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My insurance called, apparently they’re taking responsibility for the car that I ran into, and now the guy in that silver Rav4 is claiming he's injured even though he hopped out of his car as quickly as he could to start getting everybody's insurance info. The cops actually had to yell at him to get back in his car.

I had a minor breakthrough on my way home today though. On the morning of the accident, there was a cop performing a traffic stop in the median and the accident happened right behind him. Do you guys think there would be a chance it could have been captured by a rear camera in the cruiser? Should I call the police department to ask or should I let a lawyer handle that?

I'm only asking because I've never been in an accident before of this severity, especially with this many parties involved.

I also need to figure out what that grey sienna is doing in the picture, because there were 4 cars involved in the accident and nobody told me about any witnesses stopping to help.
 
I was rear ended once in my DD. Was a minor hit, knocked the coffee out of my hand but overall I was fine. Hopped out, started doing the insurance thing. My car had zero damage so wasn’t gonna pursue anything.

two days later my back was really sore. Stupid me never did anything about it with doctors/ insurance and I had about 6 months of dealing with a persistent back ache.

so it does happen.
 
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Got a copy of the police report, and apparently there were 5 cars involved. That sienna I was talking about was at the front of the line, and according to the report I started the whole chain.

I have some more pictures that I’ll post below. The one of the front of the Cruze is from after we all moved our cars into the median.

Even after getting the car fixed, with the citation and everything else I wonder if I’ll be able to afford to insure it at this point. I’ll have to wait and see, and I think I’m going to get a lawyer at least to get some advice on it because I don’t think I’m completely at fault here.
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I was in something similar a few years back 4 cars...I was the second from the back the guy in the back started it all. I'm not sure how you could have not started it if your in the back? Did someone reverse into you after the fact? Oh I reread your post you think the accident happened before you hit them? Why was your car not able to stop in time if the accident already happened? Certainly your reaction time should have allowed you to stop on time. Anyway sorry for your car man. Love the car and color! Hope you get it fixed soon and there is no frame damage!
 
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I was in something similar a few years back 4 cars...I was the second from the back the guy in the back started it all. I'm not sure how you could have not started it if your in the back? Did someone reverse into you after the fact? Oh I reread your post you think the accident happened before you hit them? Why was your car not able to stop in time if the accident already happened? Certainly your reaction time should have allowed you to stop on time. Anyway sorry for your car man. Love the car and color! Hope you get it fixed soon and there is no frame damage!
I don’t know if the collision happened before I got there or not, but there was definitely something going on beforehand. I’m not trying to escape all blame here, I hope I haven’t come off that way. I just don’t think this is a situation in which everyone else was just sitting in traffic and I just plowed into the back of them. The driver ahead slammed on his brakes and swerved to avoid something. I could hear someone else’s tires squealing before my brakes locked.

As far as frame damage is concerned, I hope not too. The drivers side door doesn’t open, but I think that’s because of the fender damage. What worries me is the passenger door. It rubs a lot with the fender now even though there wasn’t any visible damage there. I also have subframe connectors which I’ve heard can transfer energy from an accident rearward and cause all sorts of problems.
 
There are crush 'panels' along the frame rails, they absorb impact, where the rails meet the shock towers on both sides for instance. The front is likely jacked a little allowing the fenders to move back or bow along the back of the fender where the door opens,
Subframe connectors do not 'transfer' energy unless there is a heavy inpact, say enough to buckle the roof, then subframe connectors would have made little difference.
 
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Looking at the damage to all cars, I’d say there’s no way you ‘caused’ the accident. These cars are tin cans and you car would look much worse if your impact caused the damage to the rav4. That being said, the officers and insurance take the easy road and blame the car at the back. Probably not much you can do. Get a dash cam! That would have been gold for this accident.

IMHO, the silver lining is your car doesn’t look too bad. Any decent body shop can fix that fairly easily. Any frame damage can be straightened with a frame puller.

You’re lucky you know someone at a body shop. Some of these chain shops wont touch cars this old.