KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the weather is bad, many police departments encourage walk-in accident reports, but without police at the crash scene, drivers could be put in a dangerous situation.
"We've seen a lot of accidents so far this year," Brian Rauber of Rauber Insurance Agency said. "Obviously it's been a long winter."
The crash reports and claims continue to pile up. Much like everyone else, Rauber had to take things slow on his way into work Wednesday.
"I saw wrecks this morning," he said. "I was almost in one myself so yeah, it was a challenge this morning."
As Rauber's phone rang off the hook, social media was flooded with crash stories. In a post on Facebook, a woman claims she was rear ended and then carjacked. When she got out of the car to exchange information, the woman said the other driver stole her keys and car.
Kansas City Police said there have been 19 robberies where a car was stolen in 2019 alone. There are several steps to prevent a situation like this from happening.
"Lock the doors," Rauber said. "It's important to turn the car off because if you don't, someone can steal it while you're talking to the other driver."
Aside from pulling over to a safe location and gathering insurance information, police say drivers should turn their flashers on and wait for an officer to arrive before getting out of the car, unless they feel safe.
Police said this type of carjacking doesn't happen often and drivers are more likely to be injured outside of the car in traffic than be the victim of a robbery.
