I claimed with my own insurance company. They paid for my repairs less deductible (which I paid). When the vehicle that caused the wreck was identified, their insurance reimbursed me the deductible and I guess the insurance companies then sorted the rest of it out. My collision was only a 4 car incident, though, and I had full coverage on my car.
The purposes of who is at fault is typically up to the local police department. Usually in a massive pileup, there might be one or two guilty parties, but basically everyone in the middle of the pack will be not-at-fault unless there is something very unusual happening.
You’ll go to your insurance with your police report number, and they’ll figure it all out. You don’t have to do any of the leg work of finding out who they’re supposed to go after.
I’ve handled claims with 25-27 cars in a pileup on an icy interstate- for the most part, people just use their own coverage- someone without collision coverage did try to claim our insured struck them, but they had no real proof and picture showed the vehicles several feet apart.
One thing to consider, once an accident happens, and the vehicles are stopped, it becomes an ACDA issue, i.e. they are not liable for the cars behind them crashing into them even if they “started the whole thing”.
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