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Montana driving lesson · Emergencies, Crashes & Penalties

At a crash scene and reporting it

A 4-minute lesson from the Montana course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.

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Read time
4 minutes
Course unit
Emergencies, Crashes & Penalties
Checkpoint questions
6
Source pages
89, 90

If you're involved in a crash, you must stop. What you do next — protecting the scene, helping the injured, and reporting — protects everyone and keeps you within the law.

Know the rule

Don't stop at a crash unless you're involved or emergency help hasn't arrived. Keep driving carefully, and never drive to a crash, fire or disaster just to look — you may block rescue vehicles.

Handbook p. 89 ↗

Your legal duties

  • If you're involved in a crash, you must stop
  • If you hit a parked vehicle, you must try to find the owner
  • If anyone is injured or killed, the police must be notified
  • Leaving a crash with injury or death before police get all the information is a crime
Handbook p. 89 ↗

Know the rule

Carry a basic emergency kit with flares and first-aid supplies.

Handbook p. 89 ↗

At the scene

  • Stop at or near the scene; if your car can move, get it off the road
  • Don't stand or walk in traffic lanes
  • Turn off wrecked vehicles' ignitions, and don't smoke — spilled fuel can ignite
  • Stay away from downed electrical wires
  • Use flares or other warning devices to alert traffic
Handbook p. 89 ↗

If someone is injured

  • Make sure police and EMS are called; mention any fire
  • Don't move the injured unless they're in a burning car or other immediate danger
  • Help anyone not walking and talking first: check breathing, then bleeding
  • Press directly on a bleeding wound with your hand or a cloth
  • Give injured people nothing to drink, not even water
  • Cover them with a blanket or coat to help prevent shock
Handbook p. 90 ↗

Exchange and record information

  • Names and addresses of everyone involved, injured persons and witnesses
  • Driver's name, address, license number and insurance company and policy number
  • Vehicle license plate, make, model and year
  • Damage to the vehicles involved
  • Parked car, no owner found: leave a note with how to reach you and the date and time
Handbook p. 90 ↗

When you must report

When you must report
Report toIf there is
Law enforcement, immediatelyInjury, death, or $500+ property damage
Montana Highway PatrolInjury, death, or $1,000+ to one person's property
Handbook p. 90 ↗
10 days

Deadline to file your accident report

Handbook p. 90 ↗

Know the rule

Accident forms are available at law enforcement agencies and from most insurance agents. If you're injured and can't complete the report, someone can file it for you.

Handbook p. 90 ↗

Put it into practice

Backing out in a lot, you dent a parked car and the owner isn't around. Leave a note where it will be seen, with how to reach you and the date and time. If the damage is $500 or more, report it to law enforcement too.

Check your understanding

Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.

If you're involved in a crash and someone is injured or killed, what must you do?
  1. You may leave if you weren't at fault
  2. You may leave after trading information
  3. You only need to notify your insurance company
  4. You must stop and the police must be notified

Answer: You must stop and the police must be notified

If anyone is injured or killed, you must stop and the police must be notified.

Handbook p. 89 ↗
Leaving the scene of a crash where your vehicle was involved, before police have gathered all information, is:
  1. A crime, if there was an injury or death
  2. Always legal if you leave a note
  3. Only a civil matter, never criminal
  4. Legal as long as you call police later that day

Answer: A crime, if there was an injury or death

It is a crime to leave a crash scene involving injury or death before police have talked to you and gathered information.

Handbook p. 89 ↗
If someone is injured in a crash, what should you check first?
  1. Only people who are walking around
  2. Only the driver of the other vehicle
  3. Anyone not already walking and talking
  4. Property damage first, then injuries

Answer: Anyone not already walking and talking

First help anyone who isn't walking and talking; check for breathing, then check for bleeding.

Handbook p. 90 ↗
You must report an accident to law enforcement immediately if there is an injury, a death, or property damage of at least how much?
  1. $500
  2. $100
  3. $1,000
  4. $250

Answer: $500

Accidents with an injury, death, or property damage of $500 or more must be reported to law enforcement immediately.

Handbook p. 90 ↗
You must report to the Montana Highway Patrol if there is an injury, death, or property damage to one person's property of at least how much?
  1. $500
  2. $1,000
  3. $250
  4. $2,000

Answer: $1,000

Reporting to the Highway Patrol is required for injury, death, or property damage of $1,000 or more to one person's property.

Handbook p. 90 ↗
Within how many days of an accident must you file the accident report?
  1. 3 days
  2. 30 days
  3. 10 days
  4. 24 hours

Answer: 10 days

You must file an accident report within 10 days of the accident.

Handbook p. 90 ↗
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