Rear Ended

What you see is the soft plastic bumper cover, not the actual energy absorbing components which are located underneath it. Have the car checked at a competent body shop. From your description, the cover may not have to be replaced even if there is invisible damage.

 

Yeah, I was stopped at a red light and got rear-ended by a kid who spilled his coke. Not sure how fast he was going but he was in a Camry and our bumpers matched exactly and I could not find any damage, probably because he didn't hit the brakes and nosedive. Your situation might be similar with bumpers matching since the car behind was probably not nosediving by the time it hit you. Definitely have the whole rear end inspected for damage, like others say there could be damage under the outer skin of the bumper.

 

I was in a car that was rearended by a driver straight out of the twilight zone...

We where stopped at a light on a three-lane divided highway, when a beat up mercury who's driver was flailing his arms all over the place smashed into us, knocking us up onto the sidewalk. I looked behind and his front right light was smashed and there was glass all over the road. His hand flew to his mouth in a dramatic gasp, and he immediately shifted into reverse, cut his wheels all the way to the left, and floored it. His tires screeched, and his nice person smashed into the guardrail and deformed it quite a bit. Once again, his hand flew to his mouth, and he promptly shifted into drive and floored it once again, smashing into a dodge and breaking his front left light. At that moment, the light turned green, and I wrote down his plate number. We called the cops, but when he ran the plate only a black lincoln came up. I then realized that I had accidently written down an O instead of a D. I told him this, but he barked "sorry dude, you gotta get the number right", went back to his donut, and drove off.

Interestingly, the toyota's energy absorbing bumper had only a tiny scratch, while his front was pretty mangled.

 

creepy...

i was rear-ended on november 13th, on the 10 fwy just as i was coming up on the 605. the plastic got crunched, and i've scheduled a time to have someone determine if there is any damage to the bumper itself.

but what really annoys me is that the car that hit me hit my HOV sticker dead-on!

 

Prius + 18 wheeler = 2/3Prius

Well, I was rear-ended yesterday by an 18 wheeler on I-95 in South Florida. First a Dodge RAM rear-ended me, taking out the small rear window (first I knew of the unfolding accident was glass hitting my hand on the steering wheel, I looked up and all I saw in the mirror was pickup truck bumper).

The Dodge pushed me out of my lane, and since he was crossing illegally several lanes as he wove in and out of traffic about 15 MPH above the flow at the time (which was 65, the speedlimit), my Prius was sent into a spin as he hit me and pulled my rear to the right.

Next I knew I was fighting to stop the car from rolling, and attempting to stop the spinning. As I spun around facing oncoming traffic, I saw the front of a volvo 18 wheeler aiming right for me, and I remember hearing the airbrakes engage. Fortunately, my spin continued, and the 18 wheeler slammed at almost full speed into the back of my Prius. I blacked out, since my seat broke, leaning backwards, and my head was thrown into the pylon where the seatbelt attaches (I was wearing the belt, but the broken seat left a lot of wiggle room).

I remember seeing the truck grill right over my shoulder in the mirror before the blackout. My car then spun the other direction as the 18 wheeler continued past me. My prius was thrown two lanes over to the right, and came to a stop 40 feet behind the 18 wheeler's trailor facing into oncoming traffic. I don't remember the last part, but that's where I was when the driver of the truck got my attention knocking on my window.

Amazingly I walked away- I guess adreneline kept me going for a while. I suffered a minor concussion and whiplash so severe that it took the natural curvature out of my spine (I'm told this is temporary). 2 seconds earlier, and I would definately be dead now, since at that point I was still facing the semi truck. Today I feel exaclty as if I got hit by a truck... oh yeah, I did!

In the final analysis, the rear end crumpled as I suppose it should have. No airbags deployed. The rear seat/bench was pushed foward about 6 inches on right, both right doors are bent and jammed shut, the right rear glass broke out, the entire back deck, hatchback, and right rear quarter panel are smashed into an area behind the seat, but about 10 inches in front of the right rear tire... in other words, just gone. The driver's seat back failed, and the mechanism around the handle is popped out. The plastic in front of the windshield impacted the hood at the front left corner, cracking and crushing the plastic, but it resumed to original position after the impact. The windshield and three other passenger windows are intact. The glove box won't close, the center console back poped off, and a dozen or so hybrid batteries were scattered on the ground along with some circuit boards, and my rear bumper.

My new Prius will be here before the end of the month.

 

Here's a photo of my Prius after the 18 wheeler hit me...

 

welcome to the site, and WOW glad you walked away from that one! that's a pretty scary story.

 

wow.. simply amazing. it's good to hear you're ok after all of that.

it's also good to hear about the batteries. this has always been a worry of mine. i know they are all little AA batteries. i tend to forget they will scatter and not explode.

 

Agreed, agreed and agreed.
Too lazy to write it for myself.