The First 72 Hours After an Injury

The first three days after a serious injury are chaotic. You are in pain, you may be in a hospital, and your phone is ringing. The decisions you make in this window, often while you are least able to think clearly, shape everything that comes after.

This chapter of The Ohio Personal Injury Guide walks through the first 72 hours step by step. Not everything will apply to every injury, and nothing here matters more than getting medical help. But if you can check off most of this list, you will have protected both your health and your claim.

Step 1: Get safe and call 911

If you are in a crash, move out of traffic if you can do so safely, turn on your hazard lights, and call 911. Ask for police and, if anyone is hurt, for medics. Do this even if the other driver asks you to "just handle it between us." A driver who wants to avoid the police often has a reason, such as no insurance, a suspended license, or something in the car.

If you fell at a business, report it to the manager on duty before you leave, and ask that an incident report be made. If you were bitten by a dog, call the police or the county animal control office so there is a record of the attack and the animal.

Having spent 19 years as a Dayton police officer, I can tell you that the official report created in the first hour is often the single most relied-upon document in the whole case. Make sure one exists.

Step 2: Get the report number and know how to get the report

Before the officer leaves, ask for the report or incident number and the officer's name and agency. Write it on your phone.

In Ohio, a traffic crash report is called an OH-1. The Ohio Department of Public Safety runs a free online retrieval system at ohtrafficdata.dps.ohio.gov where you can search by crash number, or by date, county, and agency. Two things to know: the state's copy can take weeks to appear, and the state's copy is marked as unofficial. For a certified copy, or if you need the report sooner, request it from the department that investigated. If the Ohio State Highway Patrol handled the crash, its public records page at statepatrol.ohio.gov lets you order crash reports and photos online; the Patrol suggests waiting about a week for the report to be completed.

Read the report when you get it. Check the narrative, the diagram, the listed contributing factors, and the names and insurance information for every driver. Errors happen, and they are much easier to correct early.

Step 3: Exchange information, and nothing more

Get from the other driver: full name, address, phone, driver's license number, license plate, and the insurance company and policy number. Photograph the license, the plate, and the insurance card if they will let you.

Give the same information about yourself. Do not discuss fault. Do not say "I'm sorry" or "I didn't see you." Those words, said out of politeness in a stressful moment, will be repeated to an adjuster as an admission. Be courteous and be brief.

Step 4: Photograph everything

Your phone is the best investigative tool you own. Before anything is moved, photograph:

• All vehicles from every side, close up and from a distance, with the damage in context
• The position of the vehicles on the road, skid marks, debris, and fluid on the pavement
• Traffic signs, signals, lane markings, and anything blocking the view
• Weather and lighting conditions
• In a fall case, the hazard itself (the liquid, the ice, the broken step, the missing handrail), with something for scale, and any warning signs or the absence of them
• Your visible injuries, that day and over the following weeks as bruising develops

Take video too. A slow walk-around of the scene with you narrating what happened captures details a still photo misses. If you cannot do this yourself because you are hurt, ask a passenger, a family member, or a bystander.

More on this in Gathering Evidence While It Still Exists.

Step 5: Identify witnesses

Independent witnesses are gold. People who stopped to help will usually leave once the police arrive, and they are rarely listed on the report. Ask each one for a name and phone number, and if they are willing, have them say in a short phone video what they saw. Note where they were standing or which vehicle they were in.

Also look around for cameras: businesses, gas stations, traffic cameras, doorbells on nearby homes, and dashcams in other cars. You do not need to collect the footage yourself, but note where it might exist. Most of it is overwritten within days.

Step 6: Get medical care the same day, even if you feel fine

Adrenaline hides injuries. Concussions, whiplash, disc injuries, and internal bleeding often do not announce themselves for hours or days. Go to the emergency room, an urgent care, or your own doctor the day of the injury. Tell the provider exactly how you were hurt and every symptom you have, even small ones. Headache, dizziness, numbness, stiffness, trouble sleeping: say it all, so it is in the record.

From a claim standpoint, same-day care matters because insurance adjusters treat any delay as evidence that you were not really hurt. A person who waits two weeks to see a doctor will be told the injury "must have happened somewhere else." Do not hand them that argument.

Focus on Treatment First explains why consistent follow-up care is just as important.

Step 7: Report the crash to your own insurer

Your auto policy requires you to report a crash promptly and to cooperate with your own company. Do that. Give the basic facts: when, where, who, and that you were injured. You will need your own insurer for your property damage, your medical payments coverage, and, if the other driver is uninsured or underinsured, for your uninsured and underinsured motorist claim.

Keep it factual. You do not need to speculate about fault or describe your injuries in detail before you have been fully evaluated.

Step 8: Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer

Within a day or two, an adjuster for the at-fault driver's insurance company will probably call. They will be friendly. They will say they just need "your side of the story" on a recording so they can "get your claim moving."

Decline. You have no duty to give the other driver's insurance company a statement, recorded or otherwise. The adjuster's job is to find reasons to pay you less, and a recorded statement taken while you are medicated, exhausted, and not yet diagnosed is a tool for doing that. Tell them you are getting medical treatment and will be in touch, or that your attorney will contact them. Then end the call.

Dealing With Insurance Adjusters covers what else to expect.

Step 9: Write down what happened while it is fresh

That night or the next morning, write out everything you remember: the time, the weather, where you were going, what you saw and heard, what the other person said, what the officer said, who was there. Memory fades quickly and gets contaminated by what other people tell you. A note written within 24 hours is far more reliable than a memory a year later at a deposition.

Keep this note private. Do not post it, email it to friends, or share it with any insurer. It is for you and your lawyer.

Step 10: Stay off social media

Do not post about the crash, your injuries, or your recovery. Do not post photos of yourself doing anything. Insurance companies routinely review public profiles, and a picture of you smiling at a cookout will be offered as proof that you are not in pain. Set your accounts to private and ask family members not to post about you either. This is one of the most common ways people damage their own cases, and we cover it in Social Media and Other Mistakes That Hurt Your Case.

Step 11: Do not sign anything

In the first 72 hours you may be handed a medical authorization, a property damage release, or a quick settlement offer. Do not sign any of it without having a lawyer read it. A blanket medical authorization lets an insurer dig through your entire medical history looking for something to blame. A release can end your injury claim forever, even if it says "property damage" at the top. More on these in Chapter 6.

Step 12: Call a lawyer

You do not need to decide today whether to hire anyone. But a short free conversation in the first few days lets a lawyer send preservation letters for video and vehicle data, deal with the adjusters, and tell you honestly whether you need help at all. Waiting rarely improves a case. If your injury happened in a crash, start with our Dayton car accident lawyer page; if it happened on someone's property, see premises liability. Our earlier post on what to do after a car accident in Ohio is a shorter version of this checklist.

Key takeaways

• Call 911, get the report number, and know how to pull the OH-1 report online or from the department.
• Exchange information, but do not discuss fault or apologize.
• Photograph and video everything, and get witness names before they leave.
• See a doctor the same day and report every symptom.
• Report to your own insurer; decline a recorded statement to the other side.
• Write down what happened, stay off social media, and sign nothing.
• Call a lawyer early. The consultation is free.