What to Do After a Car Accident in Washington: A Step-by-Step Guide

The record of a car accident starts in the first hour, often before anyone mentions a claim. Washington law requires a driver to stop, to give specific information, and to render aid. A separate statute states when a written accident report is due, and another limits the time to file an injury lawsuit. This guide follows that order: safety, the scene, the report, medical care, your own insurer, the other driver's adjuster, the evidence to keep, and the deadline.

It is general information about Washington statutes, not advice about one crash. Our personal injury page describes how the firm approaches these matters.

Get to a safe place and call 911

Move people out of traffic if you can do that without making an injury worse, and turn on the hazard lights. Do not stand in a live lane to trade paperwork.

If anyone may be hurt, call 911. The statutes below never use the words "call 911." They do require a driver in an injury crash to stop and to render reasonable assistance, including arrangements for a physician or a hospital when treatment is apparently necessary or is requested. A 911 call is the ordinary way to do that and to get an officer to the scene. Do not decide someone is fine because they stepped out of the car.

If only property is damaged and the vehicles block the road, the next section requires them to be moved. Move them only when it is safe.

The duty to stop, exchange information, and render aid

RCW 46.52.020 splits the scene duties by the kind of harm.

If the crash injures or kills any person, or strikes the body of a deceased person, the driver must immediately stop at the scene or as close as possible, return, and remain until the duties below are done. The stop must not obstruct traffic more than necessary.

If the only harm is damage to an attended vehicle or to other property, the driver must move the vehicle as soon as possible off the roadway or freeway main lanes, shoulders, medians, and adjacent areas, to an exit-ramp shoulder, the frontage road, the nearest suitable cross street, or another suitable location, and remain there until the information is given. Moving the vehicle does not affect fault.

The information itself is listed. Unless no one can receive it, the driver gives his or her name, address, insurance company, policy number, and vehicle license number, and exhibits his or her driver's license, to any person struck or injured or to the driver, an occupant, or a person attending a vehicle that was hit. The driver must also render reasonable assistance to any injured person, including carrying or arranging to carry that person to a physician or hospital if treatment is apparently necessary or is requested by the injured person or on that person's behalf. Rendering assistance, or otherwise complying, is not evidence of liability.

If none of those people can receive the information and no officer is present, the driver, after doing what else he or she can do under the statute, must forthwith report the accident to the nearest authorized police authority and give that authority the same information.

Failing to stop or to comply is a class B felony when someone dies, a class C felony when someone is injured, and a gross misdemeanor when the crash strikes the body of a deceased person or causes only property damage. A driver who is physically incapable because of the accident is excused to that extent. A conviction for failing to stop, give information, or render aid after a crash with an attended vehicle also requires the Department of Licensing to revoke the license, permit, or nonresident privilege to drive.

The statute does not require a debate about fault, an apology, or a signature at the roadside.

When a crash must be reported

Calling 911, an officer's report, and the driver's written report are separate.

Under RCW 46.52.070, an officer of the state or of a county, city, town, or other political subdivision who is at the scene, or who has facts about the accident, must report it as fully as those facts allow. RCW 46.52.030 requires an officer who investigates an accident for which a report is required to submit that investigator's report. The officer also reports a fatality to the department and, when the officer reasonably believes an operator caused it, identifies that operator. RCW 46.04.162 defines "department" as the Department of Licensing unless a different department is specified. When a collision causes substantial bodily harm, as defined in RCW 9A.04.110, the officer reports that harm and, if the officer reasonably believes the operator who caused it may not be competent to drive, identifies that operator and the reasons. Note the agency and how to request a copy.

The driver's written report is due in four days, unless an officer is going to report. It is required if anyone was injured or killed, or if damage to the property of any one person reaches the threshold below. Injury or death needs no dollar amount. Property damage is judged by the apparent harm to any one person's property, not by a later repair invoice and not by adding every vehicle together. File with the city or town police chief if the crash was inside an incorporated city or town, and with the county sheriff or the state patrol if it was outside. That office sends the original to the chief of the Washington State Patrol in Olympia.

RCW 46.52.030 tells the chief to set the property-damage threshold by rule. The statute sets five hundred dollars as the threshold beginning October 1, 1987, and tells the chief to revise it when necessary, no more often than every two years, using an inflationary index from the Office of Financial Management. The rule in effect, WAC 446-85-010, states that beginning January 1, 2015, the threshold is one thousand dollars. Use one thousand dollars. The five hundred dollars in the statute is the 1987 starting figure, not the current rule.

A driver may still report if the damage is under that amount or if an officer already filed. The four-day duty is excused only when an officer's report is to be made. If you are unsure, file within four days. The chief may require a supplemental report or a witness report. The form covers the location, the people and vehicles, insurance information required under RCW 46.30.030, injuries, claimed damage, and distraction, and you may keep a copy.

Document the scene while you are there

The statutes do not list photographs, but photographs are what later show lane position, damage, and signals. If it is safe, photograph each vehicle and plate, the damage, debris, signals, and both drivers' licenses and insurance cards. Note names and numbers of people who saw the crash, not only the other driver. If a damage-only crash requires you to move the cars, photograph what you safely can first.

Get a medical evaluation promptly

Get evaluated promptly, including if you would rather wait a day. That is the only medical direction in this article. It is not a diagnosis, a treatment plan, or an opinion that a symptom did or did not come from the crash.

A visit gets you care and dates when symptoms were reported. Insurers compare that date with the crash. RCW 4.22.015 treats an unreasonable failure to avoid an injury or to mitigate damages as fault, and causation is still required. How your own fault reduces damages without barring them is covered in our article on Washington's pure comparative fault rule.

Keep the papers, the bills, and a note of missed work. Insurers often collect posts about the crash or about physical activity. It is prudent not to post those while a claim is open.

Notify your own insurer

Tell your own insurer. Policies commonly require prompt notice and cooperation on a claim under that policy. Any stated number of days is in the policy, not in a single state statute, so read the notice clause. Report the date, place, the other driver, and whether anyone was hurt. Describe what you saw. You do not have to concede fault.

PIP and UIM on your policy are not the other driver's liability coverage. RCW 48.22.085 says an automobile liability policy may not be issued or renewed unless personal injury protection is offered. A named insured may reject it in writing, and that written rejection stays in place on renewal unless a named insured later requests PIP in writing. RCW 48.22.030 requires underinsured motorist coverage in the same amount as liability coverage, except as to property damage, unless a named insured or spouse rejects all or part in writing. UIM is for damages you are legally entitled to recover from an underinsured, hit-and-run, or phantom motorist. Amounts and deadlines are in our PIP and UIM article and are not restated here.

The other driver's adjuster and recorded statements

The other insurer is protecting its policyholder. An adjuster may ask to record the call. Before a lawsuit is filed, no Washington statute requires you to give that recorded statement. The statement can later be compared with the report, the records, and testimony.

If you talk, stick to where you were, what you saw, and that you are getting care. Do not guess at speed, a light you did not see, old injuries, or a dollar amount. You may answer in writing, or after speaking with a lawyer. Do not sign a release, a settlement check, or a broad medical authorization you do not understand. A release is a contract. This article does not value any claim.

Your own policy may require you to cooperate with your own insurer on your own claim. That is a contract term with your company. It is not a statute that forces a recorded interview on the other insurer's terms. A text saying the crash was entirely your fault can end up in the claim file. Under RCW 4.22.005, contributory fault reduces the damages attributable to it and does not bar recovery. How the shares are assigned is explained in the comparative fault article.

Preserve evidence that will not last

Leave a damaged car unrepaired until it is photographed and, if the damage is disputed, until your insurer can inspect it. Do not salvage it during an open claim without telling your insurer. Save dashcam and phone photos, and ask quickly for nearby camera video, because many systems overwrite in days. Keep damaged clothing and property, plus bills and a short list of appointments. Do not delete messages about the crash. A deletion is harder to explain than the message.

The deadline to file an injury lawsuit

An insurance negotiation is not a lawsuit, and it can outlast the time to sue. RCW 4.16.080(2) requires an action for injury to a person, or for injuring personal property, to be commenced within three years. The text gives the length. It does not say "from the date of the accident." When the injury is known at the crash, the three years are ordinarily counted from that day. When the claim accrued can still depend on the facts.

Under RCW 4.16.190, time does not count while the person entitled to sue is under eighteen, or is incompetent or disabled to the degree that he or she cannot understand the proceedings, as determined under chapter 11.130 RCW, or is imprisoned on a criminal charge before sentencing, if that condition existed when the claim accrued.

A government defendant adds a waiting period. Under RCW 4.96.020, a damages claim against a local governmental entity, or its officers, employees, or volunteers acting in that capacity, must be presented to the entity's agent within the limitation period. Claims presented after July 26, 2009, use the standard tort claim form of the office of risk management in the department of enterprise services, unless that section allows a local form. No suit may be filed until sixty calendar days after presentment. Those days toll the limitation period, and a suit started within five court days afterward counts as started on the first day after the sixty days.

RCW 4.92.110 applies the same sixty-day wait, tolling, and five-court-day rule to the state and to a state officer, employee, or volunteer acting in that capacity, when the suit is subject to the filing requirements of RCW 4.92.100. The claim is presented to that same office. Ask early if a city, county, or state vehicle was involved. A death can bring other statutes this injury guide does not map.

When to talk with an attorney

You can call 911, exchange the information in RCW 46.52.020, and get a medical evaluation without a lawyer. Talk with one before a release, a recorded statement, or a deadline you are unsure of, and when a driver left, a government vehicle was involved, fault is disputed, or a minor was hurt. To discuss a Washington crash, use our personal injury page or contact the firm. Nelson Allen Walk & Scott, PLLC is at 1103 Shaw Road, Puyallup, WA 98372, and the phone is (253) 845-8895.

Written by Nathan D. Sukhia, Of Counsel.