At some point, for every fleet, a driver will be involved in a collision. It is important that drivers know what to do immediately following a collision, so here is a four-step plan that is taught by CarriersEdge.

Jane Jazrawy, CarriersEdge CEO, said she has found that insurance companies often provide a post-collision bullet list “about three miles long” for drivers to follow. But CarriersEdge teaches a much simpler approach that contains just four elements, which are:

• Stop
• Secure
• Report
• Document

“What we do in our course is kind of break it down into four steps,” she said.

1. Stop

The first step is really simple. After a collision, stop.

“You want to get your warning signals out. You want to do this before you do anything else, and make sure once you have done that, make sure everything is okay,” she instructed.

2. Secure

Getting those warning signals out, which you do when you first stop, is also somewhat the transition to the second step, secure.

The secure part starts with posting warning signals, but an important part of that is making sure that you have enough space around the vehicle indicating that there has been a collision and you are stopped. Plus, you should let all the people around the collision scene know what is happening.

“You're making sure that everybody is safe,” said, with a caveat tied to any hazardous materials a driver may be transporting.  “So, if you are working with hazardous materials, you want to make sure that people are a safe distance away. If there are injuries, it's really important that you don't move people unless you have to. If something's going to blow up, you probably want to move people. But in general, you want to keep people where they are until you have emergency responders come in.”

3. Report

The third step, report, applies to contacting your carrier or fleet.

“This is really important. Make sure and follow your carrier's policies,” Jazrawy explained. “If they differ slightly from what I'm saying, make sure you're following your carrier's policy. Your carrier knows more about their specific business, so make sure you contact the carrier. You're talking to somebody. Let them know what's happened.”

4. Document

The last thing, which Jazrawy said may be the most important thing, is documenting the scene.

She said your carrier or fleet may have guidelines on this, but basically, you want to photograph everything that you possibly can.

“You want to photograph the road, the road conditions, the vehicle, the other vehicle, all of the different things that are on scene. And when you are on scene and you're documenting as much as you can, take some notes about the kinds of things that are happening around you. If you see something suspicious, make sure that you have that documented.”

But she said there is another key part of it, which is really important, and how to talk to people.

Make sure you're talking to your insurance company, not just anybody. Make sure you talk to your carrier, and that you are talking to the right person in terms of insurance.

“Make sure that you are not talking to reporters. You don't want to be making any kind of a statement to a reporter that can hurt your carrier later on,” Jazrawy cautioned. “So, make sure you know you can't answer any questions. You are basically there to make sure everybody is safe, and to talk to enforcement, and talk to your company's insurance company.”