A minor accident rattles people out of proportion to the actual damage, and panic in the moment tends to skip the exact steps that protect you afterward. Here's the actual order worth following, calmly, before anything else.

Check for injuries first, yours and anyone else involved. If there's any real injury, call 911 immediately. For property-damage-only accidents, move to a safe location if the vehicles are drivable and blocking traffic.

Document everything before anyone leaves. Photos of both vehicles, the damage, the position they ended up in, license plates, and the surrounding scene. This takes two minutes and matters enormously if there's ever a disagreement later about what happened.

Exchange information directly — name, insurance company, policy number, and contact information. Get the same from any witnesses nearby, even a quick name and phone number.

Be careful what you say. A reflexive "I'm sorry" said out of politeness has been used before as an implied admission of fault, even when fault wasn't actually clear yet. Stick to exchanging information and describing what happened factually.

Call the police for anything beyond the most trivial scrape, even if it seems unnecessary. An official report protects both sides from later disagreement about what actually occurred.

Report it to your own insurance promptly, regardless of who you believe was at fault. Waiting to report can complicate a claim later, no matter how clear the fault seemed at the scene.

A minor accident doesn't need to feel like a crisis. It needs this specific sequence of steps, done calmly, in order, rather than panic filling in the gaps where a plan should be.