ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Atlanta Hope Center Pastor Tim Downs uses his 1994 Honda minivan to help bring people to his Southwest Atlanta church.
"Transportation is a huge thing in the inner city of Atlanta, so we operate this vehicle to pick up people for church every week," Downs said. "It is kind of a let down for us because we're limited on finances."
That van collided with a Rapid Taxi cab driven by Amadou Diallo on July 16. An Atlanta Police Department report said Diallo was cited for "failure to yield after stopping at a stop sign" and listed his insurance information.
But when Downs went to file a claim with that company, VHF Captive, the company said Diallo was not covered, that Diallo's coverage was cancelled on June 11, 2012.
The van has nearly $3,000 in damage to it, according to an estimate from Team Collision Center in Marietta.
Now Downs wants Diallo or the company that Diallo drives for to pay for the damages.
"He refuses to even do anything about the accident," Downs said. "If you have a company and you have people operating motor vehicles on a highway and you don't have any idea whether they have insurance or not, there should be some kind of liability."
A manager with that cab company, Rapid Taxi, was not immediately available for comment, but a woman named Priscilla working in the dispatch center said the company requires drivers to pay for their insurance on the first of every month.
"He's driving illegally, there's nothing I can do about an illegal driver," Priscilla said. "All we can do is call the police."
A spokesman for the Georgia Insurance Commissioner said the matter would likely need to be handled in court.
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