How long does it usually take to notify family members of an accident?

There is no specific time in the law to inform family members. Under normal circumstances, the traffic police shall verify the identity of the parties involved in road traffic accidents as soon as possible, and notify the families of the casualties, the medical institutions or the corpse storage units where the injured seek medical treatment. If a road traffic accident causes death and the identity cannot be confirmed, the traffic administrative department of the public security organ shall publish a corpse identification announcement in a newspaper at or above the municipal level within seven days from the date of the road traffic accident. If the report is still unclaimed after 30 days, the forensic doctor shall first extract the personal identification materials, take photos of the corpse according to the standards of the Rules on Methods of Photography and Video Recording for Corpse Identification, and after collecting relevant information, the traffic management department of the public security organ shall fill in the information registration form of the unknown corpse.

legal ground

Article 30 of the Civil Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC)

It is stipulated that the lawsuit for claiming damages due to railway, highway, water and aviation accidents shall be under the jurisdiction of the people's court where the accident occurred or where the vehicle or ship first arrived, where the aircraft first landed or where the defendant lived.