Someone has an accident in a car worth very little on highway 401 but the car is not drivable (but not in terrible shape), there is a police report filed right away in which no other cars were involved, however the car did strike a guardrail. Is it possible to handle this without involving insurance? Or is a forgone conclusion insurance will be notified by the police?

This happened to my friend's daughter. No other cars involved and she struck a guard rail. The province sent her insurance a bill for the damage so they found out.

so it would be best to let insurance know even though no claim will be made?

Your insurance company will know. There will be a claim started from the province for the damage to highway property. It costs thousands of dollars to fix a guardrail and there is no mechanism to pay for it out of pocket. It's your choice to tell them or you can just wait until the province sends the bill.

You have to report any accident to your insurance provider within 7 days. If you are unable to do that (eg: you're in a hospital), they'll expect you to report it as soon as possible.

The other party as up to a year to file a claim against you.

Your rates are based on the information you provide them. Providing incomplete information can see your policy cancelled when you need it.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=128719

According to this it seems there is a way if no claim is made. How did you come to the conclusion there wasn't a way to directly pay it.

I would roll the dice; if the guard rail isn't damaged, your insurance company won't find out.

As we all know insurance companies are all evil. So why give them a leg up?