I was in a car accident, should I go to the hospital?

Question

So I was in an accident that was not my fault and it totally smashed my new car. The other driver has insurance. I want to know if i should go to the hospital. I'm not hurt bad I guess but I am having a lot of pain in my back, neck, shoulder and hip. This happened three days ago and it was all so fast that I didn't go to the hospital and didn't notice the pain til yesterday. What should I do? How will this effect a settlement?

Answer 1

It depends on how to plan to approach this situation. Chances are his insurance will fight your claim and try to find mitigating circumstances where you will be at partial fault. Some insurance companies are better than others, very rarely do they settle outright upon a first or even second demand. (A demand is a type of letter you send to his insurance company requesting that they pay for things like repairing your car, any medical expenses you incur, any car rental fees, any time you have off work, etc.).

In all reality, unless you are seriously injured you probably don't need to go to the hospital. However, with that said you probably SHOULD go and see your doctor and have a through check up and make sure that you don't have anything more serious than a soft-tissue injury (i.e. whiplash, pain in your muscles from being jolted around). Your doctor can probably prescribe some mild muscle relaxers so that you won't be in so much pain. Figure you'll hurt for a week or two from the trauma of being in the accident.

As far as settlement goes there are a few things you should consider. First and foremost if this wasn't your fault, first try to handle it with the insurance company, give them a marginal amount of time to help you and if they don't hire an attorney. Don't let it go too long, and don't let them push you in lots of different directions (and they WILL try to do just that). Find an attorney who is reputable and will take the case on a contingency basis (meaning that they win or settle or you don't pay their costs or fees). Call the state bar association for the state you are in and ask for a referral. When talking to the attorney request references and inquire about other cases they have handled. You want an attorney who gets to pick and chose their case load, not one who is an "ambulance chaser." After that, keep very careful documents of EVERYTHING relating to the accident.

Things you'll want to collect as you go along include your current proof of insurance (call your insurance company, report the accident and request from them a *certificate of insurance* indicating that you had insurance at the time of the accident), all receipts relating to the repair or replacement of your vehicle, any receipts relating to your rental expenses while you await the repair/replacement of your vehicle, any receipts, records AND x-rays that relate to ANY medical treatment you undergo (including but not limited to chiropractic and massage therapy), a few months of pay-stubs prior to the accident, pay-stubs relating to and reflecting a decrease in salary due to time off work at the time of the accident, or alternatively (if you use sick time for example), a letter from your employer expressing the amount of time you took off and what your *hourly* rate is (this way it can be calculated how much your income was lost due to the accident).

Before you hire an attorney and while you are dealing with the insurance company ensure to keep going to your doctor. Let your medical insurance handle the bills. After you have hired an attorney, when dealing with doctors request if they will send your attorney a lien. This will mean that they will be paid out of any settlement/judgment in your favor and you will not have to immediately pay them for their services up front. If the case does not settle (or if the judgment is not in your favor or is for less than your medical expenses), you should know you will still have to pay them, but this simply makes it easier on your financial burden at present.

Lastly, there are two things that people seem to forget when being medically treated after an accident, the first is don't over-treat. This means, only go to the doctor as much as you need to, go for their full treatment and suggestions, but don't let your doctors pad the bill by treating you for unnecessary things or pre-existing conditions and then stating these things are a result of the accident, it makes it MUCH MUCH more difficult to reach a settlement when people do this.

Second is ensure to actually treat. This means make sure you show up for your doctors visits, don't have long gaps between your visits and make sure you are actually healed and RELEASED from your doctor before you stop (even if you "think" you feel better). If you have long unneeded gaps between treatments the theory is that you made your medical situation worse by not going to the doctors when you should have been going. This also makes it much more difficult for an insurance company to want to pay you for things they deem as unnecessary.

Anyway that's all I can suggest as far as settlement and doctors. I WOULD WOULD WOULD however go and see a doctor (not the hospital though, leave the ER's for people with major emergencies, but maybe your primary care physician or a walk-in-clinic) and make sure you're okay and all you're suffering is something minor from being jolted around a lot. After all you have to be the most important thing in your life and you have to make sure you're okay (even if you have kids, you need to make sure you're okay so you can take care of them!).

Answer 2

YES!!! Go to the doctor, even if you're only a little sore.

Ten years ago I was driving a small car and got tail-ended by a welding truck. The truck was only going about 35 mph, but the momentun was enough to push my trunk into the back seat. At the time of the accident, I assumed that I was ok because all major body parts still moved reasonably well. I was really sore, but I thought that I wasprobably fine and so I didn't see a doctor. Big mistake. For the past 9 years I have had chronic neck and back pain because of micro-tears in the connective tissues near the spine and because of the resulting arthritis in both lumbar and cervical spine. (i'm in good shape because I'm in physical therapy on a regular basis, but overall - back problems suck!)

Go to the doctor as soon as you can. When you make your doctor's appointment, have the other person's insurance information with you. Ask to speak to the office manager, and tell him/her that you have been in an accident and that the other person was at fault. The office manager will help you file the insurance claim. The insurance company of the person who was at fault is obligated to cover your necessary medical expenses. This definitely includes an initial check-up. Keep in mind that neck and back injuries such as whiplash may be asymptomatic for quite a while. However, a thorough exam - including X-rays - may be able to detect things like small tears in connective tissue, cartilage inflammation, or dislocated or damaged disks.

So sorry this happened to you. I wish you all the best.

Answer 3

If you have to ask maybe you shouldn't go; you would know if you needed to go to the hospital or not.

What should you do? Take advil or something, rest, and alternate between ice packs & a heating pad. Sounds like you were roughed up a bit, but it's not anything that won't resolve on its own. If you haven't found any relief at all, i.e. you can't move, body parts start swelling....I would go to your Primary Care doctor. It's going to feel a lot worse before it gets better.

However, if you have headaches & start throwing up, I would go immediately to an ER...you may have a concussion & that's not something to play around with.

As for your settlement....when you're ready to settle the claim the adjuster will review your bills & records and offer you a lump sum payment based upon the total value of the claim...which is not 3 times the medical bills. Attorneys do not add value of any sort to your claim, although they are convinced they do. However, I would rather negotiate a settlement with an attorney than the injured party b/c they are much more rational while not knowing the 1st thing about their clients injury & all they care about is if the settlement will satisfy their financial need than the need of their client.

Answer 4

YES! Go to the hospital or see your doctor. Some injuries take days or weeks to manifest. I was involved in an accident and didn't think I was hurt, but woke up with severe pain in my shoulder 9 days later and found out I had a broken collar bone. As to effecting the settlement, I can't say, but if you don't add it to the claim you will be stuck with any bill that come up later if you are really hurt.

Answer 5

Of course if you are in pain go to the hospital- the at fault parties insurance will cover the bills.

What bothers me about your question is the "how will this effect a settlement"- that makes me think your only in it for the money.

If your real questions is "will i get more money if i go to the hospital"- the answer is no. You will only get a settlement above your medical bills if you are permenantly injured from the accident (sometimes they will give you afew hundred bucks extra to make you go away... but that would be regardless if you went to the hospital or not)

Answer 6

If you think something is wrong then go. Tell them the pain is from a car accident and they will bill the other insurance. Usually a day or so after the accident is when you really feel sore. I was in an accident and felt like someone beat me with a baseball bat for about a week.

Answer 7

It is a good idea to go to the hospital just so they can check and make sure nothing is seriously wrong. You could have broken something.

Answer 8

you should most definitely go to the hospital. you don't know if you have serious injuries. and if you have insurance it should cover it. if not you should get connected with an insurance company and try to get it as soon as possible.

Answer 9

Would you go to the hospital if there was NO insurance involved?
...I didn't think so.

Answer 10

go so you have complaint on record