LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. (KTVI) — A woman whose vehicles have been hit more than 10 times in 10 years without ever leaving her driveway thought she’d get a little payback on June 22.
Debbie Ryan, of Lincoln County, Missouri, was told she might finally get justice in a hearing last month involving one of the drivers.
After an astounding 13 crashes in her yard, which Ryan says were caused by uninsured drivers, she saw one of those people in court for this first time.
“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 him after he crashed onto her property and totaled two of her parked vehicles.
“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.
Ryan lives on a rural road outside Troy, Missouri, where the road bends in front of her house. Many drivers fail to follow that bend. She recently finished paying for $8,000 in damages from last July’s crash. Tuesday’s 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 a 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, however, is getting 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, rumble strips and signs to warn drivers.