After a car crash, build the record before drawing conclusions

Make a clean timeline

Begin with what you know firsthand: the date, time, location, direction of travel, people and vehicles involved, and what happened immediately afterward. Keep the crash-report number, photographs, repair documents, messages and medical records in their original form. Add notes that explain where each item came from rather than editing the item itself.

This is evidence organization, not a promise that a claim exists. Responsibility and filing deadlines come from the law that applies to the particular crash.

What a police crash report can show

Police crash reports are important enough that NHTSA uses a nationwide sample of them to study crash patterns. Its Crash Report Sampling System draws from police-reported crashes involving property damage, injury and death, then codes selected information into a common national dataset.

That federal program also shows the limit: a report is a source of recorded information. NHTSA uses sampled reports to estimate the national crash picture; it does not use the dataset to decide legal fault in an individual collision.

What an event data recorder may add

Some vehicles have an event data recorder, often called an EDR. Federal rules standardize how covered EDR-equipped vehicles collect, store and allow retrieval of certain crash-event data so investigators and researchers can use it.

The rule applies only when its vehicle and equipment conditions are met. An EDR record may help explain part of a crash, but the federal rule does not declare the data a complete account or a legal finding of fault.

Read records together

A useful review compares the timeline with the report, scene photographs, vehicle damage, repair history and any available vehicle data. When two records conflict, note the difference instead of quietly choosing one. A lawyer or technical specialist can then assess the records under the right state's law and the facts of the crash.