Auto Insurance Claims: minor car accident, exit ramp, fault insurance

Question
I had a minor car accident.  I got off an exit ramp and was preparing to merge into traffic.  The car in front of me stopped abruptly instead of yielding. My car had already slowed down, but when he stopped, I slid into his car. There was no damage on my car, and there was what looked like a scratch on his car.  The man pointed to an old scrape I have on my car and said that had been caused by the accident.  I pointed out that that was an old scrape and had been made by a white car (as evidenced by the obvious white paint on top of my car's paint).  the man then pointed to a pale white line on his car and said it had been made by my license plate.  it didn't look like the same place where my car had bumped his car, but i didn't argue.  i have never been in a car accident before, was extremely flustered, and gave the man my insurance info and license plate number.  he apologized for stopping instead of yielding.  later i spoke to people about it, and they said i should have gotten his insurance info and called the police.  neither of us were injured.  the man told me that the car was his wife's.  i received a phone message from his wife asking me to call her.  this is in the state of PA. Should I contact my insurance company, even though no one was injured?  I was told that with a minor cosmetic problem, insurance doesn't cover until the deductible is paid.  Thank you for any help you can give me.

Answer
Hi Sarah,
Currently 11 states and Puerto Rico have a form of no fault insurance, and each one is totally different in many ways from the other and every one is in a constant flux of changes to 'fine tune' their policies.
Being on the west coast, where no state west of the Mississippi River has no fault, it's impossible for me to keep up with those changes.
As far as claiming injuries,the Pennsylvania plan has a verbal limit that the other driver must meet in order to to claim injuries.
IMMEDIATELY make a report to your insurance company of this accident to your own company.  You are considered at fault because state law requires that you keep your car under control and be able to avoid any unforeseeable incident that might happen in front of you.
The damage to his wife's car falls under the property damage portion of your policy and there is no deductible.  Your insurance company will inspect her car and only pay only the appropriate amount for the minimal damage which sounds like it is easily under the state  amount of $500 to be considered a chargeable accident against you and should have no affect on your insurance price.
Every insurance policy requires that you make a report to your company in a 'timely' manner.  Failure to do so will allow them to legally deny your claim.
Through out the entire nation, there are people that see any kind of an accident as the opportunity to 'hit the jackpot' by building up an injury claim for a settlement from the insurance company.  The driver could very well be out right now treating for 'soft tissue' injuries and six months from now file a $10,000 injury claim against you.
Since he would then be fully recovered and have the medical bills as proof of injury and treatment, you would have no way to dispute his claim.  If you waited until that time to report the accident, it would be considered a delayed report and be denied by your insurance, leaving the full cost of any attorney fees you might incur and the full amount of payment to settle the claim to come out of your pocket.  By reporting it now, your insurance will secure a signed release of all claims from both the driver and owner which legally closes this claim forever.
Now i'm going to give you a real live example.  Last Thursday I had dinner with my son and and his wife.  He informed me that two weeks ago when he had to stop at a stop light, the following car stopped within a foot of the rear of his truck.  Somehow he allowed his truck ro roll backwards, bumping the car behind.  The round tow ball on the back of his truck put a very minor egg shape dent in the hood of the older car behind him.  The impact did not cause the other car to move.  Both he and the other driver got out to inspect for any damage.  The other driver stated
"that's so minor, lets just forget about it".  Based on the information that I have pounded into his head since he was 16, he insisted on exchanging names, drivers license numbers and insurance information with the other party.
As soon as he arrived at his office, he immediately called his insurance company and reported the incident.
Two weeks later, he got a call from his insurance company stating that both the driver and his wife were claiming injuries and they needed to come out and inspect the damage to his truck.  He stated "there is no damage to my truck, but come on out and do your inspection".  After inspecting his truck and seeing that there was not even a scratch on his chromed tow ball, the adjustor exclaimed that she couldn't believe that the other parties were claiming injury.
If he hadn't made a report of the accident, the other parties might have treated for six months and filed a large injury claim which his company would have declined to cover due to the fact that no 'timely' report was made, leaving him to pay 'out of pocket' to settle the case.
The point I'm making is that anytime you are involved in an accident, even if it's only a nick, bump or scratch, make a report to your insurance company because you never know the character of the person that you are dealing with.
I trust that my answer has been of help.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area 11-04-07 11:55 PM PST