Use this checklist to collect and organize information after a Florida collision. Safety and medical care come first. Complete only the items that can be handled safely and lawfully, and never enter moving traffic to take a photograph.
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Download the Printable Glove-Box Checklist
Print this one-page accident response form and keep it with your registration and insurance information. It includes immediate safety steps and spaces to record driver, insurance, witness, and crash-scene details.
Keep one printed copy in each vehicle. Use the detailed checklist below when you have time to preserve and organize additional evidence.
At the scene
- Call 911 when anyone is injured, a vehicle is disabled, traffic is obstructed, a driver may be impaired, or the collision otherwise requires law-enforcement response.
- Record the report or incident number, investigating agency, and officer’s name or badge number.
- Photograph all sides of every involved vehicle before they are moved, if it is safe.
- Photograph close and wide views of damage, contact points, debris, tire marks, fluid, traffic signals, signs, lane markings, road defects, construction, lighting, weather, and sight lines.
- Record a slow overview video without narrating guesses about fault.
- Save the driver-exchange form and photograph licenses, plates, registrations, and insurance cards with permission or as provided by the officer.
- Get each witness’s name, phone number, email address, and a short note identifying what the person observed.
- Identify nearby homes, businesses, buses, traffic systems, or doorbells that may have video.
- Save the original dashcam file before the device records over it.
- Note passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, work crews, responding units, tow operators, and other potential witnesses.
Within the first few days
- Write a factual account: direction of travel, lane, signal, speed estimate, traffic, what you saw and heard, impact sequence, and what happened immediately afterward.
- Report the crash to the appropriate insurer and record the claim number and adjuster.
- Download photographs and videos in their original format; do not keep the only copy on a phone.
- Request that nearby video be preserved. Many systems overwrite recordings quickly.
- Photograph visible injuries over time when relevant and appropriate.
- Preserve damaged personal items such as a helmet, child seat, glasses, phone mount, or clothing. Do not alter or discard them when they may matter.
- Do not authorize destruction of a seriously damaged vehicle before its condition is adequately documented.
- Keep towing, storage, rental, repair, and property-damage records.
Report and official records
- Order the crash report from the investigating agency or the Florida Crash Portal.
- Compare names, vehicles, insurers, witnesses, location, diagram, narrative, and listed citations with your records.
- Keep the driver-exchange form even after the report arrives.
- Ask the agency how to request associated photographs, body-camera video, 911 audio, dispatch records, or supplemental reports when relevant.
- Record factual errors and ask about the agency’s correction process; never alter the official report yourself.
Medical, work, and expense records
- Keep visit summaries, referrals, restrictions, prescriptions, imaging reports, bills, and insurer explanations of benefits.
- Record appointments, symptoms, functional limitations, missed visits, and the real reason for any gap.
- Save pay stubs, schedules, time records, employer letters, used PTO, tax records, and self-employment documents.
- Keep receipts for prescriptions, equipment, parking, mileage, transportation, replacement services, and other accident-related expenses.
- Maintain copies of insurer letters, emails, text messages, portal messages, estimates, offers, denials, and releases.
A simple digital folder structure
01 Crash report and driver exchange
02 Scene photos and video originals
03 Vehicles and property damage
04 Witnesses and outside video
05 Insurance policies and correspondence
06 Medical records and bills
07 Work and income records
08 Expenses and receipts
09 Notes and timelineKeep at least one secure backup. Preserve original files and metadata; make separate copies for cropping, marking, or emailing. Do not post claim evidence publicly or delete relevant material after a dispute begins without obtaining advice.