Emergency Assistance: Finding Help After a Car Accident in a Foreign Country

Going away on vacation can be a lot of fun. However, vacations can quickly turn nightmarish after car accidents. It’s hard to know what to do when you are involved in an accident in a foreign country, especially if you don’t speak the local language. This post hopes to simplify things for you, which it will do by telling you how you can find help after an accident in another country and tell you exactly what you need to do in order to secure compensation. The process of securing compensation for personal injuries is a little different in foreign countries.

1. Finding Legal Support

The first thing you need to do if you have been involved in an accident in a foreign country is to find a lawyer to help you. A lawyer’s insight will prove extremely helpful, especially if you are unfamiliar with your holiday destination’s laws surrounding personal injuries. Find an injury lawyer that specializes in the area of personal injury law you need help with, such as a truck accident attorney or a workplace injury lawyer. When you are looking for legal support, you need to make sure that you conduct extensive online research and find one with good reviews and a solid reputation. A law firm’s reviews can help you better understand why you should hire them. Bear in mind that if a firm has no reviews, this is not necessarily a bad sign. An absence of reviews actually suggests that a company has never done anything to attract the scorn of its clients.

2. Contacting the Police

In some countries, you are legally required to report a car accident after one has taken place. If you have been involved in a car accident (or any kind of accident) in a foreign country, get in touch with the police right away. Reporting the accident to the police gives them an opportunity to investigate the person responsible and check if they are intoxicated. A large number of car accidents are caused by drunk drivers. Even if you are not compelled by law to call the police after an accident, it is still good practice to do so. Supply the police with your personal information so that if there are any developments in your case after you return home, they can get in touch with you.

3. Protecting Yourself

Immediately after an accident, your first thought should be to protect yourself. Before you think about getting in touch with a lawyer or contacting the police, make sure you are safe. If the injuries received are serious, get in touch with the ambulance service. Make sure that you memorize the emergency services hotline so that you are able to call it when you need to. In the United States, it is 911, and in the United Kingdom, for example, it is 999. It is worth learning the local language so that you can communicate with emergency responders over the phone. If you do not speak the language of the country that you are going to, download and use a translation app. Alternatively, you can travel with somebody that speaks the languages of the countries you are visiting.

4. Obtaining Evidence

In order to make a claim for compensation, evidence is required. The best thing to do after an accident to ensure that fault is determined correctly is to take your phone out and start videoing. It’s very common for people’s phones to be extensions of their arms nowadays, so it’s not going to raise any eyebrows if you do take your phone out. Make sure that 1st to make sure that you seek medical attention if you need it. You should only take your phone out and start recording if you and the other people involved either don’t need help or have help coming. The best type of evidence you can get is an admission of fault from the responsible party. Try to record them apologizing or admitting that they were the cause of the accident. Getting an admission of guilt on camera can make determining liability a simple, straightforward process.

5. Local Language

If you’re going to a foreign country, it is always a good idea to learn a little bit of the local language first. Learning some of the language spoken in the country that you are traveling to can be a great way to prevent anything from going wrong. Learning a new language can be very difficult and if you are only planning on traveling to a specific country once, you obviously do not need to take the time to become fluent in it. However, learning the language spoken in the country that you are traveling to will help you to talk yourself out of negative situations and negotiate a personal injury claim. There are apps you can use that make the process of learning a language much simpler than it used to be. You can also take a class or read books. Whichever method of learning you choose, make sure that it works for you.

6. Returning Home

When in an accident, the first thing you’re going to want to do is to return home. It is generally considered a good idea to get in touch with a lawyer before you leave. This is so that you can talk to them, and they can formally launch your claim. You do not typically need to be present in a country for a claim to go ahead. Your lawyer should be able to manage everything for you without you being there. Any questions or queries they have can be addressed to you via e-mail or over the phone. Video messaging applications are also great resources for communicating with one’s lawyer. Make sure that when you do return home, you keep in contact with your attorney. Send all receipts for healthcare expenses to them so they can ensure you are compensated for them.

Accidents can be very scary. When they do happen, it’s important to deal with them quickly and effectively. This post’s guidance will hopefully help you with that. Also worth noting is that you need to focus on your recovery so that you can move on with your life. Hopefully, a compensation payout will make moving on much more manageable.