Start collecting proof like somebody is about to delete it

If you were hit by a vehicle backing up in a blind alley in Salt Lake City, and now the driver's insurer, your own auto insurer, and maybe a property or umbrella carrier are all pointing fingers, the first problem is not "who's right." It's evidence.

Because evidence vanishes.

Not in some dramatic TV way. In the boring, everyday way that ruins claims. Video gets overwritten. Witnesses stop answering. A scraped bumper gets repaired. Phone logs disappear behind account cycles. A doctor writes "minor soft tissue" before your back locks up three days later.

A blind alley crash is exactly the kind of case insurers love to muddy up. They'll argue visibility, speed, distraction, whether you were walking where you should have been, whether the driver had a clear path, whether this happened on private property, and which policy even applies.

So save the stuff that pins the story down.

Photograph the alley like you're proving sightlines to a stranger

Go back and shoot the scene at the same time of day if you can.

In Salt Lake City, that matters. Late winter and early spring sun can hit low and hard in east-west alleys. Snow berms and filthy plow piles can still be stacked near garages in March. Trash bins, fences, parked trucks, and those cinderblock walls behind older apartments in Sugar House, Central City, or near the Avenues can create a true blind-back situation.

Get photos of:

• the alley entrance and exit
• the exact spot where you were hit
• the driver's backing path
• anything blocking the driver's view
• skid marks, debris, broken lenses, torn clothing, blood, scuffs on pavement
• the vehicle damage and your injuries, then updated injury photos over the next week

Take wide shots first. Then medium. Then close-ups.

Do not just take one dramatic photo of a bruise and call it good.

Witnesses disappear faster than you think

If somebody saw it happen, get their full name, cell number, email, and where they were standing.

Not "the guy from the loading dock." Not "a woman from the coffee shop."

Full ID.

People in downtown Salt Lake, around small apartment courts, service alleys behind restaurants, or mixed-use buildings near 9th and 9th move on fast. Delivery drivers especially. If they were in a company van, photograph the van number and plate. If they work nearby, note the business name and shift time.

Then write down what each witness said, word for word as close as you can remember, before the memory gets polished up.

A witness saying "the driver never looked back" is gold.

A month later, that same witness may say only, "I heard a noise."

Get the video before some system overwrites it

This is where people get burned.

Ask immediately for any dashcam footage from the driver, nearby parked vehicles, delivery vans, rideshare cars, and business security cameras facing the alley. In a lot of Salt Lake commercial areas, cameras overwrite in days, not months.

Same with apartment buildings.

Same with garages.

Same with city-adjacent cameras that may not keep footage long.

Do not assume the police grabbed it. Often they didn't.

And yes, ask in writing. A short email or text request with the date, time, and location is better than a phone call nobody admits happened. If a business says no, write down the manager's name and the time you asked. That record matters later when somebody claims no one tried.

Dashcam footage is especially useful in backup cases because it catches brake lights, reverse lights, horn use, and whether the driver paused before moving.

The police report helps, but it's not the whole case

Get the report as soon as it's available from the Salt Lake City Police Department or the responding agency.

Check it for stupid mistakes.

Wrong alley address. Wrong direction of travel. Wrong insurance info. Missing witness names. A note that says "pedestrian stepped behind vehicle" when the actual issue was the driver backing blind without a lookout. Those errors spread through all three insurance files like a virus.

If the report is incomplete, your photos, witness notes, and medical timeline start carrying much more weight.

And keep the call-for-service number, incident number, and the officer's name together in one file. Don't make yourself hunt for it later while some adjuster acts confused.

Save your phone records before the carrier makes it a pain

If distraction becomes an issue, phone records matter.

That can mean the driver's records, but start with your own. Save screenshots showing call times, texts, app activity, and location history around the crash window. If you use Google Maps, Apple significant locations, or a fitness app, preserve that too. It can help prove you were walking where you said you were, at the time you said.

Why do this now? Because account dashboards change, phones get replaced, and carriers do not keep easy-access logs forever. The same way weather wipes out details on I-80 near the Great Salt Lake during a dust storm, digital evidence can go to zero visibility fast.

Medical records are evidence, not just bills

If you're an off-duty firefighter, insurers may act like you're "tough" and therefore not badly hurt. That's garbage.

Get every record: ER notes, urgent care, imaging orders, discharge instructions, work restrictions, and follow-up recommendations. If the chart says you were hit by a reversing vehicle in a blind alley, good. If it just says "leg pain," that's weak and needs fixing fast through a clarified history at the next visit.

Since you lost employer coverage, the billing side is brutal. But unpaid treatment records still matter. So do prescriptions you couldn't fill, visits you had to postpone, and referrals you couldn't afford. That shows the real fallout, not some cleaned-up insurance version.

Three insurers arguing over fault or coverage want delay. Delay helps them. In Utah, like avalanche closures in Little Cottonwood, the window can shut before you realize the road is blocked. Save the proof now, while it still exists.