What if the police report is inaccurate after a car accident?
Police are called to the scene of countless accidents everyday in California. That’s because the state has some of the busiest roads in the country, where accidents occur almost non-stop.
Even though car accidents are extremely common in California, it does not mean that they don’t severely impact the lives of those involved.
Any type of car accident is expensive at best and life-altering at worst. Serious car accidents can be fatal or leave drivers and their passengers with catastrophic injuries. Even a minor accident can end up costing a fortune in auto repairs and car insurance premiums.
Therefore, if you are involved in a car accident, it’s important to make sure that the police are called to the scene to accurately record what went wrong so that you can be fairly compensated for your injuries or property damage.
However, the problem is that the police don’t always get it right. It is possible that they got bad information from the other driver, or that they simply made a mistake in recording what happened, but errors in police reports are very common.
For that reason, it’s also important to view the police report that has been filed after the accident to make sure that all of the facts are accurate. If you spot an error, it’s important to bring it to the officer’s attention so that it can be fixed.
The incident report filed by a police officer after an accident can be important evidence in an insurance claim or a lawsuit against another motorist, which is why you want to make sure that it accurately represents what happened.
For more useful post-accident tips, see our past post on 4 steps to take after a car accident that might surprise you.