Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog

The bad news just keeps coming for Toyota. According to the Washington Post, a federal grand jury has subpoenaed information from Toyota for an investigation into concerns about vehicle safety defects. As a Missouri car wreck attorney, I've been following the investigations into Toyota's runaway acceleration problems. Now the focus has widened to include defects with steering relay rods. Just as with the sticky acceleration pedals, Toyota is facing accusations that it kept quiet about the steering relay rod problems rather than informing consumers. While Toyota undoubtedly doesn't welcome these developments, it's good that these problems are coming to light so that Toyota and other automakers can learn that there are consequences to putting public safety at risk by allowing defective vehicles on the roads.

Several Toyota trucks and SUVs -- certain 1989 to 1998 4Runners, T100 pickups and Toyota pickups -- are implicated in the faulty steering relay rods investigation. The defective steering relay rods, which connect the steering wheel to the wheels, reportedly break and leave the drivers without control of their vehicles, making this a very serious safety problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is apparently treating this as a criminal investigation. The investigation is looking into whether Toyota shrugged off complaints of steering relay rods breaking. Toyota had issued recalls first in only Japan, claiming that the problem would affect only Japanese drivers and not Americans because the tight maneuvering required in Japan would stress the steering mechanisms more. However, at least 15 crashes, 3 deaths, and 7 injuries have occurred in connection with the problem in the U.S., according to the NHTSA. Toyota issued a U.S. recall in 2005, but only a small number of the affected vehicles were fixed. In 2007, Michael Levi Stewart, an Idaho teenager, was killed after the steering relay rod snapped in his 1991 Toyota pickup, causing it to veer off the road and roll over.

As a St. Louis car crash lawyer, I hope that the NHTSA's toughening stance on Toyota's numerous recalls will deter other automakers from failing to warn consumers about safety issues in a timely manner. Accidents like Michael Levi Stewart's leave families and communities with tremendous emotional losses, especially when they happen through no fault of the victim's. Automakers do not have a right to withhold information about serious safety problems until they feel that the right time has come to disclose it. All manufacturers are legally required to tell the public about any unavoidable safety problems with their products. Automakers who place their company's financial and public relations concerns ahead of public safety can be held responsible for any harm that their products do. Their failure to warn the public is a form of negligence, or carelessness, and victims should not and do not have to bear the consequences of the company's negligence all on their own.

Continue reading "Toyota Faces Criminal Investigation Into Failure to Warn About Steering Rod Problem" »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Product Liability , Traffic Safety

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Back in April, the Senate passed a bill that included a reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) for five more years, and the House is set to take it up soon. So what is PDUFA and why should you care?

In short, you — and the pharmaceutical companies — have a lot riding on it. PDUFA first was passed in 1992 to help the FDA review drugs more quickly and get them out to patients sooner. It created a "user fee" that a company pays when it submits the large volume of research the FDA must review before approving or rejecting a drug, essentially paying the FDA to speed up its decision making process. The biggest question as Congress debates reauthorizing the law is if FDA should raise the fees and use a larger portion of that funding to look at drugs after they've been approved and gone to market.

Back in 1992, drug companies were screaming that it took far too long to get their drugs to market — particularly because it cut into the time a drug was under patent. Consumers also were lobbying for new drugs to be made available in a more timely fashion. (Of particular concern at the time were AIDS drugs.) Once passed, PDUFA was hugely successful, cutting the time almost in half for many drugs to hit the market. About 50 percent of all new prescription drugs now are available in the U.S. first vs. just eight percent before PDUFA. Pharmaceutical companies’ profits have soared because of it.

However, that speed of approval also is viewed by many as the main downside of the law. Drugs like Vioxx, Ketek and now Avandia are looming large in the new debate. All three of these drugs ran into problems after the FDA approved them. The possibility of heart attacks or liver failure weren't discovered in connection with these drugs until they had been approved and were in use in large numbers. So now many are calling on increasing the fees to cover the costs associated with follow-up on approved drugs. Some have argued that computer programs could mine huge databases like those of Medicare and HMOs to find potential problems with drugs on the market much more effectively than waiting for random doctors' reports — or lawsuits — to trickle in.

PDUFA has been a very effective law, but we must watch closely to see if it is updated to fix some of its shortcomings.

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In February, I wrote about the lawsuits that Toyota will increasingly face regarding the unintended acceleration of some of its cars, which has been blamed for 93 deaths. Toyota's handling of recalls related to the unintended acceleration problem have led to some serious public- and government relations problems, since the company appears to have sat on evidence about these problems for three years before doing anything about them. The New York Times recently reported that Toyota has admitted that some of the reported incidents of sudden acceleration really were related to problems with floor mats and sticking accelerator pedals, rather than only due to driver error, as the carmaker had previously claimed. From my perspective as a Missouri car crash attorney, Toyota's admission means that consumers and their advocates should continue to insist on complete answers to questions about whether their vehicles are safe.

Toyota's acknowledgement that the floor mat and sticking pedal problems are real came in the context of its investigation of about 2,000 reports of sudden acceleration. The company did not say how many of these incidents it believes were caused by floor mats or sticking pedals, but its spokesman, Mike Michels, said more of the incidents were related to floor mats than to pedals. Michels said that none of the vehicles with sticking pedals were involved in crashes, and he was unable to say how many crashes were related to the floor mats. Toyota maintains that in almost all crashes related to unintended acceleration, the problem was that the driver mistakenly pressed the accelerator rather than the brake.

Michels said there was no evidence of problems with the electronic throttle control system, despite the research of Southern Illinois University professor David Gilbert that demonstrated such problems. However, Toyota may be avoiding looking closely at its electronic throttle system because it’s afraid of what it might find. A Massachusetts consulting firm, Safety Research and Strategies, is taking a broader view of the unintended acceleration problems. Its president, Sean Kane, said, “You can’t ignore the fact that when they move to an electronic throttle control, you basically see a fourfold increase in complaints.” Toyota's investigation has focused on information gathered by vehicles' onboard data recorders, which are activated by crashes violent enough to cause the airbag to deploy. But Kane pointed out that these recorders rely on “the same sensing system that is unable to detect the failure to begin with,” so they couldn't prove that a car didn't accelerate suddenly on its own. And Toyota itself has argued in court cases that its onboard data recorders should not be used as reliable sources of evidence.

As a southern Illinois auto accident attorney, I find the suggestion that Toyota may be purposely avoiding looking at its electronic throttle control very troubling. Between Professor Gilbert's account of Toyota's possible attempts to quash his research into its electronics, and Toyota's own description of the onboard data recorders as unreliable, it seems clear that those who have been harmed by automobiles with runaway acceleration problems should keep pushing for real answers. They should also discuss with a St. Louis car crash lawyer how they might pursue compensation for any harm they have suffered as a result of Toyota's failure to warn consumers or investigate the cause of defects in their vehicles.

Continue reading "Toyota Admits Validity of Sudden Acceleration Claims Involving Pedals and Floor Mats" »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Product Liability

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In 2001, nearly 500 deaths and more than 1 million emergency room visits across the United States came as a result of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) injuries. The estimated nationwide cost for ATV-related accidents is $3.24 billion each year. What’s more, a recent study was released in Utah claiming that spine and head traumas caused by ATV accidents are on the rise.

But even more troubling, ATVs have been shown to cause a high number of spinal injuries in children. New research from a number of universities indicated that 7.4 percent of a group of 4,483 children studied over several years suffered spinal injuries while operating the machines. This reflects a 368 percent increase in spinal injuries compared to similar research conducted in 1997. Alarmingly, the average age of riders injured on ATVs was just 13 years old. Young riders are most vulnerable to injuries on these vehicles; in addition to spinal and head injuries, ATVs also are being blamed as the cause of many amputations and deaths.

Rollovers are the most common form of ATV accidents. ATVs can hit speeds of close to 50 miles per hour. Combine that with the vehicles’ high center of gravity and short wheel base, and you have an inherently unstable, fast-moving machine. While turning, one has to lean into the turn to shift the center of gravity, but smaller riders would have difficulty with this on a machine that can weigh up to a quarter of a ton. That is why young, inexperienced drivers are more than two times as likely to crash their ATVs. In the 1980s, ATV manufacturers did away with their three-wheel design because of instability issues. But there has been no move to modify the current four-wheel models in any significant way.

Sadly, more than half the patients who enter an E.R. for ATV accidents were not wearing helmets, making them much more likely to suffer traumatic brain injuries.

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As a southern Illinois auto accident attorney, I was very interested in a recent story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about Toyota's alleged attempts to intimidate a Southern Illinois University automotive technology professor and suppress his research into Toyota's runaway acceleration problems. Toyota has donated cars as well as money to SIU, and the company may have used its standing to pressure SIU administrators to stop Professor David Gilbert from publicizing his worrisome findings. Knowing how many people have been hurt and how many more are afraid that their cars might suddenly accelerate, these allegations would be unfortunate, if proven, both for the safety of the driving public and for Toyota’s own financial security.

In January, Gilbert discovered that he could cause runaway acceleration in a Toyota Avalon by manipulating its electronics. When he did so, the car's computer did not switch over to a fail-safe mode that would allow the brake to override the gas, as it should have. Gilbert went to Toyota with his findings, but after hearing what he had to say, they never got back to him. Gilbert felt he couldn’t stay silent, the article said, so he took his findings to the government and media. In response, Toyota sent some attorneys to meet with Gilbert and university officials about his testimony before Congress, a meeting that Gilbert said "was meant to maybe intimidate me." Toyota also assembled its own group of experts to refute Gilbert's findings, saying that the conditions under which he produced the runaway acceleration could never happen on an actual road. SIU's then-chancellor Sam Goldman also received an email from a man who said he was an SIU alumnus and a Toyota Motor Sales employee, complaining that Gilbert should be fired for making what he called false accusations about Toyota, and reminding him of his and Toyota's financial and in-kind contributions to the university. University officials apparently did their best to assuage Toyota and maintain the relationship.

In my view as a St. Louis car crash lawyer, it would be much better for the company to work with someone who could discover solutions to the runaway acceleration problem than to try to cover it up. If the allegations are proven, Toyota's alleged treatment of Gilbert and his work could actually hurt the company’s public relations and its financial bottom line. Evidence that Toyota passed up an opportunity to work on a potential fix for a serious problem could make the company look bad in all the lawsuits it's already facing over runaway acceleration. Not only is there evidence that Toyota had received over 2,000 complaints over the last decade and knew about the pedal problem three years ago, but Gilbert's story suggests that Toyota was more interested in denying any problem than fixing it. Unfortunately for Toyota, its customers may have a strong basis for a legal claim that it failed to warn drivers about the problem in a timely manner, in addition to a possible claim about a design defect. And if the automaker is found liable, it could be forced to pay its customers billions of dollars because of the seriousness of the claims and the huge number of affected vehicles.

Continue reading "Professor Alleges Toyota Tried to Quash His Research Into Runaway Acceleration" »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Product Liability , Traffic Safety

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As I wrote last week, summer unfortunately brings what seems like a constantly increasing number of ATV accidents. One accident mentioned in the Springfield News-Leader caught my eye because the person hurt was riding a Polaris ATV. As a Missouri all-terrain vehicle crash lawyer, I've kept track of Polaris ATVs because they have been involved in countless recalls over the years, thanks to their potentially deadly defects.

In this case, the person hurt by a Polaris ATV wasn't even out having a good time on it. On the morning of July 4, Shad D. West, 36, of Greenfield, Missouri, was loading his 2004 Polaris ATV onto another vehicle or a trailer when it flipped over backward and landed on him. The Missouri State Highway Patrol report doesn't give much detail, but presumably West was trying to drive the ATV up a ramp into the other vehicle, in the usual manner for transporting an ATV. Sadly, West was seriously injured by the ATV rollover and had to be airlifted to Cox South Hospital in Springfield. I hope that West recovers quickly and fully, and I am sorry that this happened to him.

As a St. Louis ATV defect lawyer, I've worked with many clients who have been injured by defective ATVs. As I've discussed in this blog before, many ATVs' designs are inherently unstable, making them prone to flipping over on top of their riders and crushing them. But the unstable design isn't the only problem plaguing ATVs and their riders. Thousands of Polaris ATVs have been recalled over the years because of fire hazards and defective parts that could lead to drivers losing control of their vehicles. Most recently, at the end of 2009, about 8500 were recalled because the steering mechanism could come apart and cause the rider to lose control, posing a risk of injury or death to riders. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission had issued similar recall notices for out-of-control Polaris ATVs in 2007, 2004, 2001 and 2000. Thousands more were recalled due to dangerous fire hazards from various causes in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, and 2003.

This history of defects in Polaris ATVs is worrisome. It is particularly concerning that recalls keep happening year after year, meaning that defective ATVs keep getting manufactured despite repeated reports of problems with previous models. This puts consumers at risk of serious injury or even death. Who pays the price for these defects? The adults and children who suffer brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and amputations. Not only do they experience severe pain, they also incur thousands of dollars in medical bills, lose out on wages they or their caretakers could have earned at work, and potentially even lose their lives. This doesn't seem like a fair price to pay for what the victims had originally thought was going to be a fun outing in the outdoors.

Continue reading "Recall-Prone Polaris ATV Implicated in Another Injury-Causing Accident" »

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As a Missouri all-terrain vehicle crash attorney, a recent report by Ozarks Public Radio station KMSU about ATV accidents got my attention. According to Jami Blackwell, a trauma nurse clinician in Springfield, CoxHealth Hospital in that city has seen injuries from ATV accidents increase each year for the past several years. I've written about several such accidents in Missouri and Illinois, including two within the last year that have killed children. I'm glad that KMSU is providing important safety information about ATVs, but I also worry that these vehicles can be dangerous even when riders do observe safety precautions.

Blackwell told KMSU that Springfield's CoxHealth Hospital treated 12 ATV accident victims from March through May 2009. This year, 13 ATV accident victims were admitted to the hospital from March through May 2010. In addition, one patient died of an ATV-related injury, and 16 others were treated and released without hospitalization. Blackwell said she believed people are buying more ATVs because riding them is thrilling for children, but they should also be conscious of the safety risks involved. For example, state law requires riders under 18 to wear helmets, and the American Academy of Pediatrics advises that children under 16 not ride ATVs at all. If kids do ride them, which is legal, they should use smaller ATVs for smaller kids, have everyone under 18 wear a legally required helmet and consider taking a safety course. Further, ATVs are designed to be ridden only on off-road terrain, so riding them on paved roads can be more dangerous, and Missouri law restricts ATV use on public roads. But even when ATV riders obey these laws, which should improve ATV safety, injuries still occur. Blackwell said speed, multiple riders, tricks and rollover accidents can also increase the risk of a serious ATV injury.

As a St. Louis ATV crash lawyer, I think it's important for anyone considering riding an ATV to think about the risks of riding even after taking all these important safety precautions. Because ATVs are designed with high centers of gravity and intended to go on uneven off-road terrain, they are prone to rolling over easily. This could be considered a design flaw, but at the least, it’s a reason to be more careful when using one. ATVs are also motor vehicles that lack the lifesaving safety features that most cars and trucks have. Some are driven at speeds up to 80 miles per hour, yet it’s perfectly legal for children to use them, even if the children are nowhere near the legal age for driving. Despite all of these risks, ATVs are not regulated like other vehicles that can be driven at that speed. ATVs are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and treated as if they were toys, not vehicles. Possibly as a result of that lack of regulation, the CPSC reports that ATV accidents nearly tripled in the nine years between 1995 and 2004, with children under 16 accounting for a third of the injuries and a quarter of the deaths.

Continue reading "Trauma Nurse Cautions Missourians About Rise in Serious ATV Accident Injuries" »

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As the dust settles in the media over Toyota's recent trouble with "sticky" gas pedals, Chrysler and GM have now announced recalls of millions of cars. The more than 700,000 recalled Chrysler vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and other countries have potential problems that could be very dangerous, including doors prone to catching fire, brakes that might not work and sticky accelerators. GM's 1.5 million recalled vehicles have a heated windshield washer system that can catch fire, a system that has already been recalled once in the last two years. As a St. Louis product liability lawyer, I'm glad that these automakers are acting more swiftly than Toyota did recently to handle safety problems with their vehicles. But these recalls are still worrisome: If the same problems keep showing up in different companies' vehicles, how can consumers choose a vehicle that's safe?

The recall of 25,334 2007 Chrysler Jeep Compass and Dodge Caliber vehicles comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated five complaints of sticky gas pedals. The gas pedal assemblies were built by the same company -- CTS Corp. of Elkhart, Indiana -- that produced the 2.3 million pedal assemblies recalled by Toyota in late January. In the complaints about the pedals, drivers said that the pedals did not return to the idle position after drivers released them, and four drivers found parts from the assembly lying on the floor of the driver's side of the vehicle. The NHTSA discovered that the pedals' bearing housing was too large, and Chrysler said that this problem only existed in cars built between March 7 and May 19, 2006.

Chrysler told the NHTSA that it did not think the pedal problem was a safety defect since the vehicles have brake-override software. But in the wake of Toyota's gas pedal problems, the NHTSA and two congressional panels continue to investigate whether the electronic system that controls the pedals is to blame for the defects, rather than the pedals themselves or the loose floor mats that had been blamed by Toyota and, more recently, Ford.

Along with faulty accelerators found in three different companies' cars, vehicles from at least two different companies may pose fire risks as well. GM recalled 1.5 million Buicks, Cadillacs, Hummers, Chevrolets and Saturns because of an unfixable problem with a heated windshield washer system that had caused at least five fires. GM plans to disable the heating mechanism and give each owner $100 as compensation for the loss of the feature and, Center for Auto Safety executive director Clarence Ditlow suggests, to derail any potential class-action lawsuits over the problem. Chrysler is recalling Chrysler Town and Country minivans and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans for their own fire risks from short circuits in the electrical system operating the sliding door latch.

After Toyota's heavily publicized problems, many consumers thought they were being smart by choosing American cars that didn't have the same sticky pedal problems that Toyotas did. Now it seems harder to tell which cars are safe. A few months ago, I wrote about the ways in which liability lawsuits forced auto makers to make safer cars. As a Missouri automotive defect attorney, I help drivers who expected that their cars would be safe, but who got hurt because the cars had defects that they couldn't have known about. Drivers who get hurt because of flaws in their vehicle's design can work with an experienced product liability attorney to determine whether the automaker is liable. If so, drivers can sue the auto maker to pay for their medical costs, lost past and future wages, and pain and suffering. It's important to speak with a lawyer right away if you're in this situation, as there are time limits on lawsuits, and if you wait too long, you may not be able to sue.

Continue reading "Recalls for Sticky Gas Pedals and Fire Risks Spread to Multiple Automakers" »

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Often, in my work as a Missouri personal injury lawyer, I see cases where people have made bad decisions that have harmed others, like causing an accident while driving while intoxicated. A recent story in the Kansas City Star tells of an unusually bad decision made by a 16-year-old driver in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. He and an 8-year-old friend had an ongoing game in which the younger boy would ride his skateboard while hanging onto the passenger side of a pickup truck driven by the older boy. The game came to an unfortunate end on June 2 when the younger boy was run over by the truck. Fortunately, he was not killed. I wish him a full recovery and the incident teaches his friend to be careful around motor vehicles.

The two boys lived in the same neighborhood and had played this game for some time, neighbors told police. But this time, the younger boy lost his balance and fell off his skateboard while being pulled by the truck. He let go of the passenger side of the truck, and the truck's back wheel ran over his abdomen. The young boy was then taken to an apartment in the neighborhood, and when emergency crews responded to a call there, they found him unconscious and having trouble breathing. The boy was airlifted to Children's Mercy Hospital, where he remained in critical condition.

Teen drivers are notorious for making bad decisions, which is why state governments often impose special restrictions on teen drivers, like graduated licensing, that don't apply to adults. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, newly licensed teen drivers are about eight times more likely to be involved in fatal crashes than more experienced drivers are, and young males are much more likely than young females to be involved in crashes. In Missouri, about 250 people die each year in an accident involving a teen driver, making Missouri the tenth-deadliest state for such crashes. The factors that make teen drivers more likely to crash, such as inexperience and immaturity, were probably factors in the accident that led the 8-year-old boy's injuries. Unfortunately for the 16-year-old driver, the legal consequences of an accident like this are very serious. He could not only face criminal penalties for reckless driving, but be sued by the younger boy's family, even though the driver undoubtedly did not mean to hurt his friend. The driver's lack of ill will doesn't exempt him from the consequences of his bad judgment.

As a St. Louis personal injury attorney, I work with injured people every day, so I know how costly medical treatment can be for injuries like those that the 8-year-old suffered. The costs for being airlifted to a hospital and requiring overnight care for a critical injury can quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars or more. Once the young boy is out of the hospital, he will most likely continue to need medical care, especially if any of his injuries are permanent. With permanent injuries, accident victims often need special equipment such as wheelchairs and accessible living accommodations. He may also need special academic help if he misses a lot of school due to medical appointments or illness, and this can mean missed work for his parents, which means lost income. The negative consequences of just one instance of poor judgment can snowball and severely affect the victim's life, not to mention the lives of family members.

Continue reading "Game With Skateboard and Truck Critically Injures Eight-Year-Old KC Boy" »

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A recent article about an O'Fallon, Ill., woman who allegedly caused an accident in a construction zone raises the issue of the dangerousness of distracted driving. As a southern Illinois car wreck lawyer, I know that drivers who fail to pay attention to the road can face serious consequences, including jail time and fines, as well as lawsuits from victims. Many accidents are entirely preventable, and as traffic increases from summer travel as well as road construction that couldn't take place during winter months, we all need to be aware of what we're doing on the road. I am very glad that no one was seriously hurt in this accident, which could have had a much worse outcome.

According to the Bellville News-Democrat, Illinois State Police say that Megan C. Gates, 21, was driving a 2006 Honda CR-V SE just after midnight on June 2 on Interstate 55/70 just south of Pleasant Ridge Road. A 2001 Chevrolet Silverado and a trailer were parked on the shoulder with warning lights on, while two construction workers stood on the shoulder preparing to mark off the construction zone with traffic control barriers. Gates swerved to avoid hitting an animal, she told police, and hit the Silverado on its driver’s side, causing her CR-V to tip over onto its side and slide about 300 feet, then tip back upright in a ditch. One of the construction workers, Timothy R. Ahle, 26, of Centralia, was hit by debris from the crash, and the other, Justin W. McQuary, 23, of Collinsville, was hit by the trailer when the CR-V hit the truck. Both men were taken to Anderson Hospital in Maryville with minor injuries. Gates refused medical treatment at the scene.

Gates admitted to talking on her cell phone while in the construction zone, which is illegal in Illinois, though she said she was not on the phone when she hit the truck. She was charged with using a cellular phone in a construction zone and failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident under Scott's Law. This law requires drivers to move over to give room to emergency vehicles and increases penalties for those who fail to do so and cause accidents or injuries to public safety or service personnel. The penalties include a fine of up to $10,000 and suspension of driver's license for up to two years.

In my work as a St. Louis auto accident attorney, I see many crashes like this in which a driver faces charges that suggest negligence, and I frequently counsel victims about how they can recover the costs imposed on them by the crash. Driving while distracted by cell phones or anything else is negligent, meaning that the driver is failing to live up to his or her responsibility to keep others safe on the road. It is unfortunate that distracted driving is so common -- University of Illinois computer science professor Sheldon H. Jacobson reports that driver distraction is behind nearly 80% of auto accidents in the U.S.

Continue reading "Distracted Driver Charged With Construction Zone Violation That Injured Two" »

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A recent article in the Kansas City Star caught my eye because it raises important issues for Missouri car accident attorneys like me. According to the article, a youth minister, Damion Fassnacht, 25, was charged with involuntary manslaughter for an October 11, 2009, car crash that killed a 16-year-old girl and hurt four other people. My sympathy goes out to the victims of this accident. As an attorney, I am interested in the important issues the crash might raise concerning employer liability for the actions of employees like Fassnacht.

Fassnacht was allegedly driving more than 80 mph in a 45 mph zone while driving youth group members to church. As he drove down Northwest 68th Street, he struck a vehicle at North Ames Avenue in Kansas City, North. The driver of the other vehicle was hurt. One of Fassnacht's passengers, Kelsey Morris, 16, of Platte City, died, and three of his other passengers were hurt. While Fassnacht faces criminal charges for the accident, he and the church that employed him could also face a civil lawsuit brought by the victims who were hurt, and by the family of Kelsey Morris. Under a legal doctrine called respondeat superior ("Let the superior answer," in Latin), employers are generally held legally responsible for what their employees do while carrying out their work duties. If the employee was not acting on behalf of the employer, then the employee would be held personally responsible, and the employer would not be liable.

Driving kids to church is arguably within the scope of a youth minister's job. However, driving 80 mph with a car full of teenagers would have been risky on an interstate highway, given the possibility of distraction by lively conversation and music playing on the car stereo. Driving that fast within a city with that many young people in the car could easily be seen as reckless and negligent. If the victims of this crash chose to sue, they could name both the youth minister and the church as responsible parties in their lawsuit. As long as they could demonstrate that Fassnacht was acting within the scope of his employment, the victims would not have to show that the church should have known that the minister could cause harm, or that the church itself did anything wrong.

As a St. Louis car crash lawyer, I also want to address a potential misconception about churches in cases like this. Some people may have heard that churches cannot be sued like other employers. Churches do enjoy some protection in discrimination in hiring decisions and in some sexual abuse cases. But in a case like this one, the church would face the same legal circumstances that any other employer would face with an employee who acted negligently in the course of employment.

Continue reading "Youth Minister Charged in 80-mph Car Crash That Killed Teenage Congregant" »

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A recent news story from Kansas City about a frightening accident at an elementary school caught my attention s a Missouri personal injury lawyer. A six-year-old boy was nearly smothered in an inflatable obstacle course at a school carnival. The Kansas City Star reports that he remained hospitalized the day after the incident occurred. This story is important because it incident reminds us that young children need careful supervision at all times: unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among all children over age one in the United States. I hope that this child will recover quickly and fully, and that the school and the company that provided the inflatable play area think carefully about making sure children stay safe while they're at a school event.

Fun Services of Kansas City provided an inflatable obstacle course and other play equipment for the school carnival at Lakewood Elementary School on May 13. Police learned that two children approached a Fun Services employee around 8:30 p.m. to inform him that the boy was stuck between two parts of the obstacle course. Meanwhile, the mother of the boy had approached a Fun Services employee to say that two older children were playing inappropriately on the obstacle course, and that she had disciplined them herself. It was then that the employee told her that a child was not breathing, and she found out that it was her own son. A Fun Services employee pulled the boy out and Clay County sheriff's officials who were at the carnival performed CPR. The boy did begin to breathe on his own, but on the ambulance ride to Children's Mercy Hospital, his condition grew worse and he had to be ventilated when he arrived at the hospital. A letter sent to parents the next day from school principal Suzanne Baker said that his condition had improved, but he remained hospitalized.

This situation would be frightening for any parent, but other details described in the news report give me pause too, as a St. Louis personal injury attorney. I'm wondering whether anyone was specifically asked to supervise the children in the inflatable play areas. School carnivals can be very chaotic and noisy, making it all the more important that responsible adults plan out in advance who will make certain that the children stay safe. The district undoubtedly had its own safety policies before this incident, and now, it has instituted a new policy requiring that this type of play equipment be inspected and pre-approved by the central office. Fun Services said that their employees always followed safety regulations and maintained their equipment so that it was in safe condition. But the fact that it was up to the two children to report that the boy was stuck in the inflatable obstacle course raises questions about whether the employees and the school district really did follow all safety procedures that they reasonably should have.

Continue reading "Six-Year-Old Boy Nearly Smothers in Inflatable Play Area at School Carnival" »

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Posted In: Premises Liability , Product Liability

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