Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog

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" »

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" »

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" »

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" »