Accident

Does how to take care of your Prius include doing the driving for those behind you?
The Silver Pkg# 2 which my wife drove out of the dealer late in the evening of 27th March this early afternoon, clear and bright, slow moving traffic, was hit square on (at low speed, apparently) from the rear -- by a taxi driver's vehicle. "Sun reflected off your back, I couldn't see your brake lights." The person whose vehicle hit the rear bumper said he is sorry. During supper he even called again to apologize and say how sorry he is. He offered to pay whatever and gave his insurance information. No police report. Our (new) deductible is $1,000 (could have been $2,000).
The scratch goes pretty much all the way (not quite) from one side to the other on the bumper. The seam on the right side (facing forward) seems unaffected but the one on the left side looks slightly opened up and lifted away from the other part, perhaps one quarter of an inch or even less. Wife has to go to dealer to pick up tags anyway tomorrow (why is that? I don't understand that) so I suggested she have them make sure as to the integrity of the bumper for the _next_ collision -- whether the whole thing needs to be taken out and replaced -- AND whether the frame was bent anywhere (put it up on a lift). What do you suggest? Should we report to police? To insurance company (ours). State of Virginia.

 

Thank you both. When I went out around 6:15am to do my 30-minute walk it looked (a lot) better in the driveway in the dark than it did yesterday late afternoon in full daylight.
DW will be taking it to the Fairfax, VA, dealer sometime today.
She will be taking that little plastic "credit-card key" to have it run through the machine to make it possible to use to open the door.
Since we paid cash for the car, we are repaying ourselves over a four year period, $600 per month; and we have not yet even made our first "car payment."
We also paid cash for our VW Golf 4-door 5-speed when we purchased it in May, 1993 (when our son graduated from Princeton and we gave him our 1987 VW Golf 4-door 5-speed with 89,000 + mileage as a graduation gift, in the garage and wrapped in a giant ribbon. After teaching three years (high school) and finishing a three-semester Masters in Operations Research, in 1999 he bought his own VW Golf 4-door 5-speed and it probably now has close to 80,000 miles on it.

 

DW reports "Dealer looked and reported FASTENER is CRACKED and 'if it were mine I would have the bumper replaced.' "
DW went to nearby body shop quoted $212 but if there is a 'bent bar' on the left side then $874 for entire job ++ IF no bent bar then will be $600+ (about $200 less).
Taxi driver pledges to pay directly, leaving insurance company (his) out of the picture. Has called two or three times and keeps in touch, insisting he will pay and just wants to know how and where and when.
Perspective(s)?

 

The other driver is going to pay, delivering the money.
I think it is eight hundred; and the body shop is going to order the new bumper and install the entire thing, presumably the cracked fastener AND bent(?) rod. DW was set (still is) to leave Sunday late afternoon with her sister and a friend for one week in Europe (the Netherlands, for bicycling)

 

Yes, I (personally) am concerned about other incidents (future as well as past) after reading two or three days ago in the newspaper of the death of a renowned breast cancer surgeon after a vehicle (van hauling folks with wheel chairs) ran her down in making a turn over a crosswalk in New York City at Second Avenue and 64th Street (I used to live in NYC for nine years).

 

It took two days for completely new bumper (and bent internal bracket/rod/something) to be replaced (two blocks from dealership) and now DW is driving "new" new Prius Pkg#2 Silver once again. Still purchased only one tank of gas since March 27th purchase.