Car crashes are an unfortunate fact of life on our roads. This is true whether driving in rural areas or urban ones. The right photos can be of considerable help if you wish to claim compensation, and you can use your phone camera to get those.
Your health and safety should be your priority, so don’t make your injuries worse by, say, dragging yourself up to take photos if you suspect a spinal injury. Don’t step out into the road for a better shot if it means you might get run over, either.
So, what sort of photos should you try to get, if it’s safe to do so?
Get close-ups of damage and injuries
You want close-up shots of damage to yourself and the vehicles, These can act as proof of the extent of your injuries and the freshness, proving they occurred in the crash. Close-ups of damage to the various vehicles involved can help investigators deduce what force and angle the hit occurred with, what speeds must have been involved and so on.
Obtain shots from further back of the scene
You should aim to take some shots from further away to put the close-up shots in context. What happened that led to what you see in the close-ups? Was the road flooded, which caused someone to lose traction? Was there thick fog or heavy traffic that reduced visibility? Was the traffic signal out of order? Or was it a bright sunny day, with hardly any vehicles and a good road surface, leaving the other driver little excuse for hitting you?
You should also take a photo of the other party’s license and insurance. Armed with all this information, you can seek legal guidance to learn the next steps, once you have gotten a medical checkup, which should always be a priority.