John, about 5 years ago, a guy ran a red light in front of my Daughter and took out her bumper, grill, and one headlight. and some misc. stuff.
As usual, he had no insurance, and we were pretty sure he was drunk at the time of the accident.
Local small town Leo's were there in a heart beat. Since the guy was also a local, (and the son of a former mayor of the town) they didn't do any DUI testing, and as far as I know, they only gave him a ticket for running the light.
After doing our own investigation, we found out he had several DUI's on his record, along with having no insurance too. So we figured we were pretty much out of luck getting our $500.00 deductible back.
Our Insurance Co. fixed the car fine, then they went after him to cover all the damadges (including our deductible) and just about a year later we got a $500.00 check from Nationwide.
I hope everything works out for Ya.