General advice - from legal (ish) perspective

[BiddyPop]

I rear-ended another car in slow moving traffic the other morning.

We exchanged details on site, but I didn't take any photos (didn't have a camera in car) and while I got his name, address, contact no. and his reg, I didn't check his insurance disk (company car).

Both of us were "fine" there, I had a BIG fright and was slightly in shock (with fright). But he seemed absolutely fine (cut his thumb moving a piece of plastic) and while very little obvious damage to his large luxury-brand car (I mention that only in the context of it being a big solid car and no other reason, no need to even say what type), there were a couple of paint marks from mine (but no dent in his bumper).

I have put my neck back into spasm and will be working on fixing that. And my car needs work on bonnet etc (probably as much cos his bumper was quite high and my bonnet was hit rather than bumper). Insurance will sort that.

While I had immediately reported it to the insurance company, it was such a minor fender bender in the middle of rushour traffic that neither of us thought to report it to police.

My main question though is whether I should contact him afterwards (now or over weekend) or leave it entirely up to insurance company if he makes any contact with them (he hasn't contacted me at all in the meantime).

And I did immediately say, at the time, that it was my fault. I know you generally shouldn't, but it completely was (didn't hit brakes fast enough) so I didn't think there was any point in making it worse by not saying I'd been at fault.

[cathan]

If you rear-end another car, it is automatically your fault so you didn't make things worse by admitting responsibility. This happened to me when I was pushed into the car in front by another car behind in a moving queue of traffic. My insurance company told me that I was responsible for the car in front which I hit and the car behind was responsible for me. It got pretty complicated, as you can imagine. Still, since it sounds as if there was no significant damage to either vehicle, you should be all right. It's a pity you didn't have a camera though - some drivers will exaggerate the damage to their car to push of the insurance claim. Hopefully this won't happen to you. By the way, since no one was injured there is no obligation on you to inform the police. I don't think you need to contact the other driver either. Just let your insurance companies sort it out. Hope this helps (and hope your neck gets better soon).

[Lonecatwithkitten]

I wouldn't under estimate the damage you may have done. A small at hit my large could be described as luxury car looked like only a small scratch on the bumper. However, when closely examine there was 2,500 damage to the body of the car behind the bumper.
Leave it to the insurance companies.

[BiddyPop]

OK, I won't contact him then. (I was thinking of it in terms of being nice, cos I generally am, but not wanting to do the wrong thing. Especially as DH, fount of knowledge on such issues, is overseas and not yet aware of the incident. Will have to confess over the weekend).

No significant injuries - I have whiplash (I'm only just fixed up after someone rear-ended me last summer!!) but not as bad as then and getting sorted. Certainly no injuries needing hospital. And my insurance co knew within 15 mins about it (poor girl had to listen to me hiccuping and trying to stop hysteria setting in before transferring me to right Department).

Thanks