Auto Insurance Claims: no police report, small claims court, ford taurus

Question
My son was at a stoplight in the city of Richmond,VA last Friday night at 10pm when he was hit from behind by a young man in a Ford Taurus. The light had just turned green and he was 10 to 20 feet into the intersection when he was hit. My son was driving his finance's car. The other driver was very apologetic and desperately wanted to pay out of pocket and not alert his father's insurance. At 10 pm the damage did not appear to be that bad. You know the rest of the story: although he copied every bit of information from the other driver's registration card, but he did not call in a police report and did not get his insurance information (the young man may not have known). At first the other driver answered his calls. My son finally contacted his mother, but now no one is answering his calls. The body shop believes the car is totaled (much damage is underneath involving the frame). The blue book on the car is just $3,000. Question: what can my son and his finance do without his insurance information and no police report? He has the VIN number plus everything else from the registration. Can his insurance company get the driver's insurance info with that? No reasonble investigator looking at the damage can conclude anything other than that he was hit from behind, and how did he get all this information if the other driver was not admitting guilt?

Answer
You have two choices.  If you have collision coverage on your car, file a claim with your own insurance company and let them pursue the at=fault party.  With the info that you have, they should be able to take action. This should be your first choice.
or
File a suit in small claims court. It sounds like you have enough info for that.

It is important that you get the process going quickly though.  Giving these people more time to destroy the evidence isn't good.

Good luck!