Learn what you can do after a Connecticut car accident to protect your safety, legal rights, and financial interests.
On average, over 100 people are injured or killed every day in Connecticut motor vehicle accidents.¹
When you or a family member are injured in a car accident, you may be entitled to compensation. Here’s where you can learn what to do at the accident scene to protect your rights, and how to build a strong insurance claim.
What to Do After a Connecticut Car Accident
Walk through these five steps to preserve your health safety, and right to injury compensation.
1. Stay At the Scene and Exchange Information
Connecticut car accident law requires drivers involved in a crash to immediately stop and remain at the scene. Drivers must give their name, address, driver’s license number, and vehicle registration number to the person injured, any witnesses, and any police officer on the scene.
2. Call 911 and Help the Injured
Drivers involved in an accident involving personal injury or death must immediately stop and render “such assistance as may be needed.” Calling 911 to report the accident and ask for an ambulance can meet this obligation. Help the injured as much as you can until emergency responders arrive.
3. Seek Prompt Medical Treatment
Never refuse or delay medical care after an accident. Not only are you risking your health, but you’re also handing the insurance company an excuse to deny or limit your injury claim. The insurance adjuster will argue that your injuries weren’t caused by the crash.
Traffic accidents are sudden and violent. You may be stunned or in a bit of shock, and not even realize you’ve been hurt. Let paramedics at the scene look you over. If they want to transport you to the hospital, let them.
If you aren’t taken directly to the hospital from the scene, make arrangements to go the emergency department or an urgent care center as soon as possible. Tell the medical providers exactly when, where, and how you were injured.
You will need your medical records to link all your injuries to the accident, so tell the doctor about all your injuries, including bumps and bruises.
4. Gather Evidence From the Scene
In traditional fault states like Connecticut, the burden is on you, the claimant, to prove the other driver was responsible for causing the crash. The police crash report is a good start, especially when the other driver was cited for traffic violations.
Other types of evidence include:
- Photographs and video of the crash scene
- Names and contact information from witnesses
- Your personal notes about the accident
5. Notify Both Insurance Companies
You don’t have to wait until you recover from your injuries to get the ball rolling on an insurance claim. Notify the at-fault driver’s insurance company of your intent to file an injury claim as soon as possible.
The company will likely respond with an acknowledgment letter that includes a claim number you’ll need to refer to in future communications. An adjuster will be assigned to your claim, and may reach out to you with a fast settlement offer.
It’s usually not in your best interest to settle your claim before you’ve recovered from your injuries. Let the adjuster know you’ll be in touch when you’re ready to discuss compensation.
Be careful if the adjuster wants to take your recorded statement. Adjusters are trained to get you to say something they can use against you. Consider consulting an attorney before submitting to a recorded statement.
What to Expect from Your Insurance Company
Connecticut is a traditional fault state, so you are not obligated to rely on your own insurance company to handle your injury claim. However, you are contractually bound by your insurance policy to notify your own insurer when you’ve been in an accident, no matter who was at fault.
In return, your insurer has a duty to defend you if you get sued by someone else involved in the accident. Notify your insurance company as soon as possible after an accident to preserve your policy protections.
Connecticut Fault and Liability Rules
Connecticut is a traditional fault or “tort” state, so you will seek compensation for car accident damages directly from the at-fault parties. Usually, that means filing a claim with the negligent driver’s auto insurance company.
While you are not obligated to rely on your own policy, you can utilize optional coverages you have purchased, like MedPay to cover immediate medical costs, or Collision coverage for your vehicle repairs. When you use your own coverage, your insurer will then seek reimbursement from the at-fault driver’s carrier.
Connecticut Shared Fault Rules
Connecticut follows a modified comparative fault rule. You can seek compensation from the other driver even if you are partially to blame, so long as you aren’t more to blame than the other driver. If you are not more to blame, your compensation will be reduced in proportion to your share of fault.
Example of Modified Comparative Fault in Connecticut
On a weekday afternoon, Daniel was traveling on Broad Street in Stamford. As he drove, Daniel was participating in a conference call through his Bluetooth speaker. Traffic was getting heavier as the rush hour approached, but not enough to slow Daniel down, who was traveling over the speed limit.
Ashley was also on Broad Street, traveling in the opposite direction from Daniel. Ashley was stopped, waiting to make a left-hand turn into a shopping center. She saw a gap in traffic and began to make the turn.
Ashely turned her car into the path of Daniel’s SUV. Distracted by his phone call, Daniel did not begin to slow down or stop until it was too late to avoid a collision. Ashley was ticketed for turning left into traffic.
Both drivers were injured in the crash. Daniel filed a $30,000 injury claim with Ashley’s insurance company. The adjuster argued that Daniel shared blame for the crash because he was speeding and talking on the phone, and they could not agree on a settlement.
David filed a lawsuit against Ashley, alleging she failed to yield the right of way, causing the collision. At trial, Ashley’s attorney presented evidence that Daniel could have avoided the collision if he had not been speeding and distracted by a phone call.
The jury found Ashley 70 percent at fault, and Daniel 30 percent at fault for the crash. Under Connecticut’s comparative fault rules, Daniel was awarded $21,000, representing a 30 percent reduction to his $30,000 compensation demand.
Connecticut Car Accident Compensation
Insurance companies in Connecticut pay out more than $2 billion in auto accident claims each year.
You can estimate the value of a minor to moderate injury claim by adding up the economic costs, like medical expenses and lost wages. Then add one to three times that amount to compensate for your non-economic damages, known as pain and suffering.
A multiple of one will work for mild sprains, bumps, and bruising. Use a multiple of two or three for injuries that have a bigger impact on your daily living, like a broken arm, slipped discs, or a concussion.
Use our free Connecticut Personal Injury Calculator to estimate the payout for a minor to moderate injury claim.
Talk to an experienced personal injury attorney about a severe injury or wrongful death claim. The claim will include future medical costs, loss of future income, and the extreme pain and distress suffered by the victim and their family.
Average Car Accident Settlements in Connecticut
The average injury settlement for a moderate car accident claim in Connecticut is $40,047, with average payouts ranging from $6,978 to $991,383. Settlements and court awards can range from $275 for very minor injuries to more than $5,000,000 for catastrophic injuries.
Injury settlements can vary widely, depending on the circumstances of the accident, the scope of the victim’s injuries, and the available insurance limits. Accidents involving severe injuries and commercial liability insurance will have the largest payouts.
For example, look at these two rear-end accident cases with low and high payouts:
- In Fairfield, Alfonso v. O’Connell, CV03-0403012S, a jury awarded $275 to the victim for soft-tissue neck injuries. The claimant waited two months to seek medical treatment after a low-impact collision.
- In New Haven, Laufer v. Road-Con Systems, Inc., CV-05-4003130-S, a jury awarded $5,390,000 to a 26-year-old man left paralyzed from the neck down after a rear-end collision by a tractor-trailer that pushed his vehicle into and under another tractor-trailer.
Read more:
Factors that impact car accident compensation include:
- Scope and severity of injuries
- Shared fault for the crash
- Multiple-vehicle collisions
- Multiple injured victims
- Fatalities
- Available insurance coverage
When you and others are badly injured, there may not be enough insurance money to cover everyone’s damages. Insurance coverage may be available from the at-fault driver, and from your own policy, depending on the circumstances of the crash and the optional coverages on your policy.
Connecticut State Minimum Insurance Requirements
Connecticut drivers are required to carry an auto insurance policy with minimum bodily injury liability limits of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage.
Connecticut also requires auto policies to include uninsured (UM) and underinsured (UIM) motorist coverage equal to the policy liability limits.
When you have UM and UIM coverages, you can turn to your own insurance company for compensation after an accident caused by a hit-and-run, a driver with no insurance, or a driver with limits that won’t cover all your damages.
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Visitor Questions on Connecticut Car Accidents
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