Auto Accident

The circumstances of a motor vehicle accident, in the detail a personal-injury case needs. Three tabs: Patient vehicle, Patient at impact and Other vehicle.

Why the questionnaire is this long

The mechanism of injury is what connects the patient's symptoms to the collision. Whether their head was turned, whether the headrest was positioned correctly, whether they saw it coming and braced — these change what injuries are plausible, and they are the questions an opposing expert will ask.

Asked at intake, they take a few minutes. Asked in a deposition two years later, they cannot be answered reliably.

Patient vehicle

Field	Choices
Date and time of the accident
Where were you in the vehicle?	Driver's front seat, driver's side rear, passenger side front, right rear
Vehicle type	Compact, mid-size or full-size car, mini van, passenger van, SUV, passenger truck, motorcycle, construction dump truck…
Where was your vehicle immediately prior to impact?	Stopped or accelerating, and its speed
Point of impact	Front or rear bumper; left or right front fender, rear fender, or side
Amount of damage to your vehicle	A dollar figure, or minimal, almost not noticeable, or unknown at this time
Road condition	Dry, damp, wet, icy, muddy, sandy, gravel, leaves or debris, mostly dry with the first minutes of rain
Visibility	Excellent in sunlight or overcast; reduced at dawn, dusk or night; reduced by fog, rain or snow
Was another vehicle involved?	And which vehicle hit the other — the patient's hit theirs, theirs hit the patient's, or more than one vehicle was involved
Police report was filed

"First minutes of rain" is there for a reason

Roads are at their most slippery just after rain starts, before the surface film washes away. It is a distinct condition, not a variant of wet, and the list treats it as one.

Patient at impact

This tab is where the biomechanics live:

Field	Choices
Seat restraints worn	Tick all that apply
Air bags deployed
Position of headrest	Properly adjusted; adjusted high or low; all the way up or down; improperly adjusted and offered negligible protection
Patient was prepared for impact
Driver's foot on brake at time of impact
Foot was knocked off brake at time of impact
Position of head and neck prior to impact	Straight ahead; up or down; level, up or down combined with left or right
Patient lost consciousness after injury
Patient received emergency care at scene
Where did you go immediately after the accident?
Describe additional details

Head position and headrest are the two that get argued about

In a rear-impact case these fields do more work than almost anything else on the screen. A headrest set too low, or a head turned at impact, is a mechanism; a braced driver with a correctly positioned headrest is a different clinical picture entirely.

Loss of consciousness changes the assessment

It is a yes/no field with disproportionate consequences — for the differential, for referral, and for how the case is viewed. Ask it explicitly rather than inferring it from silence.

Other vehicle

The same physical detail for the other vehicle where one was involved — its type, whether it was stopped or accelerating and its speed, what it was doing, its point of impact, and its damage.

Getting the billing right

Recording the accident here does not route the claim. On the patient's policy, tick Auto Accident and select the state where the accident occurred — that is what sends it to auto insurance.