Expert: Claims Guy - 8/22/2008

Question
My son works out of town and had his pickup truck parked in
front of our house while he was away. Around 5am as i was leaving for work, I noticed his vehicle had been hit in the back, knocked halfway into our yard with a broken rear end. A note was left on the windshield with the name and number of the driver. My son just purchased the vehicle as a project truck, is not drivable and has not been insured yet. When my son contacted the driver, he said the vehicle should not have been in the road, was cockeyed on the street (maybe a little) and that he could not have caused the damages without serious injury to himself. I drove down the road and looked at his vehicle in the driveway and he has a smashed windshield, extensive damage to the right side of his vehicle (my son was hit on the left side) and his right side tire was bent inward. Because my son had not insured his vehcile yet, will he be liable for all damages, or can he be cited? No police report has been done yet, and we live in Alabama.

Answer
There are two issues here:

(1)  civil liability....based on what you described, in my opinion the other driver was 100% negligent.  I do not see any liability on the part of your son.  the other driver has a responsibility to avoid striking stationary objects in the road.  Even if the vehicle was parked at an unsafe angle, I still would place 100% on the other driver.  You could maybe make an argument for some small % on your son, but I doubt it would hold up.

(2)  possible citation....this one I can't really answer because I do not know Alabama law.  In my state, there would be no citation for parking an unregistered vehicle on the street.  There would only be a problem if it was driven.  I'm not sure about your state.  I suggest you call the police without giving your name and ask a hypothetical question - say your son owns a vehicle but has not registered it yet - can he park it in the street.  If it is illegal, ask what the fine is, so you can decide the risk in reporting the accident.

You will stand a much better chance of recovering from the other driver if you report the accident to the police immediately.  Show them the note and they can investigate and pressure him into a possible admission.  The evidence is pretty overwhelming against him.

You also need to demand that he provide his insurance information immediately and file a claim with his carrier.  If he refuses, call you state DMV and ask them if you can run is tag.  Some state DMV's will not do this, so if they will not, check on the internet for companies that will run tag traces for you for a small fee.  The tag trace should show his insurance carrier.  Then file the claim immediately.

Good luck!