Block wall damage & Uninsured/drunk motorist

HOAtalk, you can eliminate this if inappropriate:

I just need to vent: Driving out of our HOA today, i saw a large, car shaped hole in the concrete block wall at the corner/intersection. I stopped to talk to the homeowner whose wall was punched through, and he said it happened last night. A DRUNK driver, making a huge/wide turn, drove right into the wall (basically, the corner) and plowed into it. The force of the collision scattered concrete block remnants across this guy's yard, onto his patio. Luckily, no one was outside at the time, and no windows were shattered (although block pieces did hit the windows). The driver was impaired, and of course, has no insurance.

So, the owner and I are looking at how to repair the wall, who pays, etc.. It just frosts my joints that this idiot guy can CHOOSE to drink, then CHOOSE to drive, and CHOOSE to not pay for MANDATORY insurance, and then cause this destruction and walk away. I am sure he will be in court, but in Arizona, it is not likely he will lose his license even (first time offense, no one hurt). Because he has no money, WE pay for his crime. The most we can do is sue him, which is a poor proposition, since he likely won't have much income while in jail, and after jail (couple months, most likely), he won't have much money or a decent job. This guy makes a hundred bad decisions, all on his own, and now, society pays for it.

To make this into a HOA subject, any ideas on who pays for the damage to the wall? This is a wall on the edge of the owner's property (between his yard and street). The HOA owns a 5 foot strip of "common area" on the street side of the wall, between the wall and sidewalk. The HOA pays to paint and fix cracks on the street side (not sure if we "had to" but we do). Is this "his" wall, because it bounds his property? Is it "our" wall, as it edges the HOA? Is this a shared wall? How would I know?

What does your documents say? Here is what ours say: "Any wall that is placed on the boundary line between a Lot and public right-of-way shall be maintained, repaired and replaced by the Association, except that the Owner of the Lot shall be responsible for the repair and replacement of the surface of the wall that faces the Lot."
So if the side facing the owner was stuccoed, it would be the owner's responsibility to replace the stucco, but the board would have to replace the fence - and let them worry about going after the drunk. Harold

Don't assume the guy doesn't have any assets just because he was driving uninsured. Maybe he's loaded (no pun intended) but couldn't find an insurer to insure him due to a pattern of behaviour (drunk driving). Before that though finding out who is responsible for the wall is really the first step.

thanks for the advice. checked out our information as suggested, and the HOA owns the wall. So, our insurance has a claim started, informed the owner that we have it covered, and the insurance will sue this guy once he gets out of jail.

we can start the repair process as soon as i get some basic info to them. and the insurance company will do some legwork to see that this uninsured driver gets what is due to him.