Using IMPD’s Driver Exchange Tool After a Minor Crash

If you’ve ever been in a fender bender in Indianapolis, you probably know the routine. You pull over, call the police, and wait, sometimes for quite a while, for an officer to arrive and take down everyone’s information. Given how busy Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers can be at any given moment, their arrival time can be anyone’s guess.

Now, thanks to a new driver exchange tool, that wait is over for a lot of minor crashes. If no one has sustained an injury, and the property damage is believed to be less than $2,500, IMPD dispatchers will text the involved drivers a link, and they can swap their information through the tool instead of waiting at the scene. IMPD has said it wants to get drivers off the roadside sooner and keep officers free for calls that involve the city’s serious or life-threatening emergencies.

Though the tool is limited to Indianapolis crashes, and not a statewide rollout, attorney Matt Boulton believes its purpose and design make sense, but only for a true fender bender.

After more than 30 years of handling car accident cases, though, attorney Boulton has seen plenty of crashes that seemed small at the time but eventually turned out to involve objective injuries and significant compensation. With this in mind, he encourages drivers to truly understand the tool’s purpose and where it may fall short, helping ensure no one risks jeopardizing their legal rights.

How the Driver Exchange Tool works

The new process starts with a phone call to inform authorities of the collision. Once your car is out of traffic, on the shoulder or in a nearby parking lot, you can call IMPD’s non-emergency line at 317-327-3811.

Dispatch will then text you what is known as a Driver Exchange Link. You’ll then open the link and follow the steps that enable you and the other driver to trade the information you’ll each need for an insurance claim. When you’re finished, you can leave without having the need for an officer to respond to the scene.

A copy of the completed exchange is then available free at CrashDocs.org, and you can download it whenever you need it.

The No-Injury Requirement

Using the driver exchange tool means telling dispatch that nobody was hurt. That can be a hard call to make minutes after a crash, especially when adrenaline can effectively hide and delay an accident victim’s pain. It’s well-documented that whiplash, concussions, and back injuries commonly take hours or days to produce symptoms.

It’s also important to remember that invisible injuries, such as soft-tissue damage to tendons, muscles, and ligaments, rarely show up on an X-ray, and the stiffness or pain tends to build over a day or two instead of appearing at the scene.

Insurance companies know this, and they use it. Delayed injuries are one of the most disputed components of a car accident claim, and soft-tissue injuries get the most pushback. An adjuster may argue that pain that started a day later came from something other than the crash, or that a crash with minor property damage couldn’t have caused it, and then use that argument to reduce an offer or deny the injury portion of the claim.

Before you make that call, check on everyone in your car, including children and older passengers. If anyone is hurt or might be, call 911 rather than the non-emergency line. You’ll want emergency workers and an officer to visit the scene of any accident involving a known injury.

If pain shows up the next day, see a doctor even though you used a no-injury process. The other driver’s insurer may later argue that using the tool shows you weren’t injured. Medical records made soon after the crash are the strongest response to that claim, and getting checked is the right thing for your health and long-term care.

The $2,500 Limit

The second requirement is that the property damage totals less than $2,500.

The $2,500 figure is derived from Indiana Code § 9-26-2-1, which requires police to investigate any crash that injures or kills someone or causes at least $2,500 in total property damage. For crashes below that line, the officer’s duty is to make sure the drivers have stopped and exchanged information, which is the step the new tool now handles.

The problem is that nobody at the scene actually knows what the damage costs. You’re looking at a cracked bumper cover and guessing. On a newer car, that bumper may hold parking sensors, radar for adaptive cruise control, or a camera, and replacing and recalibrating those parts can run past $2,500 on their own. Bent brackets, frame damage, and suspension problems often stay hidden until a body shop takes the car apart.

If there’s a real chance the repairs will be expensive, describe what you’re seeing to the dispatcher before accepting the link. Underestimating the damage at the curb can leave you with a large claim and no officer’s report behind it.

Where the Driver Exchange Tool Helps

Waiting on the shoulder is one of the more dangerous parts of a minor crash. Traffic keeps moving past you, and on a busy road like Keystone Avenue or Washington Street, every extra minute out there carries risk to you and other drivers. Being able to minimize that time is a positive step for accident victims, surrounding traffic, and officers.

Attorney Boulton also sees another lesser-known benefit the driver exchange tool provides. Shaken-up drivers often leave a crash with a first name and a phone number for the other driver and nothing else. When the other driver stops answering calls, getting their insurance information can take weeks, if they ever actually provide it. The tool’s guided form that asks for everything up front should help to reduce these types of scenarios.

Fault and Documentation

When an officer responds to a crash, they provide a neutral assessment of how the crash occurred, talk to witnesses, record where the vehicles stopped, and write down each driver’s account. Now, the Driver Exchange Tool only records who was involved and how they’re insured. Nobody decides or documents how the crash happened. And while that may be alright for minor collisions, it has the potential to be a drawback for victims with delayed injuries.

Indiana follows modified comparative fault, meaning if you’re found more than 50% responsible, you have no legal right to recover damages, and to whatever degree you’re placed at fault, your recovery is reduced by that percentage. Drivers’ accounts sometimes change once an insurance company gets involved, and without a police report, the evidence you gathered yourself carries more weight.

While you’re still at the scene, photograph both vehicles, the damage, the license plates, where the cars came to rest, and the road, including any traffic signals or signs. Ask anyone who saw the crash for a name and phone number. Write a few notes about what happened before you drive away. And when you talk with the other driver, keep it to the facts. Apologizing or guessing about who caused the crash can come back up later, and without an officer’s report, there’s less on record to balance it out.

Checking the Other Driver’s Information

The exchange depends on both drivers entering accurate information. Ask to see the other driver’s license and insurance card, and take a photo of both. Then compare them to the car in front of you. The policy should be current, and the plate and vehicle should match what the driver enters. A wrong policy number or an expired card is much easier to sort out in the parking lot than a week later over the phone.

The person driving isn’t always the person who owns the car. If the other driver borrowed it from a friend or family member, get the owner’s name as well, since the insurance card will usually be in the owner’s name. Work vehicles and rideshare cars deserve the same attention. A company truck, or a driver working for Uber or Lyft at the time, may be covered by a commercial policy, so write down the company name and anything printed on the vehicle, like a business name or DOT number.

Call 911 if the other driver won’t cooperate, appears impaired, becomes hostile, or leaves the scene. If they have no insurance, call 911 too, and then look at your own policy. Indiana insurers are required to offer uninsured motorist coverage, and if you have it, it may cover losses the other driver can’t.

When to Call an Attorney

For a parking lot scrape where everyone feels fine, the Driver Exchange Tool should work as intended for most Indianapolis accident victims.

Otherwise, you need to contact an experienced Indianapolis injury attorney if any of the following occurs:

• new symptoms or any pain appears in the hours or days after the crash
• the other driver disputes what happened
• the repair estimate comes in far above what you expected
• an insurance adjuster is pressing you for a statement or to settle while you’re still in pain

The other driver’s insurance company may call within a day or two asking to record your account of the crash. You aren’t required to give one, and talking with an attorney first costs nothing.

Matt Boulton handles every case personally, start to finish. Under the firm’s Zero Fee Guarantee, consultations are free, and there’s no fee unless compensation is recovered for you. Matt can be reached directly at 317-350-2680. If you prefer to write to us, you can send your story to the firm by using our confidential, free contact form.