The short answer: start building your file before your pain meds wear off and before everyone else's memory gets convenient.

In New Hampshire, this matters because fault is everything. It's an at-fault state, and the modified comparative fault rule means your payout can get cut if they pin part of this on you, and barred entirely if they get you to 51% or more. That is exactly why the insurer starts sniffing around for statements while the crosswalk paint, traffic camera footage, and witness memory are still fading.

If you were walking to a coffee shop in Manchester, Nashua, Keene, Dover, Concord, Portsmouth, or some smaller downtown where parking lots spill onto busy roads, don't think of this as "the accident file." Think of it as proof of what the street looked like, what your body looked like, what your gear looked like, and what the driver was doing.

Photograph the scene like the road crew is coming in an hour

If you can't go back yourself, have someone you trust go now.

Get wide shots first.

You want the whole intersection or block, not just one dramatic close-up of broken plastic in the gutter. Photograph the crosswalk, lane markings, walk signal, stop line, curb cuts, snowbanks if they're still hanging around in March, puddles, sand, ice, dirty slush, potholes, construction barrels, and any sign that a driver's view was blocked.

Then get the approach.

Stand where the driver was coming from and photograph what they would have seen from 200 feet out, 100 feet out, and 50 feet out. In a New Hampshire spring, freeze-thaw damage, low sun glare, leftover snow piles, and soaked shoulders can all become part of the story. On roads like South Willow in Manchester, Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua, Loudon Road in Concord, or Route 101A near the retail mess around Amherst and Merrimack, visibility and driver speed are always part of the fight.

Then get your damage.

Your clothes. Your shoes. The tear in your coat. The dirt on one side. The blood. The bent glasses. The backpack strap that snapped. The laptop bag. The laptop itself. The cracked phone screen. The coffee that ended up on the pavement. Photograph all of it before anything gets washed, tossed, or "cleaned up."

Do the same with your body.

Bruising changes fast. Swelling changes fast. Road rash starts healing. Take photos of your leg in the splint, the bruising around the hip, your hands, elbows, back, and anything that shows impact points. If the broken leg threw you down hard and your tailbone or pelvis got lit up too, document that even if the ER was focused on the obvious fracture.

Save the stuff people stupidly throw away

Do not wash the clothes.

Do not replace the broken phone.

Do not recycle the cracked bike helmet if you had one.

Do not let a family member "help" by tossing the ruined messenger bag and ordering you a new laptop sleeve.

Bag the clothing. Save the shoes. Save the shattered glasses. Save the damaged laptop, charger, and bag if they took the hit. If you earn your living freelance from home, that laptop is not some side issue. It's part of the damage, and the downtime matters.

Save receipts for the immediate scramble too: crutches, rides, pharmacy runs, an Uber to an orthopedic follow-up in Lebanon or Manchester, a cheap backup keyboard because you can't comfortably work from bed.

Witnesses disappear faster than skid marks

People always think the police "got the witnesses."

Sometimes they did. Sometimes they got one name and a bad phone number. Sometimes the best witness was the woman waiting outside a coffee shop who left after five minutes because she had to get to work in Hillsborough County.

Go back and get names now.

Ask the coffee shop manager if any employees saw it. Ask nearby businesses if they saw the impact or the aftermath. If there were contractors, delivery drivers, or utility crews nearby, those are often gold because they notice traffic patterns and tend to remember what lane a car was in.

Use one simple message when you reach out: date, time, exact location, and "I'm trying to preserve what happened before memories fade." Don't argue facts. Don't coach anybody.

Get the video before it gets overwritten

This is where a lot of cases get wrecked.

Dashcam footage, store security video, apartment cameras, and doorbell footage often vanish in days, not months. Some systems overwrite in 24 to 72 hours. Gas stations, banks, strip malls, municipal buildings, parking garages, and even the little bakery next to the crosswalk may have caught something.

You do not need to wait around hoping the police collect all of it.

Ask immediately and specifically. Date. Exact time. Which direction the driver was traveling. Which corner you were on. If they won't hand it over to you directly, ask them to preserve it. The key word is preserve.

One clean checklist:

• the police incident number
• the officer's name and department
• names and phone numbers of every witness you can find
• photos of the full scene, your injuries, your clothes, and damaged property
• nearby businesses or homes with cameras
• any dashcam mention from the driver, a witness, police, or a rideshare vehicle nearby
• your phone screenshots showing call times, texts, ride receipts, map history, and photo timestamps

Yes, save your phone records

Not because your phone is magic.

Because timestamps are.

Your photos show when you got there. Your call log shows when 911 was called or when you called your partner from the curb. Your text messages show what you said before you had time to polish the story. Your maps history may show that you were on foot, headed the same route you take every morning, not darting randomly into traffic like the insurer may later suggest.

Back that up now. Screenshots, cloud upload, export if you can.

If your phone was damaged in the crash, photograph it before repair. Then save the repair estimate or replacement receipt.

Get the police report, but don't worship it

Request it as soon as it's available from the department that responded, whether that was local police or State Police on a bigger road. Basic facts in that report matter: location, date, time, parties, witnesses, diagram, and whether the driver got cited.

But here's what most people don't realize: police reports are often incomplete on the stuff that later matters most.

They may not include every witness. They may get the crossing location slightly wrong. They may not capture that the walk signal was lit. They may not mention the driver's first apology. They may not note that a store camera was pointed right at the curb lane.

So get the report, read it, and compare it against your photos, your timestamps, and the scene itself.

If you're laid up in an apartment in Keene or a third-floor walk-up in Dover with a broken leg and no group disability coverage coming to rescue you, evidence is your leverage. Not outrage. Not pain alone. Not the fact that the driver "felt terrible."

The insurer is counting on the scene getting cleaned up, the witnesses going back to their lives, the video getting recorded over, and your work life blowing up badly enough that you stop chasing details.

That's the whole game in the first week.