After a crash — Colorado Permit Test

In the event of a crash you should stop immediately and never leave the scene, check for injuries and where practical render reasonable assistance, call law enforcement and emergency personnel, and exchange name, address, phone numbers, registration and insurance information.

The four steps are in order of who needs help first. Leaving before you have done them is a separate offense from the crash itself.

Stop immediately and never leave the scene

If you are involved in a crash you must provide proof of insurance to law enforcement at the scene, or at the police station.

The proof is what makes the other person whole. Without it the crash becomes a second problem on top of the damage.

If you are involved in a crash, you must provide proof of insurance to law enforcement at the scene of the crash, or at the police station

A passenger in a vehicle involved in a crash where the driver is physically incapable of reporting it is required to report the crash, and if directed by law enforcement to remain at the scene until they arrive.

If the driver cannot report it, somebody has to. The duty moves to whoever else was in the car.

If you are a passenger in a vehicle involved in a crash where the driver is physically incapable of reporting the crash you are required to report the crash and, if directed by law enforcement, to remain at the scene of the collision until the law enforcement arrives.

Under Accident Alert Status, where weather is so severe that officers cannot respond to the volume of crashes, you must file an accident report with law enforcement within 24 hours.

Nobody is coming out to the scene, so the record has to be made afterward. Twenty-four hours is the whole of the window.

You must file an accident report with law enforcement within 24 hours

Under Accident Alert Status, if alcohol and drugs are not involved, there are no injuries and all vehicles are still drivable, exchange name, address, phone numbers, registration and insurance information.

Accident Alert Status is declared when the weather is too severe for officers to reach every crash. Nobody is coming, so the drivers do the exchange themselves.

If alcohol and drugs are not involved, there are no injuries and all vehicles are still drivable

If a crash involves a parked car and you cannot find the owner, call law enforcement and leave a note where the owner can find it.

Driving off from a parked car you hit is leaving the scene. A note and a call are what turn it into a claim instead of an offense.

If a crash involves a parked car and you cannot find the owner, call law enforcement and leave a note in a place where the owner of the car can find it

The Move It Law requires motorists in a minor crash on a divided highway to move their vehicles off the highway where the vehicle is drivable, no drugs or alcohol are involved and there are no injuries.

Cars left in a live lane cause the second crash, which is often worse than the first. Moving them is required rather than optional.

State law requires motorists involved in a minor crash on a divided highway to move their vehicles off the highway when:

Law enforcement and insurance companies will not penalize you for moving your car off the road after a minor crash, and once at a safe location drivers can notify law enforcement and exchange information.

People leave cars where they stopped because they think moving them counts against them. The handbook says plainly that it does not.

Law Enforcement and insurance companies will not penalize you for moving your car off the road

What should you do first at the scene of a crash?

Stop immediately and never leave the scene. The four steps are in order of who needs help first. Leaving before you have done them is a separate offense from the crash itself. Colorado Driver Handbook, p.26: “Stop immediately and never leave the scene”