Question
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Followup To
Question -
A GMC truck with a driver that had no insurance and received a DUI citation rear ended my truck and flipped it over 4 or five times before it landed upside down. No injuries to the driver in my truck to driver or lone passenger. Is there a way to determine if the driver at fault has insurance if the owner and driver both say they don't have it? Also can I sell the supposedly totaled truck before finding out any insurance information as storage costs are adding up at the rate of $20 per day? Thanks from Tom
Answer -
Before I try to answer your question, I have one myself.
What types of coverage do you carry on your vehicle?
Unfortunately the driver on my truck was an excluded driver so no help will come from my policy.
AnswerOh and Tom,
Though the recovery of your monetary loss may be difficult without insurance, I do incourage you to pursue it through the courts. Some states do have court administered restitution programs against people convicted of a crime and as this was a DUI, they may be able to help you. In some states they will refuse to reissue a driver's license to the party until they have made restitution to the victim.
Good luck again and let me know if you have any more questions.
I'm sorry for such an unfortunate situation that you're in. We can be thankful that there were no injuries though. People are hard to replace.
Ok, if there is no other insurance on the at-fault driver and that person was also DUI, he's likely the type of person that you'll never get a cent out of with a lifetime of judgments.
You are thinking on the right track about minimizing your losses by finding a salvage buyer on the truck. What I'd do is take many, detailed pictures of the vehicle and you should try to document in writing, exactly what is loss related. You'll want to take pictures of the undamaged areas as well so you will have documentation of the pre-loss condition. Photograph the VIN and the odometer. Put all of this together along with any repair bills that are one year old or less. You should then have an adequate package to prove the value of the vehicle.
As your actions are to mitigate storage charges, I don't see how an insurer or court could find fault in selling the vehicle as long as the above documentation is available. Now, in the unlikely event of a future settlement, it won't be treated as a total loss because the insurance company cannot total a vehicle that they don't have. What they will have to do is pay the difference between the pre-loss value and whatever you end up selling the vehicle for.
As far as the best way to sell it now, what I'd do first is ask to speak to the owner of the tow yard. Explain your situation to him and see if he would be interested in buying the vehicle and waiving the tow/storage. See if he knows a buyer. See if you can appeal to his compassion as in your case, he's not just hosing some insurance company for that storage. Maybe you can get him to at least lower it to $10.00 per day.
One advantage that you have by selling the vehicle like this is that if it is actually re-buildable, the new owner will have a good, clean title with no "salvage" language on it. This may help you get a little more than the typical salvage value (depending on the vehicle and degree of damage).
I wish you luck and will appreciate your feedback.
