Hit Another Car While Reversing - No Damage. Should I Report This?

If you hit another car while reversing and now are standing and looking at it without understanding what you should do next, the best solution is to calm down and read the article further to learn more about all the possible issues.

After hitting another car, even if you don't see any damage on it, the best solution is to stop your vehicle and avoid moving it anywhere. Also, you should immediately find the owner of the suffered car or call the police. If you leave the place of the accident, you may then be accused of breaking several laws and rules and will have to pay heavy fines.

Here's what we are going to tell you today:

• What to do immediately after you hit someone's car when reversing?
• How can you identify if there is any damage to the other car involved?
• Ways to find the owner of the car you hit while reversing?
• How to avoid these situations on the road?

Let's get started!

Your plan of action after you hit someone's car while reversing

I saw quite a lot of drivers regretting that they had left the place of the road accident. Understanding of "no-damage" issue is pretty free, but even a little scratch on the bumper of another car can be considered damage and has to be covered by insurance or by someone who is in charge of this scratch.

So, I offer you to remember the best plan of action after you hit someone's car when reversing. Here it is:

• Stop your vehicle immediately. Don't try to move away from the potentially damaged vehicle or whatever. Just stop the car, apply the parking brake, and turn off the engine.
• If your vehicle may disturb the traffic in the area, the best solution is to turn on the emergency lights and also put a road-accident sign 20-30 meters away from your car to warn other drivers.
• Try to find the owner of the other vehicle and make sure that nobody was hurt in the accident or needs some help.
• If you can't find the owner, you may want to find a person who witnessed the accident and can help you if something goes wrong in the future. Just take the phone number and some contact details, just in case.
• Also, if you can't find the owner of the car, you should call the police and report the accident.
• If you found the owner, inspect the car with them and decide what to do next. The best strategy is still to call the police and document the accident.
• Also, you need to call the insurance company and find out what to do next - these guys will obviously tell you how to act in order to get all the needed compensation.

If you read attentively, you noticed and even were surprised that there is no bullet point saying "Look at the bumper of the potentially damaged car and see if it's actually damaged". After that, many drivers will expect to read a bad tip, something like "If it's not damaged, you may just leave". But no, it's the worst advice you can ever get in such a situation.

Without having proper tools and experience, you will not be able to identify if there is damage to the other car. Also, I should tell you that after an impact, in 99% of cases, there will be some damage. In one case, it may be just a little scratch, but in some other situations - a cracked bumper.

Identifying the potential damage

Just keep in mind that it's not your job to identify the damage. After you called the police and the insurance company, you will have more information on what you should do. And they will obviously not tell you to look at the damages and count the money for repair. They will tell you to just touch nothing and wait till professionals arrive if needed.

In some cases, the insurance company may just plan the meeting with the owner of the potentially damaged car and the specialist will find any micro damages that should be repaired. Even if it's a small scratch, it may require to repaint the bumper and it's not a cheap task at all.

So, you just need to remember that it's not your job to identify the damage or to calculate how much it costs to repair this damage. Also, remember that you can't make the conclusion that there is no damage - only a specialist can do that. So, rely on the rules that are described by laws. Never leave the place of the road accident without notifying all the needed bodies.

What if there is actually no damage?

This is basically not your worry anymore once you notified your insurance company about the accident. The company will anyway pay for repair and the accident will be forgotten. If there is no damage, the insurance company will notify the owner of the car involved in the accident that no repair is needed and there will be no money or any other compensation.

Here's how it usually happens:

• police come to the place of the accident and document the case;
• the insurance company may send their employee to the scene or, more likely, arrange a meeting with the owner of the potentially damaged car;
• the specialist will have a thorough look at the spot of the potential damage;
• with the help of special tools, the specialist will form a certain report;
• after that, other employers of the insurance company will investigate the damage and count up the potential costs;
• if there is no damage, the insurance company will just contact the car owner and tell them about their findings;
• if there is some damage, the company will pay for it or will have the vehicle repaired by professionals.

Also, the part that is proven to be guilty may pay a fine for careless driving. This also depends on several factors and the conditions of the accident.

What happens if you just leave the place of the accident?

If you hit some car while reversing, look at it and think that there is no damage, and then just leave, there are three possible ways how things will be going on.

• First: There is actually no damage and nobody will know about the accident. It seems quite unreal though, because if there was an impact, the damaged car will have at least several scratches. You may still not see them under the dirt and dust.
• Second: There are some damages and you will leave without knowing that. After that, the car owner will see the damages and call the police. They will use cameras and other methods to find you and, as life shows, they will eventually find you. In this case, you will pay for the repair and you will also pay quite a heavy fine for leaving the place of a car accident.
• Third: Someone will immediately call the police because they were observing the accident happening. Surprisingly, the probability of this way is quite high - people in the US are very likely to call the police once they see something like this. In this case, you may be just caught after 15 minutes and you may be sure that your car will be in the police database immediately.

So, it's really not recommended to leave the place of the car accident even if you think that there is no damage. If you do this, you will most certainly regret this. If you are leaving the scene and are sure that nobody has seen you, just remember that there are hundreds of cameras that work 24/7 and record just everything and near every corner of your city or town. So, you will eventually be found and made to pay money.

How to find the owner of the damaged car?

You may go to the nearby building and ask people if they know whose car it is. Or go to the mall if it happened in a parking lot of the shopping center and ask the administration to announce this. Finally, you can just leave a paper with your phone number and explanations of what happened.

If you are going to leave - the paper with the phone number is the only good idea you can come up with. At least, you will only pay for repairs if there are any, but will not have to pay fines and go to court.

How to prevent hitting cars when reversing?

When you drive, you should be extremely careful. Forget about everything else - just focus on driving. Don't talk on the phone, don't listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Your first priority is to focus on the road.

If you don't do this, it's very likely that sooner or later you will hit some other car. It's pretty easy to hit someone when you are reversing.

And here's what you can use to avoid doing this:

• use your rear-view camera - it will help you avoid dangerous maneuvers;
• use your parking sensors to avoid hitting some other car;
• if you aren't sure about safety, don't reverse;
• before reversing in a dark place, go out of the car and see if there is nothing you can hit;
• don't believe your mirrors - they are very misleading.

Being careful and attentive under the steering wheel is one of the main tasks of any driver. Remember that you can spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars in case of careless driving. And always be responsible for all your mistakes on the road. It's always better to act according to the law and rules.