Your procedures for handling car accidents should be well-defined before an incident occurs. “If it’s a chemical spill, we have them call OSHA right away,” says Trevor Sherwood, owner of Pool Operation Management in Brick, N.J.
If you aren’t injured, there are steps you can take to safeguard yourself and others from the spill until authorities arrive. Insurance advisers recommend cordoning off the area with yellow tape and orange cones. Vehicles driving through muriatic acid could splash pedestrians and damage property. “If there is a spill, you’ll want to keep as many people away as possible,” says Vincent Niglio, commercial risk adviser with Brown & Brown Insurance, in Leesburg, Fla.
Take plenty of photos from various angles and distances. These could prove you were not responsible. Dash-cam footage, which records trips in 2- to 3-minute loops and stores a couple hours of data, also could be used in your defense.
Notify the police even if it’s a minor crash. Gather names and contact information of eyewitnesses and take time to write down the facts and share them only with your employer. What might not be a major accident initially could escalate over time.
“A day or two later, the other party may decide this is their ticket to some quick money,” Blossom cautions.
