One of the most memorable calls I ever got came straight from the scene. The car was upside down. They were hanging in their seat belts, waiting for police to help them out, and they had called a lawyer.
I told them what I will tell you: hang up. Talk to the police and the paramedics. Get the medical attention you need first. Be safe, and call me back from the hospital.
Everything below comes after that. Most crash advice is written for every state at once, which makes it useless where Utah is different. These are the Utah particulars, in the order they start to matter.
At the scene
Get to safety and call for help. Check for injuries first. If anyone is hurt, call 911.
Photograph before anything moves, if it is safe. Vehicle positions, damage to both vehicles, the road surface, skid marks, traffic lights and signs, weather and lighting. Vehicle positions are gone the moment a tow truck arrives.
Get witness names and phone numbers yourself. Do not assume they will appear in the police report.
Exchange information — name, phone, insurer, policy number, plate and vehicle. Photograph the other driver's licence as well as the insurance card. In one of my cases, a simple rear-end crash, the other driver handed the officer an insurance card from a car that was not his instead of his licence. The report named the wrong person, the insurer denied the claim because its insured was not there, and it took a lawsuit and depositions to sort out. The details matter.
Write down what the other driver says, with the time. A statement by the opposing party about how the crash happened is admissible against them later, and memory of it fades within days.
Note the officer's name and agency, and ask for the police case number.
In the first 72 hours
See a doctor, even if you feel fine. It is not the time to be brave. Tell the provider everything that hurts, and describe symptoms rather than diagnoses: "my neck really hurts, my hands are numb," not "I have whiplash." Soft-tissue injuries commonly present worse at two to six weeks than on day one. A gap between the crash and your first treatment is one of the first things an insurer points to when arguing an injury is unrelated.
Then keep going. Follow the treatment plan and attend the appointments. Stopping early reads as recovery.
Report the crash to your own insurer. Your policy requires cooperation with your own carrier. That is a different relationship from the other driver's insurer, which owes you nothing but the claim.
Start a crash diary. A plain notebook. Every call about the crash: the date, the time, who you talked to and what they said. Insurance companies record their calls. You should be keeping notes on yours.
Be careful with the other driver's insurer. They are not your friend. Expect a call within days. You can decline a recorded statement and provide the basic facts in writing instead. Utah Code § 78B-5-813 limits the use of a statement taken from an injured person within 15 days of the occurrence, or while hospitalised, unless a verbatim copy was left with them — but it is far easier never to give one.
Do not sign a release in the first two weeks. If you were injured, a release signed within 15 days of the occurrence or before your initial hospital discharge is voidable under § 78B-5-812 — but that is a rescue, not a plan.
What your insurance actually covers
PIP pays first. Utah is a no-fault state for the first $3,000 of medical expenses per person under § 31A-22-307. Your own personal injury protection pays those regardless of who caused the crash.
The at-fault driver's limits may be small. Utah's minimum liability limit is $25,000 per person. A single ambulance ride and emergency visit can consume a meaningful share of it.
You may have more coverage than you think. Utah carriers must offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and declining it requires a written rejection. If nobody in your household signed one, you may have UIM coverage that pays when the other driver's limits run out.
Fault in Utah
Utah uses modified comparative negligence with a 50 percent bar under § 78B-5-818. A person 49 percent at fault still recovers 51 percent of their damages. At 50 percent, they recover nothing.
That single line is why insurers work to shift even a small share of blame onto the injured driver. Moving someone from 45 percent to 50 percent does not reduce the claim. It ends it.
The evidence that expires first
- Security and traffic camera footage — many businesses overwrite within 14 to 30 days.
- Vehicle positions and skid marks — gone within hours.
- The vehicle itself — once repaired or salvaged, it cannot be inspected.
- Electronic data in commercial trucks — sometimes overwritten within days.
- Witness memory — weeks, not years.
If a business near the intersection has cameras, ask for the footage to be preserved in writing now.
The two deadlines
This is the part almost nobody is told. Utah runs different clocks for different parts of the same crash.
- Personal injury — four years. Utah Code § 78B-2-307.
- Vehicle property damage — three years. § 78B-2-305. This covers diminished value, total loss and repair.
- Wrongful death — two years. § 78B-2-304.
- A claim involving a government entity — UDOT, UTA, a city, a state agency — requires a formal Notice of Claim within one year under the Utah Governmental Immunity Act.
A person can be comfortably inside the injury deadline and already barred from recovering what their vehicle lost.
Your car is part of the claim
Most people let the insurer handle the vehicle and focus on the injury. That split is expensive. A repaired car is usually worth less than the same car never crashed, and that lost value — diminished value — is recoverable from the at-fault driver's insurer. Few people are told to ask for it.
A low early vehicle settlement can also be used later to argue the impact was minor, which weakens the injury claim that follows.
A short checklist
- Medical care, and follow-through
- Photographs before anything moves
- Witness names and numbers
- Your own insurer notified
- No recorded statement or release to the other insurer in the first two weeks
- Camera footage preservation requested
- Both deadlines on the calendar — four years and three
LawyerUp handles the vehicle claim alongside the injury claim, so none of this has to be split between two offices. Call (801) 685-1000. You can get through this.