"The part you are not seeing is that the damage to the car
would have never occurred unless the car went into the ditch."

And what does that have to do with anything? I suppose if Toller
takes the car to a body shop for repair and they let it fall off the
lift while it's there, the body shop isn't responsible either, because
it never would have occurred if the car went into the ditch? How
about if the body shop sprays paint onto his seats? That wouldn't have
happened either if the car hadn't gone into the ditch. Who's right
here depends on many things, but the fact that the car was in the ditch
has nothing to with it.