If you’re driving in California, maybe you’re using one of the many highways that wind their way through the state. California covers a lot of territory, and the highways there see millions of drivers yearly. Often, you can stay safe on these highways if you exercise caution and drive defensively, but an accident can still occur when you least expect it.
If that happens, you’ll need to get a CHP report. A CHP report can impact a personal injury case, but only if you use it correctly.
In this article, we will discuss CHP reports. We’ll cover what the term means, what you can expect to find in a CHP report, and how you can use one in your personal injury lawsuit if you pursue one.
What Does This Term Mean?
The term “CHP report,” means California Highway Patrol report. The California Highway Patrol employs hundreds of officers who patrol California’s highways.
You might see them sitting in speed traps along the highway, waiting for a speeder to come flying past. If you’re that speeder, you will probably have an up close and personal chat with one of these officers, and you doubtless won’t like it very much.
As for California Highway Patrol reports, every time there’s a car accident on the highway, the responding officer must fill one out. That’s part of their job. They need to fill out one of these reports because the drivers involved will need the information that they can find there.
What Does a CHP Report Include?
If you get in a car accident while on a California highway, you will want to use your smartphone to call 911. If you don’t have a phone with you, or you sustained some serious injuries, and you can’t call, then hopefully the other driver can do it for you. If neither of you can call, then someone in another car might do it.
When the responding officers come, they will ask you what happened. You can talk to them there on the scene, unless the accident rendered you unconscious or otherwise injured you badly. If that happens, then you can go to the hospital. You can speak to the responding officers for the sake of the report later.
The CHP report will feature your name, and that of the other driver as well. It will feature your driver’s license number and theirs. It will have both of your license plate numbers as well.
It will mention what insurance company you both have, assuming you each have an active vehicle insurance policy. It will also include a breakdown of what the officer saw when they arrived on the scene.
That might include the position of the vehicles and a brief description of the damage to each one. The report will likely mention any notable injuries, though it probably won’t go into too much detail on those. Presumably, the responding officer doesn’t have the medical training to give a full and thorough description of what broken bones or other damage each participant suffered.
The report might also include information like the time of day the accident occurred, the weather conditions, or anything else the responding officer deems relevant. In this respect, no two reports will look identical, since each one will describe the scene as it looks when the officer arrives.
How Can You Use One in Your Personal Injury Lawsuit?
Let’s say that you’re in a car accident on one of California’s highways. You feel certain that the other driver caused the crash. When a highway patrol car shows up, you explain to the officer what happened.
They should give you a copy of the car accident report afterward. It will feature all of the information that we just described.
You can take that report with you, and you should have it handy when you contact your insurance company. You will presumably want to do that as soon as you can. You will need to start the claim process to repair the damage to your car.
California has at-fault car accident status. That means, if you get in an accident there, the insurance of the person who caused the wreck should pay for the damage. That includes the cost of repairing the car, but it should also cover things like lost wages if you have to miss work or medical bills if you need to see a doctor afterward.
However, in the situation we described, maybe the other driver or their insurance company will not admit that they caused the crash. Instead, they insist that you caused it.
If that happens, then you will probably need to sue the other driver, their insurance company, or both. Only by doing so can you hope to recoup the money that you’re spending out-of-pocket on things like doctor bills and replacement parts for your damaged car.
Once you hire a skilled personal injury lawyer, then you can use the CHP report as a piece of valuable evidence during the trial. The information that this document contains can potentially help you prove the other driver’s guilt.
For instance, maybe what the responding police officer wrote about the position of both vehicles when they arrived at the scene contradicts what the other driver says happened. Maybe they described a rainy day that caused them to lose control of their vehicle on a slick road. The report from the California Highway Patrol says that it didn’t rain that day, though.
The report will often have the information you need to pick apart the other driver’s story, or that of their insurance company. If you and your lawyer can use that information successfully, it puts pressure on the other driver.
They might realize they’re losing credibility with the jury and offer you a settlement amount. If the number works for you, then you can take it and try to get on with your life. You can always counter with a higher number as well.
