Your insurance policy is a legal contract between you and your insurer. The policy obligates your insurer to defend you after an accident and to provide coverage to you up to your policy limits. You are obligated to report your accident to your insurance company even if you believe the other driver was at fault. You must also cooperate with your insurance company after your accident. If you do not cooperate with your insurance company during its investigation of your accident, your policy may be canceled or your premiums may be increased. Even if your accident was not serious, there are still several reasons why you should report it to your insurance company. If the other driver suffered injuries that fell under the threshold injury exception, he or she may file a claim with your insurance company. Cooperating with your insurance company also means you must report your accident. If you don’t, you will violate your contract. Some injuries may have delayed symptoms. Since the onset of symptoms can take days to appear, the other driver or passengers may have been injured even though they didn’t initially believe that they were. If the other driver was underinsured or uninsured, failing to report your accident to your company may leave you without recourse. Reporting your accident also helps the company to investigate it and discover whether the other driver might be committing fraud by filing a fraudulent claim. After you report your accident to your insurance company, you should then contact the other driver’s insurance company to report the accident. Give the company the at-fault driver’s name, contact information, insurance policy number, and vehicle registration number. Ask for bot the claim number for the property damage claim and the personal injury claim since these will be handled separately. You should never admit fault at the scene of an accident or try to settle with the other driver for payment instead of reporting it to your insurance company. There may be factors that contributed to your crash that you aren’t aware of. If the other driver later decides to blame you, your insurance company will be contacted. This can place your insurance company at a disadvantage when it works to defend you. Many insurance companies now have apps to make reporting a car accident easier. Check with your company to see if it offers a free app for accident reporting.