I caused a crash that hurt someone and I can't stop shaking — will I lose everything?

I was the at-fault driver in an accident a few years back that injured someone, and I want you to know the guilt spiral you're describing is so real and so exhausting. I barely functioned for weeks. What helped me was finally talking to an attorney — not because I was being sued yet, but just to understand what my actual exposure was. Knowing the real picture was way less scary than the worst-case scenarios my brain kept inventing at 3am.

Please be really careful about how much you talk to the insurance adjuster right now — even your own. Anything you say gets documented and can be used to characterize what happened. You don't have to be uncooperative, but you also don't have to volunteer a running commentary on every decision you made in those two seconds. Keep it factual and short.

Not legal advice, but a couple things worth knowing: in most states, if you're a permissive driver on someone else's policy, that policy is the primary coverage for a liability claim. Your personal assets are generally only at risk if a judgment exceeds the policy limits — and even then, judgment collection against someone with no income or assets is often not practical. Seriously, consult an attorney just to map out your actual exposure. Many do free consultations for exactly this kind of situation.

Worked claims for years. The scary truth is that "serious injury" language in an early adjuster call is sometimes just how we're trained to flag files — it doesn't always mean what you think. Your dad's policy limits are what matter most here. Do you know what the liability limits are on his policy? That number is really the ceiling of what the insurance company has to pay, and after that they defend any lawsuit. You personally being 22 with no assets makes you a very unattractive target for collection even if it went to judgment.

Can I just say — please pay attention to your own mental health right now. The guilt and the intrusive replaying of the event can turn into something clinical really fast, especially with the sleep deprivation you mentioned. That's not dramatic, that's just how trauma works on the nervous system. Even one session with a counselor or therapist can help interrupt that loop. You matter in this too.

One practical thing: if you haven't already, write down everything you remember about the road conditions, visibility, where the stopped people were standing, whether there were any hazard lights or warnings — everything. Do it now while it's fresh. That record could matter a lot if liability ever gets contested, because there may be shared fault here given that people were standing in a live travel lane without proper warnings.

Here's the bottom line: you can't un-do the accident, so stop spending energy on that loop. What you can control is making sure your dad calls his insurance broker today and confirms you're fully listed as a covered driver, and that he knows the exact liability limits on the policy. That's the number that defines your real-world risk. Everything else is noise until you know that.

I don't want to pile on but I do want to ask — was your following distance tight before this happened? I'm not trying to make you feel worse, I just think being honest with yourself about that matters both for your own understanding and because the other driver's attorneys will ask the same thing. The people standing in the lane may share fault, but the full picture matters.