Being in a car accident can be a very stressful situation. Fortunately with a little knowledge some of the stress can be relieved. First off make sure that you and the other party involved are ok. Cars are easy to fix, people however are more difficult. Secondly call the police. It is very important that a report be made. Many times people that dont get reports end up getting screwed in the end. However if you feel confident that the other party is going to admit fault when it comes down to making the claim then exchanging insurance information is not a bad idea. Many times on minor wrecks, (accidents where there are no injuries), the police can take a long time to show up and do they report. By exchanging information you can save yourself a lot of headache and waiting. Once the report or information has been exchaned then it is necessary to contact the insurance company. From my experience it is better to involve ONLY the responsible parties insurance. Only use your insurance if the other person does not have insurance, or the company is giving you a hard time. These days insurance companies use any excuse to raise your rates. It would be unfortunate for rates to increase through the fault of another driver. Lastly you need to get your car towed. While your insurance may provide one for you, a lot of times they are not very efficent. A lot of times they can upwards of 2 hours to reach you. You can either ask the police to arrange a wrecker or you can contract one out of the phone book. You are already making a claim so using a towing service out of insurance companies “network” is not going to cost any more or less. Most of the time the body shop that you want to go to has a towing service that they can make availible to you. When you have insurance there should be no up front cost of paying the wrecker bill. Any reputable body shop will pay the wrecker bill and then have the insurance pay for it when they do the estimate for repairs. When trying to select a shop, the task can be very daunting. Insurance companies will try to “strong arm” you in to taking your car to one of thier “preferred” shops. The only thing preferrred about these places is the discounts that they give to the insurance companies. Ask your friends or family for referrals. You could even go to the dealership. Just keep in mind that insurance companies are trying to save money by using thier preferred shops. These shops have to cut corners to re-coup the discounts that they give to insurance companies. And often than not the corners that they cut are in the craftsman ship of the repair job of your vehicle.