The First Seventy Two Hours After You Hit Something

Get everyone out of the traffic lane and account for passengers and pets before you think about the vehicle. A coach that has been struck may have a compromised LP line, a damaged battery bank or a slide that will not retract, and none of those are worth investigating in a lane of traffic. If there is any smell of propane, shut the tank valve and keep people away from the vehicle.

Once the scene is stable, photograph before anything moves. Position tells a story that a repair estimate never can: where each vehicle came to rest, skid marks, debris field, lighting, weather, sight lines. Take those wide shots first, because as soon as a vehicle is moved that record is gone permanently and no amount of later documentation reconstructs it.

Then work inward. All four corners of every vehicle involved. The damage itself. The other party's license, insurance card and plate photographed rather than transcribed, because handwriting errors on a policy number cost days. Names and numbers from witnesses before traffic clears. A police report where there is injury, a fault dispute or significant property damage.

On a car, four corner photographs cover it. On a forty foot coach, four corner photographs miss most of the vehicle. Walk the full length of both sides and shoot overlapping frames, because damage on a long body is frequently not where you expect and a scrape that starts at the front wheel can end eighteen feet back.

Photograph the roof line if there is any chance the coach struck an overhead obstruction, and photograph the underside if it hit a curb, a berm or a ramp transition. Roof edge and underside damage are the two most under documented failure locations on recreational vehicle claims, and both are exactly where water intrusion and chassis damage originate.

Then photograph the things that are not damage but are evidence of damage. A compartment door that will not latch. A slide that hesitates. A gap that is wider on one side than the other. Those are the symptoms that prove energy traveled, and they are the difference between a cosmetic estimate and an accurate one. Include a reference object for scale in tight shots.

Report to your own carrier promptly regardless of who you believe was at fault. Delay is one of the most common reasons a carrier questions a claim, and there is no benefit to waiting while you decide. If you later choose not to pursue it, that is a normal outcome and it costs you nothing to have reported.

State facts. Where the vehicle was, what direction it was traveling, what it struck or what struck it, what conditions were. Avoid speculating about cause, fault or mechanical condition, because a guess offered in the first phone call can follow the file for months. If you do not know, say you do not know.

Ask three things during that call: who owns the file and how to reach them directly, whether the claim is assigned to a recreational vehicle specialty desk or a general auto desk, and which endorsements apply to your policy including attached accessories, personal effects, emergency expense and loss of use. Write down the answers with the date.

A substantial share of the structural work at OCRV Center arrives on a transport truck rather than under its own power, and that is completely normal for major damage. Every repair happens at the Yorba Linda facility, so the vehicle does need to reach us, and arranging transport is a step worth starting on day one rather than day ten.

Do not authorize a storage yard to begin any repair, and be careful about where the vehicle is stored, because storage charges accumulate quickly on a vehicle this size and carriers frequently dispute days that were not authorized in advance. Moving the coach to the repair facility early stops one meter and starts a documented one.

If the coach is drivable and you plan to drive it, check tire condition, verify that all lighting works, confirm no slide or awning component is loose enough to move at highway speed, and make sure nothing is dragging. A drivable coach that loses a piece of trim on the 91 has just created a second claim.

Bring the claim number, the adjuster contact, your declarations page and every photograph you took. Bring service records if you have them, because documented recent work on the roof, tires or generator directly affects valuation if the claim ever becomes a total loss conversation. Bring receipts for any aftermarket equipment on the vehicle.

The visit produces an arrival condition record with photographs, a check of every door, compartment and slide, structural measurement where impact energy could have reached the chassis or cage, and a separation of pre-existing damage from loss damage. Then a written repair plan with operations, part numbers and hours goes to your carrier ahead of their inspection.

Collision estimates are written at the shop and insurance walk-ins are welcome during business hours. An RV systems evaluation covering slides, awnings, water, electrical or generator work is one hundred fifty dollars, credited against an authorized repair. In-depth diagnostic time runs one hour minimum at two hundred eighty five dollars per hour, credited the same way.

The first is cleaning up. Owners sweep glass, pull a hanging piece of trim off and wash the side before taking pictures, all with good intentions. Photograph first. A repaired scene is a scene with no evidence in it.

The second is accepting a repair authorization on a phone call and never getting it in writing. Adjusters change, regions reassign, and a verbal approval that nobody documented becomes unauthorized work weeks later. Ask for confirmation by email every time, and send your own summary of what was agreed.

The third is not reading the declarations page. Owners routinely discover in week four that they had emergency expense coverage they never used, or that their loss of use limit was written for a rental car and not for a place to live. Read it in the first seventy two hours while you still have choices about how to handle the repair timeline.