Key facts
Animated reconstruction
Timing and speeds are illustrative, built from the driver's account. North is up.
Crash diagram
Driver's account
I was driving my black 2016 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE (Vehicle 1) north on US Route 1 in Edison after entering from Main Street. I moved into the right exit lane for the ramp to I-287 North. The ramp was blocked by police responding to a motorcycle crash, and there were vehicles stopped ahead of me in the exit lane.
I turned on my left turn signal to move back into the right-most through lane (the third lane) of US Route 1 North. I checked that the lane was clear and merged left. A white pickup truck (Vehicle 2), traveling at high speed (I estimate 70 mph or more), came up behind me in that lane and nearly rear-ended me. I accelerated and steered right to avoid it, but the pickup sideswiped my car, striking the driver-side (left) rear corner — the rear bumper and the left rear quarter panel.
The pickup stopped briefly ahead of me, then drove away without stopping to exchange information. I was not able to get its license plate. My car came to rest on the right side, near the start of the I-287 North ramp. An Edison police officer who was handling the motorcycle crash came over afterward to check on me and gave me the self-reporting crash form with reference #26057776.
Damage to Vehicle 1
At the scene, right after the crash
Bumper cover split below the left taillight
Quarter panel dent; bumper pulled off its side mount
Dent and front-to-back scrape marks
Whitish scuffing; exposed bumper retainer
Crease and cracked paint beside the trunk lid
Tap a photo to open it full size. License plate blurred for this public page.
What the photos show
- Rear bumper cover — split vertically below the left taillight; the left side section is torn off its mounts and hanging loose, exposing the side retainer bracket above the wheel arch. Gouges and scuffs along the lower corner.
- Left rear quarter panel — large inward dent behind the fuel door, running back toward the taillight, with horizontal (front-to-back) scrape marks. Some of the scuffing is whitish and may be paint transfer from the white pickup.
- Upper quarter panel — a sharp crease with cracked paint near the top of the panel, beside the trunk-lid seam.
- Fuel door — surface scuffs.
- To be checked by the body shop — bumper reinforcement and energy absorber, rear parking sensors, taillight mounting, trunk-lid gap and the inner quarter-panel structure.
What the damage pattern indicates
- The contact was on the left rear corner and along the rear of the left side, not squarely on the back bumper. That fits a sideswipe by a vehicle passing on V1's left rather than a straight rear-end hit.
- The scrape marks run horizontally, which fits two vehicles moving in the same direction at different speeds.
- Damage extends well above the bumper line to the top of the quarter panel, which fits contact from a taller vehicle such as a pickup.
- Pushed-in sheet metal and a bumper cover torn from its mounts point to a substantial speed difference at contact — more than a low-speed scrape. Damage alone can't establish the pickup's actual speed; the 70+ mph figure is the driver's estimate.
- The pickup would likely have matching damage on its front right corner or right side, possibly with black paint transfer.
Vehicle 2 (white pickup): Unknown — it left the scene and the plate was not obtained.