Table of Contents
What Should You Do After a Joliet Car Accident?
Key Takeaways
- Illinois law requires you to stop, exchange information, and offer reasonable assistance to anyone injured.
- Which agency writes your crash report depends on the road you were on.
- You can recover damages only if your share of fault is 50% or less.
- Most Illinois injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the crash.
After a Joliet car accident, stop at the scene, call police, exchange information, and get evaluated by a doctor. What happens in the hours that follow often matters more than people expect. The officer who responds, the report number you write down, the photographs you take before the tow truck arrives: these become the record your claim is built on months later.
Joliet sits where Interstate 80 and Interstate 55 cross, so a collision here might be handled by city police or state troopers, and that one detail changes where your report ends up. At Conboy Law, we help injured drivers in Will County sort through what comes next. If you are unsure what your situation requires of you, our team can talk it through with you.
What to Do at the Scene of a Joliet Car Accident
Illinois law places specific duties on every driver involved in a collision, regardless of who caused it. We suggest working through the following sequence:
- Stop your vehicle and move it clear of traffic lanes only if doing so is safe.
- Call 911 if anyone is injured, or the Joliet Police non-emergency line at 815-726-2491 if no one is hurt.
- Exchange your name, address, vehicle registration number, and the vehicle owner's name with the other driver.
- Photograph both vehicles, the roadway, traffic controls, and any visible injuries before anything is moved.
- Write down the responding officer's name and the crash report number.
- Notify your own insurance company that a collision occurred.
Each of those steps produces something a claim later depends on.
Illinois Requires You to Stop and Stay at the Scene
Under 625 ILCS 5/11-401, a driver involved in a crash causing injury or death must stop immediately at the scene, or as close to it as possible. That driver must remain until the duties in Section 11-403 are complete.
Leaving before then is a Class 4 felony under the statute. The stop itself should not obstruct traffic more than necessary.
What Information You Must Exchange Under Illinois Law
Section 11-403 requires you to give your name, address, registration number, and the name of the vehicle's owner. That information goes to anyone struck and to the driver or occupant of any vehicle you collided with.
You must also show your driver's license on request if it is available. If nobody present can receive that information, and no officer is on scene, the statute directs you to report it at a police station.
Rendering Reasonable Assistance to Anyone Injured
The same section requires reasonable assistance to anyone hurt in the collision. In practice, that can mean calling an ambulance or arranging transportation to a hospital when treatment is clearly needed, or when the injured person asks for it.
Which Police Agency Responds Depends on Where You Crashed
Two interstates and several state routes run through the city, and jurisdiction follows the roadway. Knowing which department wrote your report can save weeks of calling the wrong records desk. Collisions in unincorporated areas just past the city limits may instead fall to the Will County Sheriff's Office, which maintains its own records.
Crashes on City Streets
The Joliet Police Department handles collisions on municipal streets. Its online reporting tool covers private property crashes only. For a crash on a public roadway, or one that caused injuries, the department directs drivers to call 815-726-2491 or 911.
Crashes on Interstate 80, Interstate 55, and Route 30
Illinois State Police generally investigate collisions on interstates and state routes. When no trooper reaches you at the scene, ISP accepts in-person desk reports at several locations, including the Illinois Department of Transportation Park and Ride at Interstate 55 and Route 30.
How Illinois Crash Reporting Rules Actually Work
This is the point most drivers get wrong, partly because the guidance has shifted in recent years.
When Illinois Requires You to Notify Police
If no officer is present, Illinois law requires a driver to promptly notify law enforcement when a crash causes injury or death, more than $1,500 in property damage, or more than $500 in property damage when an uninsured vehicle is involved. Drivers no longer have to complete and submit the former Illinois Motorist Report themselves.
When police investigate a qualifying crash, the law-enforcement agency handles the required crash reporting to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
How to Request Your Crash Report
City police reports are sold through BuyCrash, and insurance carriers request copies the same way. Allow several days after the report is finished before ordering. If state police investigate instead, request the report through their records process.
Why You Should Be Evaluated Medically Even If You Feel Fine
Adrenaline masks a great deal. Concussions, disc injuries, and soft tissue damage frequently announce themselves two or three days later, once the initial rush has worn off and inflammation has set in.
There is a practical reason to be seen promptly as well. When someone waits three weeks to visit a doctor, the insurance adjuster reviewing the file will argue that something else caused the injury during those three weeks. A same-day or next-day record closes that argument before it starts.
Describe every symptom at that first appointment, not only the worst one. People tend to mention the obvious shoulder pain and skip the headaches, the numbness in two fingers, or the trouble sleeping. Symptoms left out of the earliest chart note are the ones an insurer later treats as unrelated to the collision.
If you were hurt in a collision in Joliet and are unsure whether you need an attorney, we are glad to look at it with you. Call Conboy Law at 312-726-9000 for a free case evaluation.
Evidence Worth Preserving After a Crash
Physical proof disappears faster than most people anticipate. We ask clients to hold on to several things:
- Photographs of both vehicles from multiple angles, including the interiors.
- Contact details for every witness, including passengers riding in other cars.
- Dashcam video or nearby business surveillance footage, requested in writing before it is overwritten.
- Every medical record, discharge instruction, and prescription receipt.
- Damaged clothing, a child safety seat, or a bicycle involved in the collision.
- A short written account of what happened, put on paper the same day.
The value of this material is that it does not change while memories do.
Illinois Laws That Shape What You Can Recover
The 50% Fault Bar Under Illinois Comparative Negligence Law
Illinois follows modified comparative negligence under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116. If the trier of fact finds your contributory fault greater than 50% of the proximate cause, you are barred from recovering anything.
At 50% or less, your damages are reduced in proportion to your share. A driver found 20% responsible in a case worth $100,000 would recover $80,000. That arithmetic explains why adjusters press on fault from the first phone call.
The Two-Year Deadline to File a Lawsuit
Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, most Illinois personal injury actions must be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrued. Courts apply that deadline strictly.
The One-Year Deadline for Certain Government Claims
Injury actions against a qualifying municipality, county, or other local public entity or employee are generally subject to a one-year filing deadline under 745 ILCS 10/8-101.
The Chicago Transit Authority is governed by a separate statute. Personal injury actions against the CTA generally must also be commenced within one year under 70 ILCS 3605/41.
Why Not Wearing a Seat Belt Cannot Be Used Against You
Under 625 ILCS 5/12-603.1, failure to wear a seat belt is not evidence of negligence, does not limit an insurer's liability, and does not diminish recovery for damages. Adjusters occasionally raise it regardless.
Talking With Insurance Companies After a Collision
Illinois requires liability coverage of at least $25,000 for the injury or death of one person and $50,000 when more than one person is hurt, plus $20,000 for property damage. State law also requires uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage, which becomes the relevant policy when the at-fault driver carries nothing.
Those minimum limits may be inadequate when a collision causes serious injuries. If the at-fault driver's applicable bodily injury liability limits are lower than your underinsured motorist limits, UIM coverage may provide an additional source of recovery, subject to your damages, applicable offsets, and policy terms.
The other driver's adjuster may call within days asking for a recorded statement. You are not obligated to provide one.
What you say about how you feel that week can be quoted back to you months later, after imaging reveals something the emergency department missed. At Conboy Law, we prefer to review the policies and the medical records before that conversation happens.
Your own coverage may also be doing work you have not noticed. Medical payments coverage, if you purchased it, pays treatment costs regardless of fault, and your health insurer may assert a right to reimbursement out of any later recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions About Joliet Car Accidents
If no officer is present, promptly notify law enforcement when the crash causes injury or death, more than $1,500 in property damage, or more than $500 in property damage when an uninsured vehicle is involved.
City police reports are sold through BuyCrash. If Illinois State Police investigated your collision instead, request the report through their records process.
Your own uninsured motorist coverage may respond, since Illinois requires that coverage on every auto policy. We review your declarations page to confirm the limits available to you.
Yes, provided your share of fault is 50% or less. Your recovery is then reduced by whatever percentage of responsibility is assigned to you.
Illinois State Police generally handle collisions on interstates and state routes. Municipal police handle crashes occurring on city streets.
Talk With Our Joliet Car Accident Attorney at Conboy Law
The two-year filing deadline generally begins running on the date of the collision, whether or not anyone explains that to you at the scene. Meanwhile, you may be managing a rental car, a body shop estimate, medical appointments, and calls from insurance companies.
Joseph Conboy and our team handle car accident claims for people throughout Will County. We start by identifying which agency wrote your report, what coverage is actually available to you, and which filing deadline governs your particular situation.
You do not have to decide anything today, and asking a question costs you nothing. To talk with a Joliet car accident attorney at Conboy Law about what happened and what options may be open to you, call 312-726-9000 for a free case evaluation.
Joseph M. Conboy is the founding attorney of Conboy Law and represents victims and families in serious personal injury, medical malpractice, and wrongful death cases throughout Illinois. He has obtained numerous multi-million-dollar results and has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star. As the firm’s primary litigator, he works closely with clients to build strategies tailored to the facts of each case.
