I rear ended someone today, and there was no damage to their bumper since I bumped him at like 1 mile per hour.
After looking at his bumper, he still called the police, who said that there was practically no damage and a police report wasn’t necessary. Despite this, the guy insisted that a police report be made.
What should I do? Should I still contact and tell my insurance?
Rear ended someone with no visible damage at all and he still filed a police report. What should I do? (Georgia)
byu/SirinHOV inInsurance
Posted by SirinHOV
14 Comments
I’m curious how this sub will react to this, but in my opinion, if you saw zero damage, I don’t believe you should report the claim.
If it does get reported, tell them literally everything you wrote here. Very low speed accident, you didn’t see any damage, saw no reason to report. They will investigate the bumper, and if they find something, cool. If they don’t, I’m not even sure what he’s making a claim for.
There could be more damage to either of your vehicles that isn’t easily visible. Yes, call your insurance asap and work with the police as well
All because there is no visible damage, that does not mean there is no damage to underside of car. You reporting that you hit him going a mile doesn’t mean that’s the case. Been there done that. I would do the same if I were that guy. But I would report to your insurance either way just in case he reports it
In your first sentence, you said “no damage.” But in the next sentence, you said “practically no damage.” Which is it? Even if there’s a small scratch, you caused that and the other person deserves to have that taken care of.
He got your information in the police report, just wait and see if he wants to file a claim, don’t do it for him.
New cars have a lot of technology that could be damaged even if you didn’t see any damage. My ex was a lawyer and said to always get a police report.
You should definitely report to your insurance company.
There’s no need to file a claim at this juncture. See what comes of it.
A police report is just a report. The police don’t determine who is at fault. They just provide a record of what happened.
The other driver may try to file a claim with your insurance company. If they do, that is their right, and there’s really nothing you can do about it. The other driver may also get an estimate and ask you to pay them something. The other driver may just be trying to cover their tracks in case this incident amounts to anything down the road, or they may be thinking that you’ll change your story and say that they hit your car.
In any case, there’s no need to act quickly on this. If you have further questions as something develops, you can always circle back on this sub.
Don’t file a claim unless your insurance calls you. If they call you, that means he opened the claim himself.
1 MPH?
If I had a dollar for everytime….. lol I’m jk.
But….
What were you doing, stopped behind him, and let off the brakes?
If you were previously at 30MPH, 45MPH or higher etc etc, and ended up decelerating to try to avoid hitting him, you were going way faster than you actually thought you were.
A car that’s still moving fast enough to close distance and contact another object carries kinetic energy equal to ½ mv² (mass × velocity² ÷ 2). That is a lot of joules of energy.
That energy goes somewhere. Even if the bumper doesn’t appear deformed (bumpers being made of plastic materials have a lot of elasticity and memory so tend to bounce back to shape) doesn’t mean there isn’t severe damage behind it.
Based on my professional experience, a lot of people aren’t perceptually inept and can’t even see when their entire doors are crushed in or their entire car is smashed, and somehow they just can’t see it. Strange phenomena, but I witnessed it a lot.
If you even put a hairline crack or scratch in the bumper/paint…..you owe for that damage.
I would report it to your insurance as you suspect there is a scam involved. You don’t want to be in a situation where the first person to report an accident to your insurance is the other party.
That being said it is possible to have damage under modern bumpers that is not visible. The bumper we see is actually a plastic shell over the actual bumper that would absorb an actual impact. You can hit them with something like a hammer and see them dimple then pop back out. If it was actually as slow as you said, no worries.
Here is my experience with an incident that turned out to be a scam Right after I got my current used vehicle I pulled into a parking spot outside a store. I noticed the car next to me had several dings in it. I went in and when I came out somebody was snapping pictures of my license plate, they got into the dinged vehicle, and made a call with the window open a bit. I snapped a picture of their license plate. I recognized the IVR that played over their car stereo/Bluetooth as the same insurance company I had. I took a video when I opened my door to show it was nowhere near any of the dings. My vehicle is a full size 4 wheel drive truck I bought used a year after it was new. If I had opened my door all the way to hit their car, it would have impacted their sedan about 8 inches above where they were dented.
I called my insurance and told them what happened and said I wanted to file a report because I suspected they were going to try and claim my newish vehicle caused the damage. Newer vehicles usually have better coverage on them.
I got a call back 2 days later asking for my photos and video because they had the same insurance company and claimed a hit and run was done and provided my license plate. I was told they were cancelling her policy for making a false claim.
sounds like the other guy is setting up a ridiculous bodily injury claim. Probably knows an ambulance chaser who would be happy to sue you for $50K
If I am the victim I’m getting a police report and getting checked at a hospital / car checked for damage. Just because it’s not outwardly obvious doesn’t mean something didn’t happen. If you wait and find out later….
You rear ended them and the police report covers the other driver. There won’t be criminal charges unless you did something illegal. Nothing you can do but let your insurance handle it.
Read your insurance policy and follow the instructions for after an accident