How to Take Good Photos at a Car Accident Scene

After you’ve been involved in a car accident, it’s important to take several steps to collect and preserve as much information as possible in case you need to file an insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit.

One of those steps is taking photos of the accident site. This can help you preserve evidence even after the site has been cleaned up. These pictures can come in handy when dealing with insurance companies and if your case ends up needing to go to trial. You don’t need a fancy camera to capture these photos — the average phone camera should be more than sufficient.

Below are a few tips when taking photos at the accident scene:

• Know what to photograph: Try to take pictures of all vehicles involved and the damage sustained, skid marks on the road, any vehicle parts or debris that fell into the road, the general layout of the accident site and any traffic control devices in the area. Also take pictures of the environment or weather conditions and any visible injuries sustained by you or your passengers (or other parties, if they consent).
• Take lots of pictures: In general, it’s best to take as many pictures as you can. You never know for sure what will be useful to an insurance adjuster or an investigator.
• Use different angles and distances: Try to snap pictures from several angles and distances to demonstrate scale and severity. You can also experiment with using or not using your flash, depending on the conditions at the time.

When you get home after your car accident, be sure to back up the photos on your computer or a separate hard drive so you do not lose them.

To learn more about what you should do after a crash, speak with a knowledgeable auto accident lawyer at Jakubowski, Robertson, Maffei, Goldsmith & Tartaglia, LLP.