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What to Do After a Car Accident in Salt Lake City

By the Apis Felix Law Trial Team — Licensed in Nevada & UtahAttorney-reviewed — July 4, 2026

At the scene: the first 10 minutes

Your safety comes first. If your car is drivable and you can move it out of traffic without making things worse, do so. Turn on hazard lights. Check yourself and your passengers for injuries before you check anything else. If you're on a busy Salt Lake City street or an I-15 on-ramp, staying inside a disabled vehicle can be safer than standing in a traffic lane — use judgment based on where you actually are.

Call 911 if anyone is hurt, if the vehicles are not drivable, or if you are not sure how serious the damage is. Utah requires drivers to report a crash that involves injury, death, or significant property damage, and an officer's report becomes an independent record of what happened — the vehicles involved, the drivers, witnesses, and the officer's observations at the scene. Even when a crash looks minor, that report can matter later if pain or injury shows up in the days that follow. If officers do respond, get the report number or the responding officer's name before they leave, and ask how to obtain a copy of the report once it's finalized.

While you wait for police or after they leave, exchange information with the other driver: name, phone number, insurance company and policy number, driver's license number, and license plate. Get contact information from anyone who saw the crash happen — not just their name, but a phone number or email where they can actually be reached weeks later. Witnesses tend to be reachable in the first hour and much harder to find a month later, once memories fade and people move on with their day.

Try to stay calm and avoid discussing fault at the scene. It's natural to want to apologize or explain what happened, but statements made in the adrenaline-charged minutes after a crash are not always accurate, and they can be repeated later out of context. Stick to exchanging information and letting the facts speak for themselves once everyone has had time to think clearly.

Why see a doctor this week (gap-in-treatment problem)

See a doctor within the same week, even if you feel okay. Adrenaline is a powerful painkiller in the minutes and hours after a crash, and it wears off. Whiplash, concussion, and soft-tissue injuries commonly do not announce themselves until the next morning or several days later — a stiff neck on day one can become a persistent headache and difficulty concentrating by day four.

There's also a practical reason tied directly to your claim: insurance companies routinely look for gaps between the crash date and your first medical visit. A ten-day or three-week gap invites the argument that your injury was minor, or that something else caused it — a weekend hike, a preexisting condition, an unrelated event. Getting evaluated promptly — urgent care, your primary doctor, or the ER if warranted — creates a medical record that ties your symptoms to the collision while the connection is easy to see and hard to dispute.

Be specific and complete when you describe your symptoms to a provider. Mention every area that hurts, even minor aches, and don't downplay pain because you don't want to seem dramatic. Medical records built from vague or incomplete descriptions in the first visit can create problems later if a symptom that seemed minor turns out to be significant.

Follow through on what the doctor recommends. If you're referred to physical therapy, imaging, or a specialist, going consistently matters more than any single visit. Insurers and, if it comes to it, juries pay attention to whether treatment was continuous or sporadic, and unexplained gaps in a treatment plan can be used to suggest the injury wasn't serious enough to warrant ongoing care.

What to photograph and save

Photograph everything before conditions change. Vehicle damage from multiple angles, close up and from a distance. License plates. The road surface, skid marks, debris, and the general scene showing where each vehicle ended up. Traffic signs, signals, or anything relevant to how the crash happened. Weather and lighting, since "it was raining" or "it was dark" is easy to forget precisely a year later. Visible injuries, bruising, or cuts, and how they change over the following days — bruising in particular often looks worse two or three days after a crash than it does immediately afterward, so photograph it repeatedly, not just once.

Save documents as they come in: the police report or case number, photos of your vehicle before repairs, repair estimates, medical bills and records, receipts for anything you paid out of pocket (medication, a rental car, mileage to appointments), and pay stubs or a note from your employer if the injury caused you to miss work. A simple folder — physical or digital — started the first week saves real time and stress later, when you're trying to reconstruct what happened from memory months after the fact.

If your vehicle is repaired or replaced before the claim is resolved, make sure photos of the damage exist before that happens. Repair shops and insurers move quickly, and once a car is fixed or totaled, the physical evidence of impact severity is gone.

Reporting: your insurer vs. theirs

Report the crash to your own insurance company. Most policies require prompt notice, and cooperating with your own insurer is generally a condition of your coverage. Give them the basic facts: date, location, other driver's information, and whether police responded. This is different from giving a detailed recorded statement, and you can typically report a claim without going into extensive narrative detail about fault or injuries at that stage.

The other driver's insurance company is a different relationship entirely. They may call within a day or two, sound friendly, and ask "just a few quick questions." You have no obligation to give them a recorded statement, and you are not required to speak with them at all before you've had a chance to think things through or talk to a lawyer. It's reasonable to say you'll follow up once you've had a chance to see a doctor and understand your injuries — a short, polite deferral is not the same as refusing to cooperate, and it protects you while your medical picture is still developing.

What NOT to do (recorded statements, quick releases, social posts)

Don't give the other driver's insurer a recorded statement before you've spoken with a lawyer. These calls are often designed to get you talking casually — "how are you feeling today?" — in a way that can be used later to suggest you weren't really hurt, even if you were just being polite. A recorded "I'm doing okay" on day two can be replayed months later next to a doctor's diagnosis, as if the two statements contradict each other.

Don't sign a release or accept a quick settlement check in the first days or weeks. Once you sign a release, the claim is typically over for good — even if a diagnosis, a needed surgery, or ongoing symptoms show up afterward. Early offers are often made before anyone, including you, knows the full extent of the injury, and there is rarely a good reason to rush that decision.

Don't post about the crash, your injuries, or your recovery on social media. Insurance companies and defense attorneys do look, and an innocent post — a photo from a hike, a joke about feeling "fine" — can be taken out of context and used to argue you're exaggerating. It's simplest to avoid posting about the accident, your recovery, or your activities at all until the claim is resolved.

When to call a lawyer (and what it costs: nothing up front)

There's no wrong time to ask a lawyer questions, and a consultation costs nothing up front. It's often most useful before you give any statement to the other side's insurer, before you sign anything, and before you agree to any settlement number. Personal injury cases are typically handled on a contingency fee — payment comes from a percentage of a successful recovery, not out of your pocket as the case goes.

Utah is a no-fault state with PIP minimums — your own policy pays the first medical dollars, regardless of who caused the crash (Utah Code §31A-22-307: PIP medical benefits of at least $3,000 per person). How PIP interacts with a liability claim against the other driver is one of the first things worth understanding early, and it's a good example of why getting advice sooner rather than later tends to help rather than complicate things. PIP benefits are typically limited in amount, and once they're exhausted, understanding what comes next — and from whom — is easier to sort out before bills are piling up than after.

If you were hurt in a Salt Lake City car accident, our firm offers a free, confidential case review, and we're answered 24/7. Deadlines apply to injury claims — see our Utah car accident statute of limitations article for the general timeline and the exceptions that can shorten it. If an adjuster has already asked you for a recorded statement, our article on giving a recorded statement covers what to say and how to decline politely until you've had a chance to get advice.

This article is general information, not legal advice; reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different, and deadlines and rules change — confirm how the law applies to your situation with a licensed lawyer. Apis Felix Law, a trade name of Deseret Lawyers PLLC. Attorney advertising. Kevin Peterson is the attorney responsible for this content and is licensed in Nevada (Bar No. 14598) and Utah (Bar No. 18723).