Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog

Students at high schools in and around Marshall, Missouri gathered to hear the stories of disabled victims of serious car crashes, the Marshall Democrat-News reported March 9. The speakers are a part of a program called ThinkFirst Missouri, sponsored by the University of Missouri School of Medicine. They advocated thoughtful, responsible driving to the students by telling the stories of how they ended up permanently disabled after serious Missouri car wrecks.

Speaker Penny Lorenz is a paraplegic, which means her lower body is paralyzed because of damage to her spinal cord. She told the students she sustained that injury at the age of 17, when she was a passenger in a car that was knocked off the road and rolled over several times while she was not wearing a seatbelt. She hates her injury, she told the high school audience.

Speaker Chad Burton was also 17 when he was injured in a collision with a drunk driver. He suffered a traumatic brain injury -- permanent brain damage -- that left him paralyzed on his left side. Before his accident, he was a high school wrestler and very active. Now, he told the students, he looks at every activity or task involving two hands and wonders how to perform it with just one.

As a St. Louis personal injury attorney, I am glad this program is raising awareness of the potentially devastating consequences of a serious car crash in Missouri. The injuries the speakers have suffered are catastrophic injuries that permanently change their victims’ lives. Spinal injuries leave their victims with at least some loss of movement and sensation; in serious cases, victims can be completely paralyzed and may need a ventilator to breathe. Traumatic brain injuries kill brain tissue, which could result in mental or physical disabilities, memory loss; sensory problems or even changes in personality.

These losses are physically and emotionally painful -- and in many cases, they are also very expensive to treat over a lifetime. When these and other serious auto accident injuries are the result of another person’s carelessness, victims have the right to hold that person legally and financially responsible. In a Missouri car crash lawsuit, victims and their families can win the money they need to pay for costs of the accident, including future medical care and lost wages, along with compensation for their physical and emotional pain.

If you or someone you love has sustained serious brain damage, paralysis or other serious injuries in a car accident, The Lowe Law Firm can help. To speak with us in detail about your case and your legal options, please contact us online as soon as possible or call 1-877-678-3400 to set up a free consultation.

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Posted In: Traffic Safety

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A man in his forties had to be rescued by firefighters March 5 when he unexpectedly fell through a manhole cover in northern St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch reported. According to the article, the man was walking through an alley near Cavalry Cemetery when he plunged 15 feet into the sewer and was trapped. It was unclear how he fell, but firefighters found the manhole cover in the sewer with him, suggesting that the cover slipped or broke. He was taken to the hospital for examination.

Accidents with holes in the street don’t happen nearly as often as auto accidents in Missouri, but they may be more common than you think. As the article notes, a similar accident happened in St. Louis recently when a woman fell through a chute outside an abandoned high school and ended up with hypothermia from waiting for rescue in four feet of standing water. And in New York, a woman fell through a sidewalk grating in May of 2007, landing ten feet below in an electric transformer.

These underground facilities are typically established and maintained by government agencies or utility companies. They, and their employees, are entrusted with the public’s safety when they are authorized to open and close these holes in the street. Naturally, pedestrians must take reasonable care to avoid obvious hazards -- but utility and municipal workers must also take reasonable care to avoid creating hazards. That’s especially true for hidden hazards that only look safe, as the manhole cover in this case may have been.

People who are seriously hurt by an organization’s carelessness, or inaction on a serious danger, have the right to hold that organization responsible for any harm it causes. In a St. Louis personal injury lawsuit, victims can win back all of the costs caused by the accident, including their medical bills; lost wages for time they were forced to take off work; and compensation for a serious disability, pain and emotional suffering. However, suing a government agency can be difficult, involving complicated rules and very tight deadlines. To maximize your chances of success, experts recommend that you speak to a Missouri personal injury attorney as soon as possible after your accident.

The Lowe Law Firm can help. If you or someone you love has been hurt through someone else’s carelessness in Missouri or southern Illinois, and you’d like to learn more, please contact us through our Web site or call 1-877-678-3400 to arrange a free consultation.

Posted by Carey, Danis & Lowe | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Negligence

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an in-depth article March 1 on problems with how our criminal justice system handles drunk drivers. As a St. Louis car accident attorney, I was pleased to see attention being paid to the problem of chronic drunk drivers, who form a large minority of drunk driving arrests every year. The article appeared after chronic DUI defendants with long past records killed innocent people around Missouri and southern Illinois in three separate accidents within a month, including one accident I blogged about, in which a man with six prior DUIs killed a young mother, her son and their friend.

According to the Post-Dispatch, drunk drivers stay on the road in part because police sometimes don’t always notify prosecutors or state driver licensing agencies about drunk driving arrests. In some cases, this is an oversight, but in others, it’s an intentional choice. Fed up with the paperwork a serious drunk-driving case requires and battles with DUI defense lawyers, officers sometimes choose to charge the defendant with a lesser traffic violation instead. In other cases, prosecutors don’t know about prior convictions in other states, so they charge repeat offenders as if they were first-timers who made an isolated mistake.

The result is that people like Donald Canterbery stay on the road. Canterbery was suspected of driving drunk Feb. 23 when he rear-ended a couple’s car, pushing them into oncoming traffic and killing both along with their unborn child. He had four prior DUI arrests, including one that resulted in a plea bargain in January. A Madison County state’s attorney told the newspaper that if he had known about Canterbery’s three previous out-of-state arrests, he would have pushed for felony charges carrying prison time.

As a traffic accident lawyer in Southern Illinois and greater St. Louis, I applaud the Post-Dispatch for investigating the apparent high rate of drunk-driving recidivists in our region. It’s well-established by research that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is very dangerous, raising the chances that an innocent passer-by will be killed or left with a lifelong disability. The Lowe Law Firm has handled many cases on behalf of clients who were seriously injured or lost a loved one due to intoxicated driving. Under Missouri and Illinois law, you have the right to pursue these cases regardless of whether prosecutors have chosen to pursue criminal charges.

If you or someone you love has been hurt by a drunk driver in southern Illinois or Missouri and you’d like to learn more about filing a legal claim, please contact the Lowe Law Firm for a free consultation.

Posted by Carey, Danis & Lowe | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Auto Accidents

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