Minor rear-end collision today, driver didn’t stop

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Kind of complicated. I was stopped at a light. It turned green but there was a long line of cars, but the driver behind me apparently just went on green even thought the three cars in front of her hadn't moved yet. I felt a mild bump, and my first though was that it felt like my car stalling in 1st or reverse when I forget to keep the clutch pedal down or put it in neutral.

I then look in the rear view mirror and see the driver's face, where she's covering her mouth with her hand in an OMG manner. There was no place to stop, so I drove to the closest spot and hoped the other driver would see it and and we could figure what to do next, although she got caught up by the ref light. There wasn't much damage. I didn't see anything that stood out to her front bumper. My car barely got dinged, I think from a license plate bracket bolt. I'm guessing it was no more than 2 MPH. But I was waiting and either she didn't see where I stopped or she deliberately took off.

Now I'm not sure how to handle this. I don't see any damage to my car that touch up paint won't handle, but I would have liked for the other driver to have stopped.
 
Once again, my best advice is to get a dash cam. Fair ones can be had for $20. Vantrue makes one that is high quality front and back

Otherwise, enjoy the new ding.
 
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Either live with the damage or tell her you will get a quote from a body shop and she can pay you that amount if she doesn't want to go through insurance.
 
Originally Posted by StevieC
Either live with the damage or tell her you will get a quote from a body shop and she can pay you that amount if she doesn't want to go through insurance.


Don't quite know what happened. This was by a convoluted freeway entrance with few places to stop, so I drove slowly but I didn't see her vehicle following me when it turned green.

Also, I got rear ended, but I suppose there are rear facing cams too.
 
If there is a possibility of you fixing yourself enough to live with it, do that. No reason to get insurance involved unless you have to.

I've been in two collisions where the other party left. One of them actually came back after 20 minutes.
 
Know the potential consequences if you file a police report.

Most police reports will include a VIN number which will eventually show up on a Carfax.
 
Originally Posted by y_p_w
There was no place to stop, so I drove to the closest spot and hoped the other driver would see it and and we could figure what to do next,


What do you mean no place to stop? You WERE stopped at a red light. Should have stepped out of the car right there and got her info
 
Thanks for educating us on , what could happen.

Could you have gotten out of your vehicle and wrote her plate number down ?
Communicate with the driver as to where to pull over to ?

I could see a lot of drivers leaving the scene if they thought they could get away with it.
 
Most of the time, police won't even make a report for anything less than $750 damage to each vehicle. I believe they would call it "cosmetic" from what you describe, and not write a report even if you asked for one.

I'm pretty sure your insurance will tell you there isn't much they can do either.
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Originally Posted by skyactiv
Know the potential consequences if you file a police report.

Most police reports will include a VIN number which will eventually show up on a Carfax.



Wisdom speaks.

If you can fix it with touch up paint, I'd probably do that and move on.
 
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Most of this is pointless because there are so many uninsured and illegals in California. It's happened to our family in southern California several times over the years. Just make sure your insurance is sufficient to cover your losses.
 
Originally Posted by NO2
Most of this is pointless because there are so many uninsured and illegals in California. It's happened to our family in southern California several times over the years. Just make sure your insurance is sufficient to cover your losses.

Michigan ranks about fourth in the U.S. for percentage of uninsured drivers (20%) compared to California ranked twelfth at about 15%. My family has been involved twice with uninsured motorists in Michigan. Check your insurance to make sure you have enough uninsured motorist coverage (at least $250,000). $100,000 was not enough to cover my wife's injuries.
 
Do nothing except clean it up / fix it yourself. Why would you file a claim with your insurance against yourself effectively ? When there's no one else to assign blame to, it goes against you. It's no different than if you backed into a light post in a parking lot or you backed into a car.

Based on what you described, the police in 90% of localities will not get involved so drop that thought. I wonder if the other driver saw you drive off and figured you weren't concerned. You gave her no indication otherwise. She might have thought you don't have insurance or a license and left it at that.
 
Had much the same thing happen to me. I was driving my almost new Solara and the clown behind me rolled into me with an old clunker. We were all sitting still but heading downhill at the time. I got out and had a look - a new quite small symmetrical crease in the bumper on either side of the licence plate.

He actually wondered if I had accidentally backed and run into him (backed uphill! with a manual transmission!). How likely was that? Then he said something like, nice car but you'll soon have lots of dents in it (what a jerk).

I could have made a big deal about it but I didn't want to replace or repaint the bumper anyway so I just sucked it up and moved on.

That bumper was later wiped out entirely when my daughter was heavily rear ended by a new driver (who offered to pay for the damages rather than report the accident but that's another story). So I guess I made the right decision.
 
If you didn't get any information about the other car or driver, that's it. It's over. Hit it with some touch-up paint and move on with your life. I know, "stuff" happens that shouldn't.
 
Originally Posted by chainblu
If you didn't get any information about the other car or driver, that's it. It's over. Hit it with some touch-up paint and move on with your life. I know, "stuff" happens that shouldn't.


Yup. What else can you do?
 
Sorry to hear. I was recently involved in a small accident and my biggest takeaway is do NOT get the police or insurance involved unless necessary. I was improperly ticketed and now most likely my insurance rates will be going up.
 
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