The City of Carmel has recovered $50,000 from an insurance company to reimburse taxpayers for most of the cost to repair a damaged fountain inside the roundabout at 106th Street and Ditch Road. The fountain was damaged on Nov. 6, 2021, when the driver of a pickup truck drove through the roundabout at a high rate of speed and struck one of the limestone panels in the fountain.
The city follows a policy to pursue the offending party and their insurance company for the cost of repairing damage to public property so that local taxpayers do not have to bear those costs. Over the last three years, more than $160,000 was recovered by filing such claims.
“It is important that we protect the public’s assets,” Mayor Jim Brainard said. “When damages such as this occur, the cost of repairing the public infrastructure should be that of the person responsible for the damage.”
The city contracted with Smock Fansler Corporation to repair the fountain at a cost of $64,026. Under this person’s insurance policy, $50,000 was the maximum amount allowed to be claimed for property damage.
According to the Carmel Police Department, the driver of the pickup truck, a 35-year-old Carmel resident, was driving an estimated 65 miles-per-hour in a 40 mile-per-hour zone when he struck the east-side curb of the roundabout and went airborne into the fountain. The result of the impact caused the truck to invert and land upside down. The driver did not survive the accident.
A toxicology report later revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.199 percent (the legal limit is 0.08 percent), along with evidence of methamphetamine use, both of which were deemed to be contributing causes of the crash.