“I Was A Hit-and-run Victim -- What Should I Have Done?”

(Please note I posted this question on another forum a few hours ago, but have done again here because I'm looking for more answers.)

This happened approximately 3 hours ago at 2:30AM (Toronto time). After spending the New Year's countdown in downtown Toronto, I commuted via the TTC subway back to Kennedy Station to return to my home in Scarborough. My car was parked in the Kennedy Station parking lot, and as I was waiting for a gap in traffic to do a right turn onto Eglinton Ave (in the direction of the Eglinton Ave and Kennedy Rd intersection), the car behind me crashed into my rear bumper.

As I've never been in an accident before, I immediately went into shock and froze in my seat for about 5 seconds. I then proceeded to get out of my car to confront the driver who crashed into me, but as I was opening the door, the hit-and-run driver behind me did a sharp turn onto the left curb, drove on the sidewalk, and completely bypassed me. They sped off at a very fast speed (I estimate at 80km/hr) towards the Eglinton Ave and Kennedy Rd intersection, and made a right turn to go up north along Kennedy Rd. They also ignored the red traffic light at the intersection.

I was completely out of my mind with anger. I'm a fairly "new" driver (just got my full G about 1.5 years ago), and haven't been involved in an accident before. So I panicked and my mind went completely BLANK. You know what I did? I got back in my car to chase the hit-and-run driver. They were very far ahead of me, so I couldn't see their license plate number from where I was. They soon turned into a residential neighborhood going at around 80km/hr, so I lost them very quickly.

I'm now pissed at myself -- I should have kept calm and looked around for any witnesses at the scene of the crime, and called the cops immediately. After I lost the chase, I didn't bother to call the cops because I didn't have anything to report to them (no license plate number, nor any witness contact information). I'm very inexperienced about hit-and-run car accident situations.

It's been about 3 hours since it happened, and I am now at home with my car parked on my driveway. What should I do now? Would I still be able to call the cops to file a police report about this incident? Is it too late to file a police report now?

Regarding the damage done to my car, my rear bumper has sustained a (rather minor) vertical crack from the bottom to the top of the bumper, along with two small dents on each side of the crack. Fortunately, I was not hurt in the accident (I was the only one in the car).

I'm betting on someone had a few too many and decided a fail to remain was better than DUI.

You can report the accident at a collision reporting centre (I believe you have 48 hours). If you both left TTC property there is a good chance they may have been caught on camera at some point before the incident.

As far as what should you have done: I would have called police and asked for instructions, but given the time of day and minor damage I might well have done what you did.