That’s really good. A mistake a lot of people make is not having collision because, “I’m a good driver.” At least the way you have your policy set up you don’t have to worry about a thing. Your vehicle will get repaired (or totaled) no matter what happens with the liability investigation.
When it’s safe to do so, get out of the car, and as far off the road as possible. Been a rash lately of people in accidents standing around their cars afterwards, and getting nailed by another vehicle (or the wrecked vehicle is knocked into them). Stand upstream of the wreck if possible.
If you can’t get out of your car, keep your seatbelt on.
From my experience it’s fairly common that drivers aren’t ticketed after an accident. You usually see it for no license/reg/insurance, or if the driver did something really stupid.
I’m glad you went to the doctor! Citing my husband’ wreck, a year ago today, after which he was immediately airlifted to a Level 1 trauma center - it can take for-freaking-ever to get diagnoses for each and every injury. Seriously, we learned of more and more injuries to Tony for about four months following the wreck.
And echoing the advice above: let your insurance company deal with the other insurance company. All paperwork. And don’t sign any paperwork that releases the other company from further liability until you’re satisfied that your injuries and your losses have been compensated.
In two crashes I was involved with, the cops were very reluctant for days on end to give any information on the other driver, and lied outright.
In one of them, in which I was the passenger, they said at the police station about 20 minutes after the jerk rear-ended us and fled, making it a hit-and-run, that the car had been stolen. I had written down the other car’s licence number. We found out later the other car had not been stolen and had never been reported as such. We also discovered that the cop lied to us because the jerk was the chief’s son.
In the other case, two provinces west in a small city, an idiot in a muscle car in the left lane suddenly turned right at an intersection. I ran into his right-rear fender. That bozo took off in a cloud of burning rubber. But I had jumped out of my car and had taken a bunch of photos of him squealing away up the street, then photos of the intersection and my car in the middle of it. I supplied my insurance company with 8X10s.
Turned out — again — that he was the police chief’s son.
I’d be very suspicious as to why the cops didn’t charge the woman and even give you her name. Even money she’s some cop’s relative or wife.
In my experience it’s pretty standard for our insureds not to have any information whatsoever on the other vehicle of the police came put and separated them. It’ll all be in the report.
I operate 2 cameras in the front of my work truck. I have been involved in 5 incidents this year alone. None were my fault.
In 3 occasions the other party attempted to claim it was my fault. In each case I was exonerated by my video. A lot of times the incident doesn’t even have to be caught on tape. For example a year ago I was struck in the rear quarter panel by a vehicle that strayed out of his lane trying to get around a stopped truck. My video clearly showed me approaching the stopped truck and slowed car then clearly passing them. They were out of sight when they struck me, but the video showed I had not deviated from my lane. End of argument.
The expense of a camera is made back the moment you have an accident. Also sometimes you get lucky and catch other things, like a meteor…
The Go Pro cameras, and others I guess can be set to loop record. Say 20 minutes or so, after that it records over the previous data, so you don’t need too big a memory card. Might be an issue if you’re knocked unconscious for 30 minutes though.
I use a standard “Bought on Ebay” camera with a 32gb card recording in HD. It records about 24 hours before looping. One of the better rated ones (none of them are perfect) it cost me $90, card included.
How are dash cams attached? Screws through the dashboard? Sticky stuff? Are there wires snaking through the defroster vents?
You can get them professionally installed so the wires route through the dashboard.
My camera is attached by a suction cup to the windshield (like GPS) and a wire to the power port (formerly known as cigarette lighter). The wire most often is 10 feet long, so you can route it cleanly around the windshield and hide it well. That is typical of consumer grade dash cams available on eBay and Amazon.
Admittedly camera #2 is a small broadcast quality camera mounted to the dash of my truck and attached to a hard drive. That one I use to take video for stories I am working on.
Don’t want to derail too far, but since we’re talking about dashcams, can anyone recommend a good one? I’ve been wanting one for a while now.
Oh I think we’re in full derail already. My apologies for being a part of that.
Best bet is to do some searches for “Dash Cam Reviews” and go from there. Most of them are made in China using basic parts that make them look the same, even similar chip sets, but with wildly varying results. Interestingly no major manufacturer (that I know of) makes dash cams.
I went through several poor cameras before finally buying this one on eBay: “HD720p IR Car Vehicle dash Camera Rotable 270° Monitor”
I certainly don’t mind the dash-cam hijack.
Now that the lady that caused the accident is trying to blame me for it, I wish I had the wreck on video and am thinking of getting a dash-cam myself. It seems silly as I have not had a wreck in about 25 years, but her lying about the wreck is bugging me more than it should.
Here’s a review:
http://dashboardcamerareviews.com/dvr-207-dvr-207gs-review/
If you don’t mind spending more than twice the price, this one looks like it has excellent video quality. Others in this price range include GPS, but the day and night video quality doesn’t look as good:
http://dashboardcamerareviews.com/dod-ls300w/
Most of the cameras night vision leaves much to be desired. Barring better chips & bigger lenses that’s just the way it is. However with a decent one (like the one I noted) will record enough to help make a case. Also it appears they are improving dramatically every year.
Two further notes - first at an accident scene don’t be afraid to pull out your smart phone and ‘interview’ any witnesses that might have seen the wreck. Be sure to ask their name and phone # in case you have to reach them.
Second, and one that I cannot state enough: knowing you are recording your own actions often makes you a better driver! I have definitely ‘chilled’ as a driver from the days before I had a camera. By being aware that there is a record of your behavior, even if you are the owner, I have found I am less likely to drive like a jerk. That is worth something there too…
It would behoove one to get a camera with a card that can be instantly removed and small enough to swallow.
THIS!!! Injuries that can go unnoticed until they become life threatening: Cardiac contusion (bruised heart) from the seat belt; Concussion, subdural hematoma (bruised brain) from the air bag, or any hard part of the car.) Remember you were, for a moment nothing more than dice in a cup and someone got a Yahtzee. It can be a couple days before these manifest as CTD. (circling the drain)
I think it’s bugging you about as much as it should - she caused a collision, and she should be owning up to it (even if it was her car, not her, it was still her because she’s the owner of that car).
Heh - one of my tricks for improving my driving is to imagine that there is a driving instructor sitting beside me in the passenger seat, and imagining what her response would be to what I’m currently doing. 
I know nothing about the technicalities of a dash cam, but I will add an important caveat: if you must have one, get a very rugged one. And even then, don’t be entirely shocked if it fails as a result of a wreck. The GBI spent several months trying to retrieve images from my husband’s patrol car dash cam after his crash, but were only able to get up to a few seconds before impact. Fortunately, the data retrieval was enough to confirm the major outline of what Tony remembered (long, straight, flat stretch of road, no traffic, adequate shoulder, clear visibility, driver who caused wreck had every chance to yield correctly to overtaking emergency vehicle running lights and siren.) But if the camera images had survived the crash, the other driver would likely have faced felony charges and lost his CDL. Instead, it took a DUI six months later for the other driver to lose his privileges.