I was surprised he survived. Lucky guy.

I was driving along a 2 lane divided median interstate here in Mississippi a few years ago and noticed the large early 80's chevy caprice/Pontiac variant 4 door automobile about 300' ahead of me start fishtailing. We were both doing probably about 70 mph and coming up to a bridge over another highway. Next thing I know the rear left wheel and tire come off his car, the left rear of the car hits the pavement on the brake drum and sparks are going everywhere. The wheel and tire, it's one of those chrome 32" types is passing his car and headed the same place I am being the bridge. By now I'm gaining on the wheel and tire with no time to brake, when the wheel and tire hit the curb at the base of the bridge railing and into the air it goes.

I saw it go over the corner of my windshield and heard it hit the tip of my radio antenna (tink!) that was extended about half way that slopes backward from the drivers side windshield post on my Subaru Outback as it went over the top of me and down to the highway below all the while I'm still doing about 70 mph.

Dude pulls over past the bridge and promptly starts a grass fire. I pull over about 600 feet down the road and call the local small town police to report the incident. Dude runs down to my car to see if I'm ok. I'm like WTF I nearly died. Turns out he's some trash out of Oklahoma and is acting really weird. Once he shows up, I tell the small town African American cop he needs to check the dude out. Cop tells me "I think I'll just let him go on down the road and be outta here". Luckily nobody below the bridge got hit by the wheel tire assembly and when I left he was jacking her up and putting on the spare.

That's by far the closest I've ever come to being killed and needless to say I was pretty freaked out about it for the rest of the day!

FWIW, if the guy doesn't live with his mother, he is covered under her insurance.
I doubt you will have any problem making a claim on your insurance, but good luck anyway.

He's an uninsured motorist it seems. File against your own uninsured motorist coverage which isn't supposed to require a deductible or count against you and report him to the PD for driving without coverage.

I don't see how the driver having or not having insurance matters. Pretty sure liability covers the driver not the car which is why you automatically have liability coverage on a rental if you have an active policy on your current car. From what I'm reading, this case didn't involve negligence, just a random failure of some sort that caused the tire to come off regardless of who was driving. This sounds like a comp case so the OP only needs to file with "his" insurance and forget about it. If his insurance wants to go after the mom for reimbursement that's up to them. Reporting the guy to the police seems rather petty IMO.

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Just curious how the wheel came off? They're usually held on w several large lug nuts. :confused:

And MRM is right, the car is insured, not the driver. Anyone I let drive my car is insured while driving it.

Some clarification needed here.

Since the driver was not on the mother's policy, it is likely he was excluded from the liability portion of the policy which usually follows the driver and not the car. This rule can vary between jurisdictions and policy carriers. Apparently, the company that insured the jeep requires the driver to be named in order to cover liability incurred by a driver. However, that may be inaccurate if the driver has permissive use from the owner, but the policy needs to declare that. The policy details will answer the question, but as of now, the OP has gotten a "NO" on liability. Was the driver an uninsured motorist? Maybe. The devil is in the details.

Uninsured motorist coverage does not cover property damage unless it is a specifically added option noted as Uninsured Motorist property damage insurance. Most policies don't have that and the OP would have to check his own policy to see if he has that option. Regular Uninsured Motorist coverage is for medical costs only, caused by an uninsured motorist.

Check your policy to be sure. Liability insurance follows the driver, in general. It may include someone you allow to drive your car, a permissive user, but that needs to be stated in the policy. There are so many variables in policies and states that only a reading of the policy will confirm the status of liability of a driver.

Just to update this.
I filed with my insurance this morning. Told them about filing with AAA and their turning it down.
We do have $0 deductible on our comp and it will go against that part of our policy.
Wife is complaining that our premiums have been going up $30 every six months since the last claim so was pissed I filed another one. We'll see what happens next.