What To Do After Being Hit By A Drunk Driver

Getting into an automobile accident is never a pleasant experience. The whole thing throws you off-kilter, at best. At worst, you may have bleeding, broken or bruised bones, head injuries, and who knows what else kind of damage. If you’re out in the middle of nowhere, as a lot of New Mexico is, it can be difficult to tell what you should do. Do you call your insurance company? Your New Mexico auto injury attorney? What do you do?

Then you find out the, despite the fact that you were cold sober, the person who hit you is three sheets to the wind. Great. You’ve not only been hit by another driver, you’ve been hit by a drunk driver at that. Do you need to call a DUI lawyer? Now what are you supposed to do? You can’t even reason with this person!

Here are the steps you need to take to make sure you are protected by law in the state of New Mexico. These may not be the only steps you end up taking, but these are the initial ones you should do if you are able to. 

  • Report The Accident Immediately

If your cell phone is working, call the police. If yours is not, ask the other party if they have a working phone. The bottom line is to find a working phone and get a hold of the police department so that they can conduct an investigation. It’s especially important that police are on the scene as they can verify the other person’s intoxication.

This person may try to flee the scene; it isn’t a good idea to go after them or try to stop them. You don’t know where they are going, what kind of weapons they may have, if any, and the like. It’s simply far too risky. Instead, get all of the information you can and write it down or get pictures with your cell phone camera. If you take pictures you may still want to write things down in case your phone has been damaged. Get their license plate number and state and the expiration on their tags, if possible. Get a full description of the car as well as the person who hit you. This is the best thing you can do. Don’t go after that person if they try to flee. Wait for the police to arrive.

  1. Seek Medical Care

Seek medical care as quickly as possible if you have been in a car accident. If care is available at the scene (ambulance, EMTs, etc.) let them treat you. There are so many things that can go wrong and cause bodily injury during a  car accident, and the longer you wait to get care, the easier it may be for your insurance company to say that your injuries weren’t related to your accident.

  • Recover Evidence

Recover all evidence that you can to prove that the other driver was at fault. This can mean the toxicology reports from a blood-alcohol test, witness statements, data recorder information and more. 

A lot of this information is difficult to get from the police or from the party involved. This is when it becomes very helpful to hire an attorney.

An auto accident attorney, especially when it involves a DUI, can use their professional status to get reports, tox screens, and lots of other seemingly untouchable things that have high value for your case. There are many valid reasons that these materials cannot be released to just anyone, and lawyers can order them under the auspices of being your attorney.

  • Understand Your Rights and Options

You’ve been the victim of an automobile accident. At the very least, there is likely considerable damage to your car and some damage to you. There may be extreme damage to your vehicle and to yourself. You have certain rights and options when it comes to how you are going to proceed from here. Chances are, you are looking at considerable medical bills and further treatment, having to write off the loss of the car and purchase a new one: these are substantial issues. 

  • Your best bet Is To Hire a New Mexico Auto Injury Attorney. 

A New Mexico auto injury attorney is adept at handling many types of investigation from DUIs to negligence and may even have some experience on the other side of the bench (this actually works in your favor). Your attorney will work to get you the compensation you deserve from the accident you were in. Recovery from such an event is extremely expensive, and it wasn’t your fault in the first place — you shouldn’t be the one paying for it!

Kenneth G. Egan has decades of experience working for victims of these kinds of cases and more. You can see some of these cases on his website to find out how his clients have fared in the past. With representation by a New Mexico auto accident attorney like the Law Office of Kenneth G. Egan, you can rest assured that the law is on your side.