Tapped a city maintenance truck and it just kept going — do I report this or wait?

I rear-ended a delivery van a while back and it pulled away before I could even get out of my car. I was terrified about what to do next. I ended up calling the non-emergency police line and they were actually super helpful — they took a report over the phone and gave me a case number. That case number ended up being really important when I dealt with my insurance. Do that first, seriously.

Report it yourself. Today. Don't wait to see if anything "surfaces." Proactively filing a report is the single best thing you can do to protect yourself here. If the city crew files something later and there's no report from your side, that gap looks bad. Call the non-emergency line, tell them exactly what happened, get a report number, then call your insurance and give them that number.

City and municipal vehicles almost always have some kind of incident documentation requirement — the driver likely had to log the contact even if they didn't stop to exchange info with you. That means there's a real possibility a report already exists on their end. You want your version of events documented before anything comes back to you. File a self-report with local police and notify your insurance carrier. Having your own contemporaneous record protects you from any "they said you fled" narrative.

Whatever you do, be really careful about how you phrase things when you call your own insurance. Stick to the facts — what happened, when, where, what damage you can see. Don't volunteer opinions about fault or say things like "I wasn't paying attention" even if you feel guilty. Adjusters are trained to use your own words against your claim later.

City vehicles almost certainly have GPS tracking and some have cameras. If this crew files any kind of incident report internally, your insurance company can request that data. That's not necessarily a bad thing if your account is accurate — it just means there's likely corroboration either way. What you don't want is to look like you tried to hide the incident. Filing your own report first signals good faith.

First — are you okay? Like physically and mentally? Even a minor collision can leave you feeling off for days. Adrenaline is weird. Please don't ignore any soreness or headaches that pop up in the next day or two.

Seconding the above — whiplash and soft tissue stuff can take 24-72 hours to really show up. If you feel any neck stiffness, shoulder pain, or weird headaches in the next few days, get it checked out. Don't just assume you're fine because you feel okay right now. And if you do need to be seen, document it — that matters for your own records regardless of how this plays out.

Not legal advice, but: self-reporting is almost always the right move when the other party leaves the scene. Most states have laws requiring you to report accidents above a certain damage threshold regardless of fault. Filing proactively also establishes your timeline and your account of events before anyone else's version can define the story. If this does escalate in any way, having an attorney do a quick free consult wouldn't hurt — just to understand your exposure.

Honestly the fact that you stopped, didn't panic and drive off, and are now actively trying to do the right thing says a lot. You're handling this way better than a lot of people would on their first accident. Report it, document your damage with photos right now if you haven't, and you'll get through this.