The Shoulder
The Shoulder
67
spry-owl-154

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

So this happened yesterday morning and I'm still kind of rattled. I was running a little late and got stuck behind one of those big city road-crew trucks — the ones with the flashing amber lights on top. Traffic ahead of them stopped suddenly and the truck braked hard. I thought I had enough space but I didn't, and I clipped their rear bumper. Not a huge impact but definitely contact.

Here's the thing — the truck just... kept moving. Pulled off at the next intersection and disappeared. I pulled over immediately and sat there shaking for a few minutes. My front bumper has a crack along the bottom and there's some paint transfer. Not catastrophic but definitely not nothing.

I've never been in any kind of accident before. Not even a parking lot scrape. So I genuinely don't know what the "right" moves are here.

Do I call the non-emergency police line and report it myself even though the other vehicle left? Do I just file something with my insurance and let them sort it out? I'm worried that if I don't say anything and someone from that crew files something later, it looks like I fled — even though I stopped and the other vehicle was the one that drove off.

Also — is there any chance a city vehicle has dash cam footage or some kind of incident log that could surface later?

I'm not trying to dodge responsibility at all. I just don't know the right order of operations and Google is giving me a hundred different answers. Any advice from people who've been through something similar would really help right now.

14replies

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14 replies

  • 13
    candid-crow-172

    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.

  • 7
    candid-dove-260

    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.

    • 7
      tired-passenger214

      Wish I had seen this a month ago — would have saved me a lot of stress.

  • 17
    bright-crow-760

    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.

    • 1
      plainspoken-sidewalk767

      Thank you both, this gave me the push I needed to make the call.

  • 19
    calm-marmot-379

    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.

    • 1
      mellow-overpass426

      Following up on this — any update on how it turned out?

  • 7
    cool-vole-831

    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.

  • 13
    kind-newt-745

    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.

  • 6
    wise-lynx-898

    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.

    • 1
      grounded-sidewalk645

      Exactly my experience. Persistence paid off in the end.

  • 20
    spry-heron-163

    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.

    • 8
      plainspoken-road-soul727

      Took me three tries but they finally budged. Don't give up.

  • 16
    wise-owl-442

    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.