Things to Do and Not Do After a Car Accident with a Semi-truck.

Who Should I Avoid or Not Talk to After my Truck Accident?

After a motor vehicle accident with a large truck, tractor-trailer, or delivery truck vehicle you should avoid talking to all of the following:

• Never talk to or give any statement to the insurance adjuster for the truck driver or insurance company. You may destroy your entire case with one word or sentence.
• Do not talk to any attorney representing the truck driver, the insurance company or the
  trucking company or other business that employed the driver.
• Do not talk to private investigators without the approval of your truck accident lawyer.
  Insurance companies routinely hire private investigators to nose around for evidence to create a defense for the truck driver and motor carrier. What you say cannot be taken back.
• Do not talk to friends about how the accident happen. Every person you talk to becomes a potential witness for a fact in your favor or against you and many friends may become jealous and not want you to get money for your injuries.

Be Careful Talking to Doctors, Nurses, and Health Care Providers.

Many truck injury victims wrongly believe that all the nurses and doctors want to help you. To the contrary, the majority of them do not want to be called to testify as a witness in a deposition or a trial. The medical providers can destroy your case faster than you can. Be careful about revealing any of the following:

• Try not to bring up old prior injuries. Many people think they are being helpful by talking about an accident or injury years in the past. The medical providers will create a medical record about your preexisting medical problems and even though the new accident caused new and distinct medical problems, no one will care.
• You have a right not to incriminate yourself under the 5 th amendment so try not to make admissions about your past illegal drug use. The insurance company and defense attorney will make the entire case about an irrelevant prior bad act.
• Do not discuss the way the accident happened factually with health care providers.
  Inevitably they will write the recited facts down incorrectly and your medical history will be used against you.
• Do not refuse an ambulance. You need to be evaluated by a real emergency room doctor.

Things you Should Tell your Doctor, Nurse, and Health Care Provider.
Regardless of the comments above there are good facts that you can relate to the EMS ambulance workers, the emergency room doctors and nurses and your health care providers. They are:

• Show them photos of how bad the truck accident was with your car and your injuries.
• Tell the EMS workers every single part of your body that is hurting and it does not matter how small the pain or symptom is. Most injuries develop within the first 24-48 hours following the accident. If you forget to say your shoulder is hurting because your neck is hurting the records will not establish the shoulder injury when it becomes your worst problem.
• Tell them if you blacked out or lost consciousness even if it was only for a moment in time so it is recorded in the records. If you have a concussion, head injury or traumatic brain injury it is important to note the problem from the start.
• Tell them about any tingling, burning, numbness, stabbing pain, shooting pain or other nerve and sensory problems and describe where it starts and ends. Disc injuries in the spine usually cause nerve problems running down the arms or legs into the hands or feet and the better the description of the path the better it helps your case.
• Tell them about neck and back pain no matter how small. What starts out small may end up being your worst long term medical problem.
• If you have trouble with grip strength or grasping it is important to tell the nurses and health care providers, this immediately.
• Tell them about any problems raising your arms or lifting your legs or feet. It usually indicates a nerve problem and is extremely helpful to the doctor for diagnosing the medical problems from the accident.