2014 Prius C Thinks it's in Neutral / Won't Start

Hello! I have joined this forum to hopefully get some help getting out of a pickle. For background, I live in a very remote region and do not have nearby access to a body shop/dealer, only my mechanic friend.

A couple weeks ago, I drove into the ditch while trying to avoid some wildlife by my house. Even though I didn't go that fast, the radiator support hit a rock in the ditch and deployed the bags. Other than the bent rad support and the air bags, only the front bumper took a few scuffs and no other damage. At this point, the car was showing "check hybrid system". My friend with a diesel truck pulled the car out and flat towed it 500m back to my house.

Since I'm not able to just tow the car to a body shop, and I rely on it heavily for livelihood, I needed to DIY the repair. We replaced the air bags, which successfully cleared the airbag codes. We did not replace the SRS module. However, now the car still displays the orange triangle with an exclamation point, and only says "shift to P to start vehicle". You can still move the shifter and hear the car hybrid system power on, but the car won't start.

It does not show any codes currently or messages, except that it thinks that it's in Neutral (as per the mechanic's scanner). Could someone please help me out? I'm out of options... Does the car have an inertia switch that we're not aware of? Did we somehow damage the transmission when flat towing? The battery is charged and the transmission cable still pulls when shifting the gears. All suggestions are welcome!

 

The dash gear select indicator is not displaying a gear since I can't start the car. While in park, the dash says "power on" and "shift to p position to start". If I shift the gear lever to other gears I can hear the hybrid noise come on but nothing else happens. It won't stay in drive.

Additionally, that dash readout now spontaneously resets and glitches, not sure if this is relevant or maybe my 12 volt dying.

 

Update:

I replaced the 12V battery.

When trying to turn on the car, the master warning ⚠️ triangle exclamation light flashes and asks to shift car to park. The car thinks it's in neutral. When we try to roll it back and forth you can hear a bit of clicking coming from the transition side of the engine bay. We surmise that the Pawl may have been damaged when towing the car backwards our of the ditch. There are no obdii codes showing. Any ideas how to approach the pawl trouble shooting?

Many thanks