Transcript:
Car accidents should be reported to the police because it gives law enforcement an opportunity to document what happened and document the physical evidence at the scene. This is information that can be lost or disputed later. So when the law enforcements comes, they will document and do an accident scene diagram showing where all the cars came to final rest and document the type of damage that was done. Generally speaking, when law enforcement comes to a crash site to investigate the accident, they will speak to each driver involved separately.
Florida has what's called the Accident Report Privilege, which means that anything that a driver of a car tells an investigating law officer about how the accident happened is privileged and can never be used in court. So it's important to know what the defendant driver told you at the scene between the two of you, which is admissible, or what they told just to the investigating officer because that's not admissible. Whatever a driver tells the investigating officer at the scene is not admissible, meaning the police officer is not allowed to come into court with his badge on and his uniform on and tell the jury the defendant admitted he was playing with his cellphone at the time of the accident. It's not permitted. But if the defendant driver tells you at the crash site that I was filling with my phone or playing with my radio when I run into the rear of your car, that is admissible if it's said outside the presence of the police officer.
