You Should Always Take Pictures After a Car Accident
Nearly all Tampa Bay car accident attorneys agree that you must take extensive accident scene pictures after a car crash. While the responding police officers are also supposed to take pictures, you need to get your own copies. This is true for three primary reasons: 1) The officers may not take the right pictures 2) The officers may not take enough pictures and may miss a critical element of the accident, and 3) Sadly, sometimes police departments lose accident scene photographs. Here, we provide a few of our best tips to help you ensure that you take the right pictures that will help you during your car accident injury insurance claim.
Four Tips for Taking Useful Car Accident Pictures
- You Can Never Have Too Many Photos
How many photos should you take after your car accident? The answer is simple: A lot. With the amount of digital space available on modern cameras, there is no reason to be stingy here. You can always delete useless pictures later. Ultimately, you will never be able to know ahead of time which particular picture will prove to be important for your personal injury claim. You will always be better off with more information.
- Take Shots from Multiple Angles
As a general rule, you should aim to get pictures of the accident from at least four different angles and distances. The best way to ensure that you get a view of the full accident scene is to start with some close-up shorts, and then move away to take wider shot. One important tip for long distance shots: Always try to get a landmark into the shot that can be used to assess the scale.
- Capture the Small Details
When it comes to complex car accident claims, the small details matter. Some examples of specific details that you should try to capture in your accident scene photographs include:
- All of your vehicle damage;
- All of the damage on any other vehicle;
- Any skid marks;
- Any parts of the vehicles that have been knocked off;
- The weather;
- General road conditions; and
- Any other factor that may have contributed to the wreck.
Take Pictures of Your Injuries Too
Finally, if you sustained an injury, you should get some pictures of that injury. Of course, the extent of injury cannot be diagnosed solely from a picture, but documented photographic evidence of any bruises, lacerations or any other visible marks can often provide compelling supporting evidence.
Request Your Free Consultation Today
At The Pawlowski//Mastrilli Law Group, our aggressive personal injury attorneys have helped many victims recover full and fair compensation for their car accident damages. Not only will we review your claim free of charge, but we will take your case on a contingency fee basis. This means that there are no upfront costs for you and we will not collect a fee unless we help you recover compensation. From our office in Tampa, we represent victims throughout the region, including in Valrico, Sydney, Apollo Beach, Dover, Brandon and Thonotosassa.
