Parked Vehicle Struck by an Impaired Driver in Florida

Attorney Answer

Yes. A lawfully parked truck contributes nothing to a collision, so this is about as clean a property-damage claim as Florida offers. The real question is not whether she owes you — it is what she has to pay with. That is where these claims actually get decided.

On fault, there is nothing to argue about. A stationary vehicle did not follow too closely, fail to yield, or misjudge anything. Whatever share of fault the other driver disputes elsewhere, none of it lands on a parked truck, and her impairment does not help her case.

On what she must carry, Florida is thinner than most people expect. Fla. Stat. § 324.022(1) provides: "Every owner or operator of a motor vehicle required to be registered in this state shall establish and maintain the ability to respond in damages for liability on account of accidents arising out of the use of the motor vehicle in the amount of $10,000 because of damage to, or destruction of, property of others in any one crash." That $10,000 property-damage figure is the floor for a private vehicle, along with the personal injury protection coverage Florida separately requires. Many drivers carry more. Some carry exactly that. The familiar 10/20/10 numbers in § 324.021(7) define proof of financial responsibility — what a driver may be required to produce after a qualifying crash or a judgment — rather than what everyone was obliged to buy in advance.

That matters directly to you. A nearly new truck with a crushed panel can exceed $10,000 without much effort. If the repair or the vehicle's value exceeds her coverage, the balance is a claim against her personally, and whether she can actually pay it is a separate and often disappointing question.

Her being drunk does not change what the repair costs. It can matter in two other ways. It will drive a criminal case, which is the state's business and not yours to direct, and the record it generates — the arrest report, the test results, the charging documents — is useful evidence for your civil claim. It can also open the door to a category of damages beyond compensation for the loss itself, which is a specialized question with its own statutory requirements and is worth asking a Florida attorney about rather than assuming either way.

One more piece particular to a nearly new vehicle: whether you can recover the drop in resale value of a repaired truck, on top of the repair cost, depends on your policy language and on how the claim is presented. Raise it early rather than after the check clears.

What you can do

1. Photograph everything before any repair — the damage from every angle, both vehicles' positions, and the surrounding area. Do it now.

2. Get the incident or crash report and any law enforcement case number. Under § 316.066(2)(b) a crash report held by an agency may be released immediately to the parties involved and their insurers, on the identification and sworn statement described in § 316.066(2)(d).

3. Get two or three written repair estimates from shops you choose, and keep the purchase paperwork showing the truck's age and price.

4. Get the other driver's insurance information and open a claim with her carrier, and open one with your own insurer as well if you carry collision coverage.

5. Save the names and numbers of anyone at the resort who saw it, and ask the property whether it has camera coverage of that area — in writing, and soon, because footage is overwritten quickly.

6. Ask a Florida attorney about diminished value on a two-week-old vehicle and about whether the driver's condition supports anything beyond your repair costs, before you settle.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. For negligence claims arising before March 24, 2023, the former four-year period under the earlier text of § 95.11 applied; a 2023 law changed both that deadline and Florida's shared-fault rule for later claims, and § 95.11(5)(a) now sets two years. Your own policy carries much shorter notice deadlines, and evidence like camera footage disappears far sooner than any statute runs. Which period governs your claim, and from when, should be checked by a Florida attorney against your dates. This page does not calculate any date.