A car accident : hitting a box on highway

I wrote this post for those who unfortunately are involved in car accidents first time and who don't know what to do and how to deal with it. Nobody wants to be involved in car accidents, but we could be involved even though you drive your car carefully because it's human to human society on roads and it can cause crashes as same as it is in your life. I was involved in a car accident so far once in California, therefore, I can understand how insecure, concerned, and scare peoples feel. So let me tell you my case today. I would be happy if it could help someone feel good and know what to do from the beginning to the end. I would appreciate you if you read this as one of example of what to do. 

It was night of Thanksgiving day around 8pm. I left home for a shopping mall which is one hour drive away and was supposed to start a big sale from 9pm. When I got on highway near my apartment, there was a car on the same line which looked like a pick-up truck although it's was hard to recognize its proper type of car because it's dark night and I kept safe distance. At one time, I saw something dropped off from the truck, but what I could see for sure was a huge plastic back and it was flying toward a right shoulder, so I thought that It did not matter and there was no chance that I could hit the bag. A few second later, a huge box came out in front of my car and it was too late to avoid it. Finally I hit it unfortunately with big sound like "Ban!!". I was shocked but I could manage to think that I could run my car somehow by judging from a little noise from my car and I pulled over my car at the right shoulder. I also could see the truck run away unfortunately even though the driver might recognize that he or she dropped off something because I could see brake lamp of the car after dropping off something. I got out of my car carefully and looked at the damage. The right front body was damaged and bent, and the right front light was completely broken. Although this was turned out later, I could not turn left because my right front tire was touching the bend body when I tried to turn left. When I pulled over my car, I noticed that someone behind my car kindly pulled over his car to make sure whether I was fine or not. He said to me that what I hit was a huge wooden box and it was broken and pushed toward the right shoulder. I was shocked and my heart was beating hard but I could know what to do before he went away . What I did was to ask him his phone number and ask him to tell what he saw when my insurance company contact him as a witness. He kindly said yes and went away while saying "drive carefully and take care !". At that time, I thought that I should get out of the highway because it was very dangerous to stay there because someone might hit the remaining part of box on the road and cause  second accident. Fortunately, it was close to my house and I knew where I could park my car close to the exit of the highway. As soon as I parked my car at a parking lot of Japanese supermarket, I tried to call my insurance company. I kept insurance documents about what to do in case of car accidents inside space in front of passenger sheet, so I tried to find a phone number which I should call at, but it was first day of long holiday, and I figured out that my specific insurance company was closed and a emergency call center was open. I called at the call center actually and told everything about my insurance information and about my car accident information, and a person in the call center told me that a person in charge of my accident case would contact me at the early following week. Next I called at 911 of police. When I told that it was a car accident, a person in the call center of 911 connected me to the California highway patrol (CHP). Like what I told to the emergency call center of my insurance company, I told everything about what I knew to a person of the CHP. A person asked me whether I need a collision report or not, and I needed it so the person asked where I parked my car and stay there until a police car arrives. A collision report is a report which police makes to make sure that there is a accident, and a insurance company would contact a police station about its report to make sure that it is real accident in order to avoid car accident scams. I waited for more than 40 minites, but nobody came and I wanted go to a restroom so I called at 911 and asked them if I could go home and stay there, then a person at the call said that Thanksgiving night is usually busy and they deal with case in high priority order and my case is low priority so it would take time to get me so I could go back home and wait at my apartment. Police guys finally came to me around 12:30am and I told them everything again. They gave a collision report card to me with several important numbers printed there. It was Thursday night so I had to wait for more that 3 days until I could expect to be contacte by the person in charge. For these 3 days, I felt longest time for which I had ever felt so far. At the following Monday, there was no contact from my insurance company actually and I got a phone call from a person in charge at the morning at the following Tuesday. He told me to take my car to a body shop close to my house where he searched and make a reservation of a rent car. So I called the body shop and asked a tow service of my car from my apartment to the body shop because my car could not turn left. Towing service fee and rent car fee were covered by my insurance, although rent car fee was limited to be $30 per day. In the body, I asked a person in charge how long it could be expected to be fixed from his experience, then he said that it would take a few weeks at least due to supplies of parts. After this, communication about car fixing had been done between the body shop and my insurance company until my car was fixed and the guy in the body shop update information to me regularly by phone call. A week later, my insurance company sent letters to me, and one of them described that my responsibility was zero percent and the insurance company could cover 100% other than deductible money. Another one was a letter to ask to write about the car accident and send it back. Finally I got my car back 3 weeks later and it amazingly costed more that $8,000 for fixing. According to the body shop, they did not use third parts and use same parts with my car so it costed so much. It did not matter for me because I paid only $250 of deductible.  

Let me summarize what I did.

1. Aks my witness a phone number
1. Call my insurance company (a emergency call center)
2. Call 911 and ask them to make a collision report 
3. Take my car to the specified body shop and get a rent car
4. Do a paper work
5. Get my car back

A list looks like simple but it takes a few week to complete a list and needed patient and I suffered from much stress because I did not know what to do in a foreign country. It would bad been easier if it have been at my home county.

If I think this positively, I could learn a lot and grow up by one step.