A method for automatically generating a documentation of a crash involving a vehicle, the method comprising: receiving telematics data produced by one or more sensors associated with a telematics device at the vehicle, the sensors including an accelerometer, and optionally including at least one of a speedometer, a barometer, a gyroscope, a compass, and a position sensor; based on the telematics data, determining a vehicle crash period that begins at a start time of the vehicle crash period that is a beginning of a vehicle crash period and ends at an end time of the vehicle crash period, the vehicle crash period including one or more impacts of the vehicle, wherein i) the start time of the vehicle crash period is determined by detecting, using the telematics data, a likely vehicle crash and moving backwards in time from a start time of the detected likely vehicle crash until a sample of oriented acceleration data that does not differ in any axis by more than a first threshold from an average oriented acceleration data of an after-crash segment is encountered, and ii) the end time of the vehicle crash period is determined by moving forward in time from the start time of the detected likely vehicle crash until a sample of oriented acceleration data that does not differ in any axis by more than a second threshold from the average oriented acceleration data of a before-crash segment is encountered; determining, based on the telematics data, one or more metrics associated with the vehicle during the vehicle crash period; automatically generating, based on the one or more metrics, a human-readable documentation of the vehicle crash comprising a narrative description of features of the vehicle crash during the vehicle crash period, wherein the narrative description comprises assembling predetermined prose phrases corresponding to the features of the crash and one or more of the determined metrics; and communicating the narrative human-readable prose documentation to a device for presentation in an audible form or a readable form to a user. receiving telematics data produced by one or more sensors associated with a telematics device at the vehicle, the sensors including an accelerometer, and optionally including at least one of a speedometer, a barometer, a gyroscope, a compass, and a position sensor; based on the telematics data, determining a vehicle crash period that begins at a start time of the vehicle crash period that is a beginning of a vehicle crash period and ends at an end time of the vehicle crash period, the vehicle crash period including one or more impacts of the vehicle, wherein i) the start time of the vehicle crash period is determined by detecting, using the telematics data, a likely vehicle crash and moving backwards in time from a start time of the detected likely vehicle crash until a sample of oriented acceleration data that does not differ in any axis by more than a first threshold from an average oriented acceleration data of an after-crash segment is encountered, and ii) the end time of the vehicle crash period is determined by moving forward in time from the start time of the detected likely vehicle crash until a sample of oriented acceleration data that does not differ in any axis by more than a second threshold from the average oriented acceleration data of a before-crash segment is encountered; i) the start time of the vehicle crash period is determined by detecting, using the telematics data, a likely vehicle crash and moving backwards in time from a start time of the detected likely vehicle crash until a sample of oriented acceleration data that does not differ in any axis by more than a first threshold from an average oriented acceleration data of an after-crash segment is encountered, and ii) the end time of the vehicle crash period is determined by moving forward in time from the start time of the detected likely vehicle crash until a sample of oriented acceleration data that does not differ in any axis by more than a second threshold from the average oriented acceleration data of a before-crash segment is encountered; determining, based on the telematics data, one or more metrics associated with the vehicle during the vehicle crash period; automatically generating, based on the one or more metrics, a human-readable documentation of the vehicle crash comprising a narrative description of features of the vehicle crash during the vehicle crash period, wherein the narrative description comprises assembling predetermined prose phrases corresponding to the features of the crash and one or more of the determined metrics; and communicating the narrative human-readable prose documentation to a device for presentation in an audible form or a readable form to a user.