Coca-Cola Truck Stolen and Crashed
A Coca-Cola truck was stolen and involved in three crashes. Florida deputies shot and killed the man who stole the truck. The Ledger reports that Robert Michael Robbibaro, 30-years-old, was the driver of the stolen truck. The incident began as an off-duty officer saw the truck swerving and began following it. Thereafter, the driver of the truck shifted to reverse and crashed into the hood of a police sergeant's vehicle. It was reported that the truck was involved in at least one prior accident before the showdown with police.
![By MobiusDaXter (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/220658_648ed06af64846a9a3364fda8def7415~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_800,h_526,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/220658_648ed06af64846a9a3364fda8def7415~mv2.jpg)
It is important to note that there is generally no insurance coverage for a vehicle that is stolen. In those cases, the owner of the vehicle damaged by a stolen vehicle needs collision coverage to cover property damage to their vehicle and uninsured motorist coverage to cover bodily injuries. There is also generally no insurance for intentional acts such as when the driver of this truck intentionally put the truck in reverse and sought to disable the police vehicle in order to make a getaway. Intentional acts are normally excluded from automobile liability insurance policies. Again, collision coverage may be the saving grace along with UM coverage for injuries.
The exception to the rules above is that the owner of the vehicle that is stolen must not have done something that exposes the vehicle to be stolen. In other words, if the truck driver got out of the truck with the engine running (and key in the ignition) and did not secure the door, then the truck driver and the employer (Coca-Cola) may have legal responsibility to those further down in the chain of causation. In other words, even though the vehicle was stolen, the driver or owner of the truck was negligent by failing to secure a dangerous instrumentality from theft and thereby causing property damage or bodily injury as a result.
If you or someone you know has been damaged or injured in a Polk County car accident, please contact a Polk County car accident attorney for a free consultation to discuss your car accident case.
