The driver backing out is usually the one with the problem

If you were driving past diagonal parking in Aberdeen and somebody suddenly backed into the travel lane and hit you, the starting point is pretty simple: the driver pulling out usually has the duty to make sure the lane is clear.

That matters downtown, near Main Street, around 6th Avenue SE, and on those blocks where angled parking makes traffic look calm until somebody jerks backward without a real look.

South Dakota doesn't have some weird local exception that makes this your fault just because it happened near parked cars instead of on U.S. 12 or U.S. 281. A driver leaving a parking space is entering the lane. That driver is supposed to yield to traffic already moving through it.

Insurance companies know that.

So when liability looks bad for their insured, they start looking for another fight.

A favorite one is your social media.

This is where a normal post gets twisted into "evidence"

Say you're a plumber. Your neck tightens up, your shoulder is barking, maybe turning to check mirrors now feels like somebody shoved a screwdriver under your collarbone. But a few days later your wife posts a picture of you standing at a grill, or a buddy tags you at a Wings game, or you throw up a smiling photo because you're trying to act normal.

The adjuster doesn't care what the day actually felt like.

They care how to frame it.

That photo becomes: "He appears active."

That check-in becomes: "He was out socially and not limited."

That short clip of you handing a tool to somebody becomes: "He returned to physical activity."

It's bullshit a lot of the time, but it works because pain doesn't photograph well. Especially soft-tissue injuries. Especially the neck, shoulder, upper back, headaches, and arm numbness that often show up after a backing collision where you weren't braced for impact.

And if you're a plumber, the insurer will try to paint you as either fully able to work or exaggerating because your job is physical.

Aberdeen crashes don't need freeway speed to mess you up

People hear "backing accident" and think low speed, no big deal.

Not true.

When a vehicle backs out from diagonal parking into a travel lane, the angle is awkward and the hit can snap your body sideways. You're not expecting it. Your hands may be turning. Your torso may be rotated. That's a clean setup for neck strain, shoulder injury, aggravation of an old back issue, or a disc problem that doesn't scream on day one.

In Aberdeen, this kind of crash often happens in the exact places where people let their guard down - downtown business strips, school pickup areas, coffee stops, quick hardware runs, lunch traffic. Not Sioux Falls-level congestion like I-29 or I-229, but enough stop-and-go and enough parked vehicles to create dumb backing moves.

The insurer will still act like if you drove away, you must be fine.

South Dakota's fault system is where this can get ugly

South Dakota uses comparative fault, and the nasty little detail is this: if you're even slightly more at fault than the other driver, you can get shut out.

That means the insurance company has a huge incentive to argue you were speeding, distracted, too close to the parked cars, on your phone, or somehow should have anticipated the driver backing into you.

Now add social media and they've got a second lane of attack: maybe you weren't hurt, or maybe not as hurt as you say.

Those are two different defenses, and they'll use both.

One to cut liability.

One to cut damages.

What actually helps when Facebook is becoming part of the claim

The strongest counter to cherry-picked posts is usually boring, consistent evidence.

Not speeches. Not angry messages to the adjuster.

Records.

If your symptoms got worse over the next 24 to 72 hours, that timeline matters. If looking up under sinks, carrying pipe, lifting a water heater, or crawling under cabinets suddenly became a problem, that matters too. A plumber's body position at work tells a clearer story than a smiling photo ever will.

Focus on these:

• prompt medical follow-up, clear symptom complaints, work-duty changes, missed jobs or modified tasks, and preserving the full context of any post the insurer is trying to misuse

That last part matters more than people realize.

A single photo of you at a birthday party says almost nothing. Ten minutes later you may have gone home because your shoulder locked up. A clip of you holding a drill doesn't show whether you could use it for thirty seconds or three hours. The insurer is counting on the image being more persuasive than the reality.

Don't clean up your accounts in a panic

A lot of people new to this think, "Fine, I'll just delete everything."

Bad idea.

Deleting posts after a claim starts can create a whole new mess. It gives the other side an opening to argue you destroyed evidence because it was damaging. That accusation can hit harder than the post itself.

The smarter move is to stop feeding the machine.

Set accounts private if they aren't already. Stop posting about your body, your activities, the crash, your work, your hobbies, and your good days. Tell friends not to tag you. Screenshot what's already there so you know what exists. If a post is being taken out of context, the surrounding comments, timestamps, and full album may matter.

The homeowner's carrier isn't involved here - auto insurance is, and they move fast

This isn't a dog bite claim, a landlord problem, or some premises case where people spend months figuring out coverage.

For a backing crash in Aberdeen, you're usually dealing with auto liability coverage, and the insurer starts building its defense early. Fast enough that by the time your shoulder starts burning down your arm, they may already have your photos, your public profile, and a theory that you're not credible.

That's why the early paper trail matters so much.

If the ER said nothing was broken, that does not mean nothing is wrong. South Dakotans hear "negative X-ray" and think case closed. Wrong. X-rays are great for fractures. They don't tell the whole story on muscle injury, ligament damage, disc issues, or nerve irritation. If your pain changed, spread, started waking you up, or made plumbing work harder by the day, the record needs to show that progression.

And if the insurer keeps waving around some Facebook post from a day you forced yourself to act normal in Aberdeen, remember what they're really doing: not finding the truth, just shopping for a version of you they can use.