Even a minor collision is a stressful experience. Your heart rate spikes, the other driver is getting out of their car, and you’re suddenly trying to remember everything you’re supposed to do while standing in a parking lot on Sunset Avenue or at a stoplight on Thompson Street. Most people’s minds go blank. The good news is that the steps you need to take after a fender-bender are straightforward, and knowing them in advance makes the whole situation significantly easier to handle calmly and correctly. More importantly, handling it correctly from the start protects you legally, financially, and ensures your vehicle gets properly assessed and repaired rather than patched over.
At Accurate Total Auto Care in Springdale, AR, we work with drivers after collisions regularly, from the initial inspection through to the completed repair. Here is the complete guide to what you should do, in order, after a fender-bender in our area.
Step 1: Stop, Breathe, and Check for Injuries
The first thing to do is stop the vehicle completely and take a breath. Adrenaline makes it easy to react impulsively, getting out of the car angry, immediately moving the vehicle before assessing the situation, or driving away without thinking through the consequences. Take a moment before you do anything else.
Check yourself for injuries first, then check any passengers. Even in a minor collision, the force involved can cause soft tissue injuries, neck strain, back strain, and other impacts that may not be immediately painful but become apparent in the hours or days that follow. If anyone is injured, call 911 immediately. Emergency medical care comes before anything else on this list.
If no one is injured and the vehicles are driveable, assess whether you need to move them out of active traffic. In Arkansas, if a collision occurs on a roadway and no one is injured, drivers are generally expected to move their vehicles to the shoulder or a nearby parking lot to clear the road, provided it is safe to do so. If the vehicles cannot be safely moved, turn on your hazard lights and stay clear of moving traffic while you wait.
Step 2: Decide Whether to Call the Police
In Arkansas, you are required by law to report any collision that results in injury, death, or property damage that appears to exceed $1,000. In practice, almost any collision beyond the most trivial contact meets that threshold once repair estimates are factored in, bumpers, sensors, and body panels on modern vehicles are expensive to repair even when the visible damage looks minor.
Our recommendation for any collision in Springdale or the surrounding Northwest Arkansas area is to call the Springdale Police Department non-emergency line or, if the collision occurred on a state highway, the Arkansas State Police. Having an official police report creates an objective, timestamped record of the incident that is valuable when dealing with insurance companies. It establishes the basic facts, location, time, parties involved, and any initial fault assessment, in a document neither party can later contradict unilaterally.
If the other driver suggests skipping the police report and handling it privately, politely decline. Private agreements after collisions often fall apart when damage turns out to be more extensive than it appeared at the scene, or when the other party later denies the arrangement entirely. A police report protects both parties and simplifies the insurance process significantly.
Step 3: Exchange Information, the Right Information
While you wait for police or once it is safe to do so, exchange the following information with the other driver. You need their full legal name, current address, phone number, driver’s license number, license plate number, vehicle make, model, and year, and most importantly, their insurance company name and policy number.
Photograph their driver’s license and insurance card directly rather than writing the information down. A photograph is faster, eliminates transcription errors, and gives you a clear, legible record you can access later when filing a claim. Do the same with their license plate.
If there are witnesses to the collision, pedestrians, bystanders, or occupants of other vehicles, ask for their name and phone number as well. Witness accounts are valuable if fault becomes disputed later.
One important boundary: exchange information and be cordial, but do not discuss fault at the scene. Do not say “I’m sorry” or accept responsibility in any form, even casually. Statements made at the scene can be used against you in an insurance claim or legal proceeding, and you may not have a complete picture of what happened. Let the investigation and insurance process determine fault.
Step 4: Document the Scene Thoroughly
Before any vehicles are moved, or immediately after if they’ve already been moved for safety, photograph everything. Use your phone and take more photos than you think you need. Courts, insurance adjusters, and repair shops all work from evidence, and photographs taken at the scene are the most reliable evidence available.
Photograph the damage to both vehicles from multiple angles, including wide shots showing the full vehicles in context and close shots showing the specific damage. Photograph the license plates of all vehicles involved. Photograph the overall scene, the road, any relevant signage, traffic control devices, skid marks, debris, and the positions of the vehicles relative to each other. If there is a specific point of impact on the road or curb, photograph that as well.
Take note of the time, date, weather conditions, and road conditions at the time of the collision. These details seem minor in the moment but can become relevant when an insurance adjuster or attorney is reconstructing the sequence of events days or weeks later.
If the police respond, get the responding officer’s name and badge number and ask how to obtain a copy of the official report. In Springdale, crash reports from the Springdale Police Department can typically be requested through the department’s records division within a few days of the incident.
Step 5: Notify Your Insurance Company Promptly
Contact your insurance company as soon as reasonably possible after the collision, ideally the same day. Most policies require prompt notification of any collision as a condition of coverage, and delays can complicate the claims process. This is true even if you believe the other driver was at fault and plan to file a claim against their insurance rather than your own.
When you call, you will provide the basic facts of the collision: date, time, location, the other party’s information, and the police report number if one was filed. Your insurer will assign a claim number and explain the next steps, which typically include arranging for a damage assessment.
Arkansas is a fault-based state for auto insurance, meaning the driver who caused the collision is responsible for damages, either through their own liability coverage or, if they are uninsured or underinsured, potentially through your own uninsured motorist coverage. Understanding which insurance, yours or the other party’s, is handling the claim affects who pays for your rental vehicle during repairs and how quickly the process moves. Your insurance agent can walk you through the specifics of your policy.
A Note on Recorded Statements
The other driver’s insurance company may contact you and request a recorded statement. You are not legally required to provide one, and it is generally advisable to speak with your own insurance company or an attorney before agreeing to any recorded statement with the opposing insurer. Insurance adjusters are trained to ask questions in ways that can minimize a claim. You are under no obligation to assist the other party’s insurer in building their case.
Step 6: If Your Vehicle Needs Towing
If your vehicle is not safely driveable after the collision, whether due to damage, fluid loss, deployed airbags, or any other concern, it needs to be towed rather than driven. Driving a damaged vehicle can worsen existing damage, create safety hazards for you and other drivers, and in some cases void coverage provisions related to the claim.
In Springdale and the Northwest Arkansas area, several towing companies operate around the clock. If police respond to the collision, they can typically arrange a tow through a dispatch rotation. If you are arranging a tow independently, you have the right to choose which facility your vehicle is towed to — this is important, because tow companies sometimes have preferred relationships with specific shops, and you are not obligated to use whichever facility they suggest.
Specify the destination clearly before the tow truck arrives. If you plan to have the vehicle assessed and repaired at Accurate Total Auto Care, tell the towing company that address, 1809 S. Pleasant Suite B, Springdale, AR 72764, when you call. Having the vehicle towed directly to the repair facility saves a second tow charge later and gets the inspection process started sooner.
Your insurance policy may include roadside assistance or towing reimbursement. Check your policy or app before paying out of pocket, in many cases, your insurer can arrange the tow directly and bill it as part of the claim.
Step 7: Getting a Repair Estimate, What to Know Before You Go
Once the vehicles are safely off the road and the immediate paperwork is underway, the next step is a damage assessment and repair estimate. This is where the process can feel confusing if you don’t know how it works, because insurance companies, body shops, and repair facilities each have their own roles in it.
You Have the Right to Choose Your Repair Shop
This is one of the most important things to understand: in Arkansas, you have the legal right to choose where your vehicle is repaired. Your insurance company may recommend or direct you to a shop on their preferred vendor list, what insurers call a “direct repair program”, but you are not required to use those shops. Insurance companies often have financial relationships with preferred shops that can create incentives to use cheaper parts or faster timelines rather than the repair approach that’s actually best for your vehicle.
Choose a shop you trust, with technicians who will give your vehicle a thorough inspection and communicate clearly about what they find. A reputable shop will work directly with your insurance adjuster to negotiate the scope of repairs, you should not be in the middle of that conversation managing back-and-forth between two parties.
The Difference Between an Insurance Estimate and a Shop Estimate
Insurance adjusters produce their own damage estimates, often based on photos submitted through an app or a brief physical inspection. These estimates are a starting point for the claim, not the final word on what the repair actually requires. Shop estimates, produced by technicians who have physically inspected the vehicle and in some cases partially disassembled damaged areas, are typically more comprehensive because they account for hidden damage that photos and surface inspections miss.
It is common for a shop’s estimate to be higher than the insurance adjuster’s initial figure, particularly for structural components, frame alignment, and concealed damage behind bumper covers and body panels. A good repair shop will document the additional findings and submit a supplemental claim to the insurer. This is a normal part of the process, not a conflict, and insurers have procedures for handling supplemental requests.
What We Look for at Accurate Total Auto Care
When a post-collision vehicle comes into our shop, we start with a thorough inspection that goes beyond what’s visible from the outside. We check frame and structural alignment, inspect safety systems including airbag sensors and seatbelt pretensioners, assess any mechanical components that may have been affected, cooling systems, steering components, suspension, and document every finding with photographs before writing the estimate.
We communicate directly with insurance adjusters on your behalf and walk you through the repair scope in plain language before any work begins. If there is hidden damage discovered once disassembly starts, we document it and contact you and the insurer before proceeding. Nothing happens to your vehicle that you haven’t approved.
Step 8: Don’t Underestimate Hidden Damage
One of the most consistent patterns we see after fender-benders is the gap between what the damage looks like on the surface and what the vehicle actually sustained. Modern bumper systems are designed with energy-absorbing foam and structural reinforcement behind a painted fascia, a bumper cover that looks intact can be concealing a crushed foam absorber, bent reinforcement bar, or damaged mounting brackets that affect how the bumper will perform in a subsequent impact.
Radar sensors, parking cameras, and proximity sensors are increasingly built into bumpers and body panels on modern vehicles. These components can be damaged or misaligned by impacts that leave no obvious mark on the paint. A vehicle that appears cosmetically fine but has a misaligned or cracked radar sensor may have compromised collision-avoidance and lane-keeping systems, safety features that need to be fully functional and recalibrated after any collision that affects the areas they’re mounted in.
Airbag systems are another area where invisible damage matters. Impact sensors throughout the vehicle record collision data, and in some cases a sensor can be damaged or triggered in a way that doesn’t deploy the airbags but affects their readiness for a future event. A post-collision scan of the vehicle’s computer systems is a standard part of a thorough inspection and reveals fault codes that a visual inspection would never catch.
The point is not to alarm you, most fender-benders are genuinely minor and the repairs are straightforward. The point is that a proper inspection by qualified technicians is the only reliable way to know what you’re actually dealing with. Accepting an insurance settlement based on surface appearance alone, without a shop inspection, means potentially settling for an amount that doesn’t cover the actual repair.
Quick Reference: Your Post-Collision Checklist
At the scene: stop and check for injuries, call 911 if anyone is hurt, move vehicles out of traffic if safe to do so, call police and file a report, exchange full insurance and license information, photograph everything, damage, plates, scene, road conditions, and take note of any witnesses.
After the scene: notify your insurance company the same day, request a copy of the police report, arrange towing to a shop of your choosing if the vehicle is not driveable, and avoid making recorded statements to the other party’s insurer without guidance.
At the repair shop: choose a shop you trust, you are not required to use your insurer’s preferred vendor, get a thorough inspection that includes hidden damage and a computer scan, and make sure you approve all work before it begins.
Been in a Collision? Bring It to Accurate Total Auto Care.
Whether your vehicle needs a tow or you’re driving it in yourself, we’ll give it a complete post-collision inspection, document everything thoroughly, and work with your insurance company directly so you don’t have to manage the back-and-forth. We’ve been helping Northwest Arkansas drivers through this process since 1998, we know how it works, and we’re on your side.
Call us at (479) 927-3604 or visit us at 1809 S. Pleasant Suite B, Springdale, AR 72764. You can also book online at accuratetotalauto.com.