The Shoulder
The Shoulder
54
bold-newt-709

Sleeping driver jumped the curb and destroyed my parked truck sitting in my own driveway — am I covered?

Still kind of in shock writing this. Yesterday afternoon I was inside when I heard this huge bang. Ran outside and found my pickup — which has been sitting in my driveway waiting to get sold — absolutely wrecked. A driver had drifted off the road, clipped my neighbor's fence, and plowed straight into my truck hard enough to push it into my garage door.

Neighbors said the driver appeared to fall asleep at the wheel. She was still sitting there when I got outside, pretty dazed. Police came, wrote her up for careless driving, and the ambulance checked her out. She seemed okay physically.

Here's my situation and where I'm confused:

The truck itself — I had dropped it from my policy about six weeks ago since I wasn't driving it and was just about to list it. So it's technically uninsured by me. But she hit a parked vehicle, so her liability coverage should still cover my loss, right? My lack of coverage on my own vehicle shouldn't matter since I wasn't at fault for anything?

Property damage beyond the truck — She also took out a section of my garage door and cracked the concrete edging along the driveway. Can I lump all of that into a claim against her insurance, or does property attached to my house get handled differently?

Getting her insurance info — I didn't get it directly from her at the scene (everything was chaotic), but the officer took a report. Can I just pull it from the police report once it's available?

I'm not looking to squeeze anyone, I just want my truck and my garage door made right. Any experience with this kind of thing would really help right now.

12replies

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12 replies

  • 13
    gentle-crane-453

    Almost the exact same thing happened to me — someone ran a stop sign and totaled my car that was parked in front of my house. I was so worried my lapsed coverage would matter, but it genuinely didn't. Her liability policy paid for my car. Your situation sounds cleaner than mine was, honestly, since you have a police report already.

  • 15
    quiet-raven-937

    Short answers: yes, yes, and yes. Her liability coverage pays for your truck regardless of whether you had it insured. Your uninsured status is irrelevant because you did nothing wrong — you weren't even in the car. Get the police report the moment it's available, call her insurer directly, and document every single piece of damage with photos before anything gets touched or cleaned up.

  • 20
    curious-owl-065

    Just a heads up — her adjuster is going to low-ball the truck value, especially if it's older. They'll pull some number off a valuation tool that doesn't account for your specific condition or any work you'd put into it recently. Gather your own comps: look up actual listings for similar trucks in your region and have that data ready when they call. Don't just accept the first number they throw at you.

  • 20
    steady-swan-689

    I used to handle exactly these kinds of third-party property claims. Here's what'll happen: her insurer opens a liability claim, assigns an adjuster, they'll want to inspect the truck (or have it inspected), and then they'll issue a settlement offer on the ACV — actual cash value.

    For the garage door and driveway edging, yes, include all of it. It's all 'property damage' under her policy. Itemize everything and send photos. The more organized you are upfront, the faster this moves. And yes — the police report will have her insurance carrier on it.

  • 15
    genuine-grouse-160

    On getting her insurance info: the police report is your best bet and usually lists it. If for some reason it's not there, your state's DMV typically has a process to request insurance info from an accident record. Give the report a few business days to be filed before you try to pull it. Also keep a written log of every call and email with the insurance company — dates, names, what was said. That documentation matters if anything gets disputed later.

    • 4
      tired-driver371

      Solid advice. Getting it in writing is the part most people skip.

  • 17
    patient-badger-337

    Not to derail, but — how are you doing? Even if you weren't in the car, witnessing that kind of sudden chaos and damage is genuinely stressful. A lot of people brush past the emotional side of this stuff and then feel off for weeks without knowing why. Just check in with yourself.

  • 8
    calm-badger-754

    Not legal advice, but from what you're describing — a driver who left her lane and struck your stationary vehicle on private property — liability is pretty straightforward. Your uninsured status has no bearing on her obligation to compensate you for your loss. Where things can sometimes get complicated is if her coverage limits are low and the total damages (truck + property) add up. Worth at least a free consult with a PI attorney if her policy limits become an issue.

    • 5
      careful-neighbor541

      That lines up with what my adjuster told me too.

  • 8
    careful-marmot-162

    Did she actually get cited for falling asleep, or just the careless driving charge? And do you know yet whether she has valid active insurance — or just that the officer wrote her a ticket? A ticket doesn't always confirm coverage. I'd hold off on assuming everything is clean until you actually verify her policy is active.

  • 5
    tidy-kestrel-627

    Honestly the fact that you have a police report, witnesses, and a clear single-party fault situation puts you in a way better position than a lot of people here. I've seen threads where there's a dispute over who caused what — you don't have that problem. This should be one of the cleaner claims to resolve, even if it feels overwhelming right now.

    • 4
      quiet-driver908

      Thanks for sharing. Hope things are getting a little easier for you.