Oh no- my turn for an accident

Thanks for the good thoughts everybody. I was indeed lucky. Also thanks for the ideas on the dash cams. I like the idea of front and rear coverage. So many idiots and aggressive drivers out there cutting in and out and tailgating, it would be great to be able to provide that to investigators, even on someone else's accident.
So far, the body shop has repairs up to $8000. They will have the Toyota dealer remove and check the battery pack, etc. and store all that until repairs are done, then reinstall the system. This is because they have to weld in a new rear quarter. So far they haven't found any structural damage, but the true test will be when they go to hang new doors and see if they line up properly. They will also get a tire shop involved to check for flat spots, since I was pushed sideways along the pavement. Only 19025 miles on the car when I left home yesterday, so my OEM tires have quite a bit of tread left if they are otherwise OK.

 

Volt might have been a bit more stable, but probably just as much damage.
As for me, I haven't had that kind of excitement since my training days in executive protection. We did live ramming exercises similar to a pit maneuver, except that the idea was to "drive through" the other vehicle and escape, rather than spin and pin like the cops do it. It was lots of fun, but I was 15-20 years younger and was wearing a protective helmet.
To add to the experience, somebody would be firing a starter's pistol out the window of a car next to you, or sometimes a couple of guys with paint guns would be shooting at your car. Like I said, it was great fun.

 

Because my own insurance is paying for the repairs, I won't get anything for diminished value. Had it been the truck driver's insurance paying, I could have gone after them for that. Damage estimate has come in at less than $9400, so well under the value of the car. So I'm stuck with the car long-term, and hope that I get a good repair job.

 

One rather interesting thing I learned is that the body shop uses a software program from a third party to establish a value for the car. Get this- they came up with a figure over $27,000! They also gave my car equipment that it doesn't have, such as "electronic parking assist" and "fog lights". Those items probably wouldn't make that much difference, but I am going to question my insurance adjuster and see if they would really pay that much for a total.
Update: I checked online with Edmunds and KBB, and was amazed to find their prices are right in line with what the body shop guy gave me. I thought the value of the 2012s had dropped when Toyota started adding incentives that got the price down to around $27-28K for some buyers. So, moot point in my case, as my car will be repaired.

 

Update- parts are in; work in progress. Promised delivery date of 9/4, but in my experience, body shop repairs usually exceed the time estimate by a few days. In the meanwhile, really missing my PiP. Driving my Lexus, which I normally love, but without the HOV stickers and paying for premium gas at 25 mpg vs regular at 63 mpg, I really notice the difference. Example: $58.00 to drive 366 miles that would cost $22 in the PiP. OTOH, since I didn't buy rental coverage on my auto policy due to having other cars, I'm saving on the cost of a rental car for a few weeks.

 

Thanks for posting the results from your dash cam. I can see that it would have been handy to have at the time of my accident. As someone previously pointed out, a dash cam would have shown me in my lane and veering after being hit by the truck. A rearview camera would have shown the truck approaching, my lane change and then the offending truck coming up to pass, and maybe even the moment of impact. I'm definitely going to look into getting one of these. I'm hoping they have portable mounts to make it easier to switch from car to car.

 

Yeah, me too. But it sure would have been handy to have one in my car last week. It would have been enough to convince the CHP officer that the truck driver was responsible. The officer said all he needed was 51% to blame one side or the other. My son, who is a sergeant with our local county sheriff's office said a dash cam record would give him all he needed to declare fault.
So we have each ordered one through Amazon, and they do indeed offer portability between cars or to remove for security reasons. Now I just have to get my car back in order to install it.