With my incident, I took my bike to the LBS, gave them the insurance fax number, and they faxed the estimate of damage, including clothing, directly to the insurance adjustor. The shop said the adjustor also visited the shop and took pictures of the damage to my bike and bob trailer. I think this is analogous to how they handle car-car collisions, just think of LBS instead of auto mechanic. The insurance paid for a week of bike rental while mine was in the shop.

I've also been in the situation where the dispatcher was reluctant to send out an officer (city of St Louis as opposed to the County). She asked if I was injured (this was another incident involving a school bus). I answered honestly that I wasn't, but that I wanted to file a report. I stayed on the phone until she handed me over to her supervisor and then insisted they send out an officer. It took awhile, but they finally came out.