Amazon settles case after driver totaled woman’s car in her driveway

LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida woman received a settlement check after contacting WFLA in Tampa’s Consumer Investigator Shannon Behnken with her story: her car was hit by an Amazon delivery driver and declared totaled.

Sara Dooley’s troubles started in February when the Amazon driver hit the gas to leave her Land O’Lakes driveway, was going the wrong way and slammed into her car. Even though the damage on her 2018 RAV-4 didn’t appear that bad, the insurance company for Amazon deemed it totaled.

“When we got the final estimate for the damages it was about $15,000 worth of damages, so it was over that threshold,” she said. “And that’s where they declared it a total loss.”

What’s worse — Dooley says she had just finished paying off the vehicle.

Dooley signed over rights to the car, but says she received no check and then the runaround. That changed after WFLA reached out to Amazon to find out what the hold up was.

“They overnighted it [the settlement check] to me,” Dooley said.

The next day, she used that money toward the purchase of a brand new Toyota RAV-4, just like her old one.

“It didn’t matter if I was going to get a new car or my old car back, I just wanted it resolved,” she said.

An Amazon spokesperson previously said in a statement that it was working with Dooley and other parties involved “to make this right.”