my exact thought. when you are behind someone and merge into an open lane, even if you are the first one to that spot, they might not have seen you move to it. a good driver would have looked over to see that you are in that spot, but in her case she did not do this. i ALWAYS assume that people are BAD drivers and take a defensive approach. Instead of going WOT to try to beat her to the spot, you should have slowed down and let her take the spot.

 

I'd call the insurance company and say exactly what happened. You'll be blown away by how much it costs to fix anything.

 

i agree completely with kinetic. i was a passenger in my friend's car who was sandwiched in between a cadillac and a mustang when that mustang came flying behind our *** on dead traffic. without much detail, the camry was totalled. we got every bit of information we could get and waited for the chp to arrive to take the police report. maybe like kinetic said, you might have suffered from a major breakdown and didnt think clearly but it should be common sense to know that in an accident as major as this, you definitely need a police report. unless you really dont need the money, i dont see why you didnt do it. anyways, if you dont get compensated by her insurance now, if you're not tight on money and if she is etc, and since she's your friend maybe you can just arrange something else without pursuing small claims like someone had previously stated. friends dont screw friends over and this accident doesnt seem completely due to her negligence alone even though she's majority at fault. im sure she'll pay u back one way or another.