Rear-Ended!

So I was driving along yesterday near the airport when suddenly, in front of me, blocking the entire right lane, is a car at a dead stop. People, this is a 50 mph zone! The car in front of me slams to stop, and I, fortunately, make it, too. The idiot behind me, however, didn't, which is something I can actually understand. He didn't pop me hard, but obviously I'd been hit---and then the asshole took off! He was in a white, older Lincoln and I'm assuming he either didn't have insurance or was driving on a suspended license (major surprise, huh?) Who I'd really like to hurt is the white trash woman who was stopped dead in the right lane and actually caused all this. I spoke to her briefly--she tried to get the license # of the car driving off---but she was stopped because she was following her boyfriend and things had flown off the back of his truck and they were stopped to pick them up. I was kinda in shock--not hurt, just pissed. I did drive on down to a safe spot and called the cops but of course there's little to no chance they'll ever catch the idiot. So now I'm left to decide whether or not I should turn the claim in to my insurance and watch my rates go up (thanks, asshole!) or hope the damage is actually less than $500 so I don't have to involve the insurance people at all. You can't really tell there's much damage--just the muffler is bent and there's a small dent in my back door. It's just the principle of the thing. What is wrong with people? You go along minding your own business and then, bam! And we really can't take another financial hit now. I'm just really down about all this.