Pete from Boston

This is starting to feel like a CarTalk puzzle, but here goes:

I got rear-ended recently by a 2005 Chrysler Pacifica that pretty much
bashed in the rear panel of my 90 Accord beyond reasonable repair. The
trunk lid seems to have popped out of the way -- though it is bent and
won't close, it's not crushed -- and the bumper looks fine, as if the
other car hit above it.

The party who hit me had a bumper on the ground when the accident
happened, but in the time between then and when they finally responded
to their insurance company weeks later, they'd replaced it and denied
anything ever happened.

While there's probably not much I can do to generate actualy proof
anymore, I am curious about one thing -- their insurance company said
the Pacifica front bumper was too low to have possibly caused damage
above my 24-inch-high bumper. I was at a stop, facing downhill, and
the person who hit me claims she was hit from behind first. Can
anyone think of how this could have happened? The insurance company
says it's completely impossible for that car to have caused the
damage. I can only shrug and say, maybe I was dreaming, but I dreamt
someone's insurance policy number onto a piece of paper in their
handwriting if that's the case.