The first few minutes matter more than anything that follows. Here is the order to do things in, written for the road you are actually on.
A collision on an interstate is different from one on a city street in one critical respect: the traffic behind you has not stopped, and it is moving at seventy miles an hour. Everything in the first few minutes should be organized around that fact.
This is written for I-70 through St. Charles County — the Blanchette Bridge approaches, Fifth Street, Zumbehl, Cave Springs, Mid Rivers, Hwy K, Bryan Road and out to Wentzville — but the order applies anywhere.
Adrenaline masks a great deal. If there is any doubt at all about anyone, call 911 immediately and say so. Nothing else on this list matters more.
If the vehicles are drivable and nobody is seriously hurt, moving to the shoulder or an exit ramp removes the biggest ongoing danger. If they will not move, leave them.
People are struck on interstate shoulders. Get out on the passenger side and stand well back — behind a barrier if there is one, up the embankment if there is not. Not beside your car, and never between two vehicles.
On an interstate, call regardless of how minor it looks. You want the incident on record and you want traffic managed while everyone is standing near live lanes.
Name, phone, insurance company and policy number, plate, and the make and model. Photograph their insurance card and license rather than writing it down.
Damage on both vehicles, the position of the vehicles, the lane, the direction of travel, the road conditions, and any debris. Wide shots as well as close-ups. Do not walk into live lanes for a better angle.
If a vehicle is blocking a lane, say so when you call 911. Those calls take priority, because a stationary vehicle in a live interstate lane is a secondary collision waiting to happen. Then call us on (636) 466-8097 so the vehicle can be cleared.
If police order a tow because your vehicle is blocking traffic and you have not arranged one, you do not choose the company and you do not choose the destination. The vehicle goes where the rotation sends it, and you collect it from there, paying storage for every day it sits.
If you call a tow yourself, promptly, you choose both. That is a meaningful difference and it is entirely within your control in the first few minutes. It does not have to be us — but it should be somebody, and soon.
People frequently drive vehicles away from collisions that should not be driven. The things that are easy to miss at the roadside:
The Blanchette Bridge carries about 165,000 vehicles a day, and the traffic bunches on the approaches. That bunching — fast traffic meeting slow traffic — is the classic setup for the rear-end collisions that make up most of what we recover on this road.
It also means a tow company based in St. Louis County has to get through the backup your own collision helped create. We dispatch from St. Charles, on this side of the river. See accident recovery.
We run 24 hours a day across St. Charles County — St. Charles, St. Peters, O'Fallon, Wentzville and everywhere in between, plus the highway corridors. Call (636) 466-8097.
We dispatch from the St. Charles side of the Blanchette Bridge. 24 hours a day.
Call (636) 466-8097 Request a Tow