Damage from vehicle left one in confused state (9)

'damage' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I don't see how they can define each other.

'vehicle left one in confused state' is the wordplay.
'vehicle' becomes 'van' (type of vehicle).
'left one' becomes 'li' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'confused state' becomes 'daze' (I've seen this in another clue).
'li' put inside 'daze' is 'dalize'.
'van'+'dalize'='VANDALIZE'

'from' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?