Were there hazard lights or warnings up ahead?

Did the car accident involve a lane change?
How many lanes were there?
Were signals used before the change?
Was the lane change necessitated by a road hazard?

Was a pedestrian involved?
Did the contact take place in an intersection?
Was there a school or movie theater or the like in the area?
Were there parked or double-parked cars?

Did the car accident involve only one vehicle?
Why did the vehicle lose control?
Was there construction going on in the area?

The defendant’s car

Who owns the car?
Is it an individual or a corporation?
What is the owner’s address?
What is the name of the owner’s insurance company?

Who was driving?
What is the driver’s address?
Was the driver under an impairment at the time?
Was the driver licensed?
Did the driver have permission to use the vehicle?

Can you describe the car?
What is the vehicle’s license plate number?
What is the make, model and year of the vehicle?
What color is the vehicle, and how many doors?

Was there any damage to the car?
What was the condition of the vehicle after the accident?

Can you describe the actions of the car?
Where was it coming from?
At what speed was it travelling?
What direction was it going?
Did its horn sound?
Did it leave skid marks?

Your car

Who owns the car?
What is your relationship to the owner?
Is it an individual or a corporation?
What is the owner’s address?
What is the name of the owner’s insurance company?

Did you receive a No-fault form?
Do you have a copy of it?

Who was driving the car?
What is your relationship to the driver, if any?
Does the driver have separate coverage?
Was the driver under an impairment at the time?
Was the driver licensed?
Did the driver have permission to use the vehicle?

Can you describe the car?
What is the vehicle’s license plate number?
What is the make, model and year of the vehicle?
What color is the vehicle, how many doors?

Was there any damage to the car?
What was the condition of the vehicle after the accident?
Was there any pre-accident damage to the vehicle?

Can you describe the actions of the car?
Where was it coming from?
At what speed was it travelling?
What direction was it going?
Did its horn sound?
Did it leave skid marks?

Additional cars

Were other cars or other vehicles involved?
Was the vehicle stopped or moving?
Was there any contact with any other vehicle?
Did the vehicle impair sight lines?
Did the vehicle cause one of the participants to change course?

Who is the owner of the car?
Is it an individual or a corporation?
What is the owner’s address?

Who was driving the car?
What is the driver’s address?

Can you describe the car?
What is the make, model and year of the vehicle?
What color is the vehicle, how many doors?
Was there any damage to the vehicle before the accident?
What was the condition of the vehicle after the accident?

Can you describe the actions of the car?
Where was it coming from?
At what speed was it travelling?
What direction was it going?
Did its horn sound?
Did it leave skid marks?

Emergency response to the car accident

Did the police respond?
What was the accident or aided number?
Were any statements given?
What did the police do and to whom did they talk?

Did the fire department respond?
What did they do?
Were any statements given?

Did an ambulance respond?
Who called the ambulance?
From where was it dispatched?
Were any statements given?
What did they do at the scene?
Did they transport anyone to a hospital?
Which hospital?

Did any passerby assist at the scene?
What are their names and addresses?
What did they do?

Witnesses

Were there any witnesses to the car accident?
What were the names of all witnesses?
What did they see or do?
Where, if anywhere, are their names reported?
Were there other people in the defendant’s car?