LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. – A woman struck more than 10 times in 10 years without ever leaving her driveway thought she’d get a little payback Tuesday. Debbie Ryan didn’t believe it was possible until she was told she might finally get justice in a disposition hearing involving one of the drivers.
After an astounding 13 crashes in her yard, which Ryan says were caused by uninsured drivers, she finally saw one of those people in court.
“As soon as he got out onto the parking lot—or got out of his vehicle—it felt like that night again,” she said.
Ryan watched defendant Brandon Michael Miller walk into court for a hearing that she finally thought would hold someone responsible for crashing onto her property. Last July, she captured video of the defendant after she says he crashed onto her property and totaled two of her parked vehicles.
Tuesday’s hearing was scheduled to be a resolution for the first time out of 13 uninsured crashes onto Ryan’s Lincoln County property.
“This is the first time we’ve actually been able to come to court on anything because usually they take off and we can’t catch them,” she said.
She lives on rural Penrod Road at Riverside Drive outside Troy, Missouri, where the road bends in front of her house. Many drivers fail to follow that bend. She recently completed paying for $8,000 in damages from last July’s crash. Today hearing brought hope of restitution, until Miller’s attorney asked for more time to defend charges that include DWI and driving without insurance.
Miller’s attorney did not respond to FOX 2’s request for a comment.
“They know what happened and why are his rights being okay and ours are not?” Ryan said. “We’re not being allowed to get our justice and our restitution.”
Ryan is, however, getting some help with safety improvement on the road outside of her home. She said Lincoln County just marked utilities in advance of putting up a barricade and rumble strips and signs to warn drivers.
