Auto Accident Instructions

INSTRUCTIONS TO FOLLOW IN CASE OF AN AUTO ACCIDENT:

These following instructions are given as a courtesy from Dr. George Forster at the Florida Chiropractic and Acupuncture Clinic to do at the time of an auto accident, feel free to print this off and download it:

Stop immediately close to location of the accident as possible, state law requires it.

ASSIST THE INJURED: In the event of an auto accident check immediately for injured persons and if necessary call a doctor, ambulance, or 911, whichever is quicker. Do not move an injured person.

PROTECT THE SCENE: Warn approaching vehicles with emergency flashers, flares, reflectors or even a flashlight.

CALL THE POLICE: Notify the police county or state law officials at once. This is the law. Official report may be helpful later on.

DO NOT MAKE COMMENTS:

ASSIST THE OFFICER: Remain at the scene until the officer arrives. Cooperate by advising officers with the basic facts. No one can force you to give an opinion and any statement that you make may be used as an admission. You have the right to consult a lawyer as soon as possible.

IDENTIFY THE OTHER DRIVER: Obtain the driver's license, name, address, vehicle registration number, and driver's license and be sure to get insurance information when possible.

WITNESSES: Obtain name and addresses of any and all witnesses, ask the witnesses to sign a statement concerning the accident.

TAKE NOTES AND FILL OUT ACCIDENT INFORMATION FORM AND DIAGRAM: Make your own written notes. Draw out the intersection of all significant circumstances. It is good to have a camera in your car to take photographs, step off the exact distances, skid marks and other important distances. Be certain too that you can later point out where the vehicles collided and where they stopped, and if possible take pictures to preserve skid marks, position of the cars and other evidence that will disappear when the site is disassembled and fill out the accident information form by drawing a rough drawing of the accident.

IN CASE OF ARREST: Arrest of the other party or yourself does not necessarily indicate liability. It cannot ordinarily be used in any damage lawsuits.

WHEN TO LEAVE THE SCENE: Unless an officer tells you otherwise do not leave the scene of the accident until you have completed all the procedures.

SEE A CHIROPRACTOR: Serious and costly injuries do not always result in immediate pain or bloodshed, besides the more dramatic wounds which require surgery, hospitalization or immediate attendance by an emergency room physician or ambulance technician. Other serious and costly injuries may result from the auto accident. A thorough orthopedic neurologic range of motion evaluation and history must be taken by a doctor of chiropractic and that is a wise precaution to determine the absence of or hidden injuries.

FLORIDA STATE LAW: Past personal injury protection as mandatory coverage and liability coverage as well as bodily injury coverage by some people in other cars who carry. In addition, you are required to carry $10,000 liability as a minimum coverage in the State of Florida.

Doctors of chiropractic are pretty well qualified to detect and treat a variety of injuries of the spine, nerves, and other related structures and here at the Florida Chiropractic and Acupuncture Clinic we file your insurance.

AUTOMOBILE LIABILITY PAYS: Medical pays for services normally applied to the patient for chiropractic examination and treatment as well as radiographic evaluations and any other specialized testing. Of course a review of your policy should be made to determine if this carrier offers you this coverage. If you need assistance to determine this, we will be glad to do that in the office.

If your insurance policy does not cover chiropractic, we suggest you find one that does in the future, but most auto policies do. Advise your present company the reason for doing so.

INFORM THE INSURANCE COMPANY: Make a complete report to your insurance company the same day or as soon as possible.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF WHIPLASH: The signs and symptoms of whiplash are many different symptoms. They can precipitate in the form of sensory and motor disruption with numbness, tingling and burning. You can even get radiculopathic patterns then project down in the arms and legs with pain into the arms and legs. You can get shoulder restraint injuries with injuries to the left brachial plexus. If you are a driver, you can injure your lower back, and you can injure ligaments, muscles, tendons and you can also injure internal organs as well. It should be noted that medical treatment at best is looking for broken bones or lacerations, lesions or internal injuries such as subdural hematomas or blood clots. But they are not satisfactorily utilized for the treatment of whiplash care. A whiplash is defined as a flexion/extension, rapid acceleration/deceleration injury most frequently occurring in a front-end or rear-end collision. The violent forward and backward flexion of the neck followed by reflex contracture of the muscles both in forward and back portion of the spine allow for injuries of the discs, ligaments, muscles and tendons. If not treated immediately, scar tissue forms at a rapid rate which is innervated with increased innervation of pain receptors, vessel elasticity and shortly thereafter spurs can begin to form.

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO GET TREATED FOR AUTO ACCIDENT INJURIES?

Within the first 72 hours is the best time to get treated for auto accident injuries. That is the golden period to which the spine is still going from an inflammatory mediated stage and we can treat the area, reduce the inflammation, calm the pain down, reduce inflammatory mediators with herbal preparations, physical therapy and gentle adjusting techniques. With a proper physical orthopedic neurologic range of motion evaluation and radiographic evaluation, we can get to the root cause of your problem and determine if there has been any ligament damage and appropriately treat you in a modern, friendly atmosphere that will help you rehabilitate to your full potential.

George A. Forster, DC, AP, NMD
Doctor of Chiropractic
Acupuncture Physician
Naturopathic Medical Doctor
Past President of the American Chiropractic Thermographic Society
Past Chairman of the ICA College of Thermography
Continuing Education Lecturer for Life Chiropractic College