Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Missouri auto accident lawyer, I work with people who sustained very serious injuries in car wrecks. That gives me a sobering, but often inspiring, look at the obstacles they face as they work toward a full medical and personal recovery from the accident. On March 1, the Quincy Herald-Whig published a story about one accident victim who is working hard to get back his mobility and start working toward the dreams that were put on hold when he was injured by a wrong-way driver. Dustin Morris, 26, was hit by a driver who crossed the center divide and ran head-on into his pickup truck. He suffered a broken pelvis, compound left-leg fracture and broken femur and was in a coma for 40 days before waking.

Morris spent six years in the Air Force, including time in Iraq, after finishing high school in Quincy in 2002. Last October, he was living in Mascoutah and attending community college in St. Louis when the accident happened. He had just dropped his girlfriend off at her car and was following her home when the other driver crossed the center lane. He doesn’t remember the accident, but emergency workers had to airlift him to St. Louis University Hospital, where his parents kept a vigil by his bedside. He awoke in mid-November and was discharged in January, after he showed hospital staff that he could cross the room using a walker. Now, he’s continuing his recovery from his father’s house in Quincy, where he’s taking speech and physical therapy sessions. He’s still determined to finish school and meet his obligations as part of the Air Force Reserves. In fact, he drove for the first time since the accident in late February.

As a St. Louis car crash attorney, I suspect that the coma and the speech therapy mean Morris sustained injuries beyond the broken bones. That makes it all the more impressive that this young man is working so hard to overcome his injuries and live his life. I frequently work with auto accident victims with injuries like these, or worse. Like Morris, they have months or even years of work to do in order to relearn tasks of daily life, like walking or holding a toothbrush. Sometimes, they have injuries they can’t ever fully recover from, such as paralysis from spinal damage or permanent damage to the brain. These are physically and emotionally devastating injuries, and it’s not hard to imagine that victims might sink into depression instead of fighting to regain their abilities.

Continue reading "Article Chronicles Struggle of Car Accident Victim to Return to Normal Life" »

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A recent column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch caught my eye because it underscores the importance of having an experienced Missouri auto accident lawyer involved in your injury case. Columnist Bill McClellan wrote Feb. 21 about Jen Dotson of Oakville, who ran into serious financial trouble after her health insurer refused to cover the cost of an operation intended to alleviate debilitating pain. Dotson was injured in a 2004 car accident that was not her fault. She had sued the at-fault driver, but her settlement was reached before she realized she needed the operation.

The column says Dotson was driving straight through an intersection when someone pulled out and hit her. The other driver’s insurance company paid for repairs to her car, but she was also left with chronic, severe pain from a condition called thoracic outlet syndrome, which is caused by compression of the passageway between the collarbone and the first rib. The pain was so bad that she had to quit her job as a travel agent and go to work in the family business. Dotson sued and eventually settled for enough money to cover her portion of her medical bills.

Unfortunately, the pain continued after Dotson’s settlement. She had two more surgeries -- one to remove a rib, and another for a nerve. Her husband’s employer-based health insurance covered both, but her pain didn’t stop and she was forced to take heavy pain medications. Finally, her doctor referred her to a neurosurgeon who recommended a surgery to implant a spinal cord stimulator. The surgery was a success, but her health insurer refuses to cover the cost -- leaving Dotson and her husband owing $72,900. They cannot pay this debt and are now afraid they’ll lose their home.

The column is about the health insurer’s refusal to pay, despite the surgeon’s claim that he called to pre-authorize it. This is an important and politically relevant issue, but as a St. Louis car crash attorney, I’d like to talk about Dotson’s original settlement. Most people don’t realize that you only get one opportunity to sue over an accident. Once you accept a settlement, you generally must sign a waiver of all future claims. That means it’s essential to include all claims of financial damage in your lawsuit, including claims for future medical care. Dotson and her injury attorney undoubtedly claimed everything they thought she needed at the time, but as time went on, it was clear that her medical needs weren’t over. In cases like this, I advise my clients to delay a lawsuit, as hard as that can be, until a doctor believes their symptoms are fully manifested can make a treatment plan.

Continue reading "Oakville Woman’s Story Shows Importance of Fully Claiming Damages" »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Settlements

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Our St. Louis car crash attorneys wrote last October about a growing call in St. Charles County for improvements to Highway DD. The area has grown from a rural community to a fast-growing suburb, and improvements to Highway DD have not caught up. At least some residents believe that this has resulted in a sharp increase in fatal accidents, and many have called for the Missouri Department of Transportation to make improvements a priority. One of those residents was Daniel Windler, 61, who signed a petition asking MoDOT to speed up improvements. On Feb. 14, Windler was the victim of a fatal accident on the very same highway, while waiting for a tow truck to help him retrieve his disabled car.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Windler’s wife and law enforcement agree that the fatal accident itself was a weather-related accident. As Windler waited for a tow truck, an SUV driven by a teenager from St. Peters slipped down an icy hill and struck him. That driver will not be charged. However, 61-year-old Karen Windler said she believes Highway DD is unsafe, with a rate of accidents about twice the state average for highways of this type. The highway is narrower than the 12-foot federal width standard, yet has no shoulders. It also has steep embankments on either side, inviting the possibility that drivers could slip off the edge of the road and be unable to return to lanes. This, along with the icy weather, may be why Daniel Windler slid off the road Feb. 14.

As a Missouri auto accident lawyer, I don’t believe this problem is going away. Authorities believe part of the reason for the high accident rate on Highway DD is that it wasn’t designed for heavy suburban traffic. Rather, the community grew around the road, using it as a major commuter artery rather than a rural highway. In fact, St. Charles County continues to grow -- two new schools along the highway are slated to open in 2010. To protect those schoolchildren and everyone else who uses Highway DD, the state has an obligation to ensure that the road can safely accommodate them. MoDOT has already lowered the speed limit, but as this accident may show, that’s unlikely to be enough to bring down accident rates.

Continue reading "St. Charles Residents Renew Call for Highway Improvements After Fatal Accident" »

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Recalls and image problems continue for Toyota, which has issued two more recalls since I wrote last week about the first unintended-acceleration defect lawsuits. This week, the automaker announced that it would recall third-generation Prius and 2010 Lexus HS 250h hybrids because of a problem with their braking software. That’s 155,000 vehicles in the United States and 437,000 worldwide. In papers filed with federal regulators, Toyota said the vehicles’ electronic anti-lock braking system doesn’t work as well when driven over rough or slippery roads. This can increase the time necessary to stop the vehicle, the Detroit News reported Feb. 9. It will also open the company up to further liability from angry customers and Missouri auto accident lawyers like me.

Significantly, the article said Toyota knew about the braking problem at least a month ago, but didn’t tell customers or regulators about it. The company has already readied a software patch for the Prius and is working on another for the HS 250h; both will be installed as part of the recall. However, the brake recall is just one of Toyota’s new problems. The automaker has also recalled 7,300 2010 Camrys because of a possible problem with a power steering hose. The hose is placed in a way that may wear a hole in brake tubes, decreasing the brakes’ effectiveness. This recall is not a result of complaints, but stems from an observation by an employee in Kentucky. However, the federal government may investigate power steering problems in 2009 and 2010 Corollas, after receiving more than 80 complaints from drivers.

As a St. Louis car wreck attorney, I am particularly disturbed to read that Toyota knew about the brake problem and even worked on fixing it before revealing it. The desire to have a solution on hand is understandable, but failing to disclose the problem takes away drivers’ options for dealing with it. Some drivers undoubtedly won’t mind, but others may have preferred to park the car for the time it took Toyota to prepare the software patch. That could be particularly true because the braking problem is worse in winter. As with the floor mat and brake pedal recalls, Toyota’s behavior leaves observers like me wondering whether it was as forthcoming as possible and acted as early as possible to save lives.

Continue reading "Toyota Issues New Recalls for Hybrid Brakes and Camry Power Steering Problem" »

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Last week, I wrote here about Toyota’s recall of millions of vehicles that may accelerate suddenly and without the driver’s intervention. This is a major story for drivers and auto dealers, but also for Missouri car wreck attorneys like me, because we may end up handling lawsuits related to the recall and its defect. Now, it looks like that prediction is already coming true. According to a Feb. 2 article from Reuters, Toyota faces at least 10 lawsuits filed since November of 2009, all of which allege that the automaker sold a defective product, failed to warn drivers about the problem or both. They all seek class-action status, which means they’d combine claims from all Toyota owners affected by the defect. Depending on the circumstances, this could include tens of millions of drivers in the United States alone.

Toyota has taken a beating in the press for handing the unintended acceleration problem poorly. It has issued two recalls, blaming the problem first on floor mats and then on accelerator pedals, sending mixed messages. Furthermore, evidence has emerged that the automaker had received at least 2,000 complaints over the past decade, and knew about the pedal problem nearly three years ago. Legal experts in the Reuters article said this could form the basis of a claim that Toyota failed to warn drivers about the problem in a timely manner, in addition to a possible claim about a design defect. If Toyota is found liable in this type of claim, they said, it could owe its customers billions of dollars because of the seriousness of the claims and the sheer number of affected vehicles.

Reuters reported that four of the claims alone were filed on Jan. 29, and given that at least 19 people have died because of unintended acceleration, more are almost certainly coming. As a St. Louis auto accident lawyer, I think it’s only a matter of time before we hear about claims filed locally. There’s evidence that, at the very least, Toyota was slow to respond to the problem. At worst, the automaker could face charges that it actively tried to cover up the problem by blaming it on easily fixed mechanical parts rather than its expensive and complicated computerized accelerator system. You may remember the movie Fight Club, in which a major automaker decided whether to recall products based on whether it would cost more to fix the problem or settle lawsuits from families of people who died. This was based on a real memo put out by Ford in 1968. If we find that Toyota used similar math to calculate the value of human lives, it could take such a beating in court that it may never recover financially.

Continue reading "Toyota Faces First Lawsuits Connected to Unintended Acceleration Recall" »

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Toyota announced news this week that made a major impression on Missouri car crash lawyers like me, as well as drivers and auto dealers around the U.S. As the Columbia Daily Tribune reported Jan. 27, Toyota has asked local auto dealers around North America to stop selling the eight vehicle models involved in its latest recall. That recall, of 2.3 million vehicles, addresses reports of sudden and unintentional acceleration in late-model Toyotas. The automaker originally blamed the problem on floor mats that were installed incorrectly and recalled 4.3 million vehicles to replace the mats. In the newest recall, it says flaws in the accelerator pedal cause the pedal to “stick” open.

During the original recall, some safety experts expressed doubts that floor mats were the cause of the unintended acceleration. Rather, they suggested that the problem could lie with the “drive by wire” system, which uses a computer rather than a lever to relate pressure on the accelerator pedal to the engine. Toyota denies this, and the newest recall doesn’t have to do with the computer system. Rather, the automaker says parts of the pedal can wear down and catch, opening the throttle. Toyota asked drivers with recalled vehicles to continue driving unless they feel that the accelerator pedal is slow to move or moves poorly. However, all of those drivers will be eligible for repair or replacement pedals when Toyota devises a solution, which is expected to be soon. A full list of the models involved in both recalls is available from the Los Angeles Times, and a Toyota press release about the recall is available here.

As a southern Illinois auto accident lawyer, I am pleased that Toyota is taking action on this problem. However, it’s disturbing to realize that by initiating the second recall, Toyota is reversing its previous stance that accelerator pedals are not the problem. If the automaker was wrong about that -- unintentionally or not -- what’s to stop it from being wrong about the driver-by-wire system as well? That is an important question, because the drive-by-wire system is installed in far more Toyota (and Lexus) vehicles than just the eight involved in the current recall. If Toyota is intentionally hiding important safety information just because it hurts sales, it’s putting millions of North Americans at risk of death or life-changing disabilities. Not only is this ethically unsound, but it could put the automaker on the wrong side of multiple defective auto part lawsuits.

Continue reading "Toyota Motor Company Stops Selling Certain Models as Part of Safety Recall" »

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Authorities in Madison County are investigating a crash that’s particularly unusual, in my experience as a southern Illinois auto accident lawyer. As the Belleville News-Democrat reported Dec. 15, Madison County Transit bus driver Danny Floyd Senior veered into a private home on St. Louis Street early on Dec. 13. One of the six people home at the time suffered a minor injury, and Floyd refused treatment at the hospital. The one bus passenger was also taken to the hospital, but transit authorities are withholding that person’s name during the police investigation. However, the Willeford family’s home sustained structural damage significant enough to force them to move temporarily to a motel.

The accident occurred just after midnight on Sunday. According to the News-Democrat, Floyd’s bus left the road, traveled through the parking lot of a tire store and over a chain link fence before hitting the Willefords’ side porch. Other media sources reported that Floyd fell asleep behind the wheel, though that explanation was not given in the newspaper. Police are still investigating and have not said whether they plan to file charges. Six of the home’s eight residents were home at the time, including homeowner June Willeford. She told the News-Democrat that after the crash, she heard her son screaming in the basement about what turned out to be a cut lip from flying debris. No one else was hurt, but the damage was significant enough that the family turned the power off for safety reasons and relocated to the Drury Inn in Collinsville.

I’m pleased that nobody was hurt. But as a St. Louis motor vehicle crash attorney, I know that expenses in a crash like this can add up quickly, even without the added expense of medical bills. A motel stay for eight people is likely to cost well over $100 a night. The family will also have to rebuild the affected walls and structural supports, a task that’s likely to include electrical work. These costs can add up quickly for ordinary people. Homeowners’ insurance may cover the costs -- but even if it does not, legal responsibility for the crash almost certainly lies with the bus driver who caused it and his transit agency. (Employers are generally held responsible for the actions of employees who were performing employment duties during an accident.) That means that the family may be able to recover compensation from them for all these costs and others, through an auto accident lawsuit.

Continue reading "Injuries Unclear After Southern Illinois Bus Driver Swerves Off Road and Into Home" »

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As a southern Illinois traffic accident attorney, I was pleased to see that an Illinois jury brought back a large verdict in a drunk driving lawsuit that killed a woman from Batchtown. The Belleville News-Democrat reported Nov. 23 that Jerica Klocke, 19, died as a passenger on the back of a motorcycle driven by Donald Adcock, 24, of Carrollton. Adcock also died in the September 2007 crash. He had been drinking at a bar in Eldred before the crash, and Klocke’s family brought the suit against the bar under Illinois dram shop law. After a two-day trial in Jersey County, the jury returned a verdict of $549,954.11. However, damages cats set down by Illinois law mean the verdict will be reduced substantially, probably to a little more than $100,000.

Under dram shop laws, businesses that serve alcohol are legally responsible for not serving any more alcohol to someone who is already visibly intoxicated. That was the charge against the bar in the Klocke family’s lawsuit. Adcock allegedly spent 30 to 60 minutes at another establishment, then moved to the bar for several more hours. Klocke had just lost her grandmother and wanted to visit a girlfriend, so a friend arranged a ride for her on the back of Adcock’s motorcycle. Witnesses testified that Adcock did not appear intoxicated, but after the crash, a blood test indicated that he had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08.

I’m sorry that this young woman’s family will see such a dramatic reduction in their damages -- but I’m glad the jury sent a message that enabling drunk driving is not acceptable. As a Missouri drunk driving accident lawyer, I help clients hold drunk drivers (rather than bars and restaurants) legally responsible for causing catastrophic traffic accidents. As all drivers must realize by now, drinking and driving kills, by impairing drivers’ judgment, vision, motor skills and even consciousness. This puts not only the drunk drivers themselves, but all of the motorists around them, at an unnecessary and unacceptable risk. That’s especially worth remembering right now, because the holiday season means more drivers in Missouri and Illinois are likely to have been drinking at parties or family gatherings.

Continue reading "Family of Woman Killed in Drunk Driving Crash Wins Half Million in Court" »

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a Los Angeles Times report on the recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Officially, the recall is because of defective floor mats that can cause accelerators to get stuck open, causing unintentional acceleration that can propel the vehicle uncontrollably and cause serious accidents. A total of 19 deaths have been reported because of this safety flaw. In the older post, I wrote that the Times suggested advanced features in newer vehicles -- or problems with those features -- may have caused or exacerbated some of the problems. On Nov. 8, the newspaper made an even more disturbing report suggesting that regulators may not have investigated the problem thoroughly.

Since 2001, the Times said, more than 1,000 vehicle owners have reported unintended acceleration events to Toyota or to federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The complaints triggered eight investigations, which ultimately ended in two recalls affecting a combined total of 85,000 vehicles. However, the Times charged, NHTSA and Toyota officials responsible for investigating safety problems systematically excluded numerous reports because of how they were written, or because reports didn’t match the agencies’ ideas about how the vehicles performed. This made the problem look much smaller than some say it actually is, the newspaper said. As a result, a serious safety problem that may have existed as early as the 2001 model year is only now being addressed.

For example, the NHTSA threw out reports in which owners didn’t speculate on the cause of the problem. The agency also discarded incident reports saying that brakes didn’t stop the vehicle, because its official position is that brakes always overcome engines. Toyota itself, in reports submitted to the NHTSA, excluded reports of acceleration lasting more than a few seconds because it believed its vehicle design made this impossible. Selective exclusions like these allowed the NHTSA to close at least five investigations for “not enough reported problems.” This included an investigation of Lexus vehicles in which the agency discarded 36 out of 37 reports. The newspaper included several anecdotes from Toyota and Lexus owners who experienced the problems firsthand, including a retired engineer who lost his wife of 46 years when his 2005 Camry accelerated over a cliff in central California.

As a St. Louis car crash attorney, I am concerned about what this could mean for the millions of Toyota owners in Missouri and southern Illinois, and around the United States. If federal regulators failed to thoroughly investigate this problem -- whether the problem was intentional or not -- they may have left millions of people exposed to these extremely dangerous acceleration accidents. In fact, if problems with the vehicles’ on-board computers or mechanics are the real culprit, rather than floor mats, nearly every late-model Toyota and Lexus is impossible to make safe without extensive retrofitting. That means millions of Americans are exposed to deadly accidents that strike at random times, and regardless of how safe the driver might be. It also means that Toyota and Lexus owners may need to garage their vehicles in order to avoid catastrophic crashes, an expensive and inconvenient proposition.

Continue reading "Regulators Failed to Consider Many Cases of Unintended Acceleration in Toyotas" »

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As a Missouri car crash lawyer, I have followed the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s series on problems with Missouri drunk driving laws with great interest. On Nov. 1, the newspaper published a third installment in the series, on the revocation of driver’s licenses for drivers who refuse to take a breath test. Like many states, Missouri has an “implied consent” law allowing the Department of Revenue to take away the driver’s licenses of people who refuse an alcohol or drug test -- in Missouri, they lose their licenses for a year. But according to the Post-Dispatch, prosecutors routinely fail to enforce the rule, often restoring licenses to drivers as part of a plea bargain. As a result, the newspaper said, more than 10,000 drivers who refused the breathalyzer have kept their licenses since 2000.

The driver’s license suspension is officially separate from the DWI case against an allegedly drunk driver. Drivers may defend themselves in the criminal case, but they can also appeal the one-year license suspension in civil court. Many drivers do so, which requires an attorney to represent the DOR in the case. Unfortunately, the DOR does not have enough attorneys to handle every case; county prosecutors are typically brought in as substitutes. And those prosecutors often tell the court to that drivers should keep their licenses, in exchange for guilty pleas in the underlying DWI cases -- an act that the Post-Dispatch describes as “giving up.” Records reported by the newspaper found that prosecutors in St. Louis city and county allowed test refuses to keep their licenses in about half of all cases between July of 2008 and July of 2009. Statewide, that rate was 8% -- but after including cases reported as outright losses in court, it was 50%.

This type of plea deal was extended to driver William Downs in 2007 after he was arrested for DWI and refused a breath or blood test. He had been arrested twice before for drug crimes and his live-in girlfriend had called to complain that he had stolen her painkillers. However, when it was time for his license suspension case, St. Charles County prosecutors told the court that he should keep his license, in exchange for a guilty plea and a promise to get addiction testing. Three weeks later, Downs took drugs, climbed into his pickup truck and drove down Interstate 70, where he rear-ended a smaller pickup driven by Charles Fullhage, an agricultural engineering professor at the University of Missouri. Fullhage died, and Downs is now in prison.

As a St. Louis auto accident lawyer, I’m disappointed that Missouri is letting so many drunk drivers slip through the cracks. As the article points out, part of the problem can be attributed to funding -- DOR attorneys have a much higher rate of license suspensions, but the state hasn’t provided money to hire more. But just as importantly, prosecutors shouldn’t, and shouldn’t be able to, use license suspensions as part of plea bargains in the supposedly separate DWI cases. In other states with automatic license suspension, even an acquittal of the drunk driving charge won’t necessarily save the driver’s license. Until Missouri is willing to change its laws, its spending or both, we may pay the price in lives.

Continue reading "Report Shows Automatic License Suspension for Accused Drunk Drivers Isn’t Automatic" »

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As a Missouri defective automotive product attorney, I had already heard about Toyota Motor Corp.’s safety recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. This recall, the largest in Toyota’s history, was announced after the automaker and federal regulators found that floor mat problems could cause the accelerator pedal to jam while open. (Toyota and Lexus owners can check Toyota’s press release for information on how to stay safe.) Regulators believe the problem has caused at least five fatal crashes and hundreds of other incidents, including a crash in suburban San Diego that killed an off-duty Highway Patrol officer and three family members. But an Oct. 18 article in the Los Angeles Times said the problem may be exacerbated by problems with electronic systems in the vehicles.

According to the article, in fact, the systems that pose the problems tend to be newer and may even be selling points. For example, most people in an uncontrollable speed situation think first about braking -- but modern vehicles have power-assisted brakes, which draw vacuum power from the engine. When the throttle is open all the way, that vacuum power disappears, and the power brake feature goes with it. Similarly, Toyota suggests that drivers turn off their engines when accelerating out of control. In a key-operated vehicle, drivers can turn the key to off/ACC, but this leaves them without power steering or brakes. And if they take the key out, it will lock the steering wheel. Meanwhile, newer vehicles with push-button starts require the drivers to hold the button down for three seconds to stop the engine (and remove power steering and brakes), which is a long time when your vehicle is out of control. And shifting into neutral, another Toyota solution, can be difficult and confusing in vehicles with “automanual” shifters.

I applaud Toyota for taking action on this issue, rather than actively trying to cover it up or blame after-market use. But as a southern Illinois product defects lawyer, I wonder whether it acted as quickly as it could have. The San Diego crash was at least the fifth fatal crash caused by this issue in two years, according to the Times, and federal agencies have opened nine investigations into sudden accelerations in Toyota vehicles since 2000. And the article noted that some have criticized Toyota’s lack of a fail-safe mechanism in its computerized engine for nearly 10 years. Speeding, even voluntary speeding, has been a safety issue for decades; it’s not hard to predict that involuntary, uncontrolled speeding could be deadly. To save lives, manufacturers have a responsibility to come clean to the public as soon as reasonably possible.

Continue reading "More Than Floor Mats May Underlie Toyota Safety Recall of 3.8 Million Vehicles" »

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A recent article on road improvements in St. Charles County caught my eye, as a St. Louis car crash lawyer. According to an Oct. 2 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, residents of a rapidly growing area of the county are pushing for improvements to the area’s Highway DD after a crash claimed the life of a sixteen-year-old girl from Wentzville. Elise Sunderhuse died Sept. 3 after the driver of the car she was riding in veered off the road, overcorrected and smashed into a sign. The accident was the fifth fatality on Highway DD in five years and one of more than 140 crashes during that same period. A town hall meeting is planned for Oct. 22 in New Melle to discuss the problem.

According to the article, rapid growth in this area of St. Charles County has put more traffic on the once-rural highway than originally envisioned by its designers. State officials say the accident rate on Highway DD is twice the state average for highways of the same type, putting it among the most dangerous. Residents cite the highway’s lack of shoulders and steep roadside embankments as safety problems, along with deer, sun-blindness and heavy trucks heading to a nearby quarry. A spokesman for MoDOT added that lanes on the highway are 10 to 11 feet wide, falling short of the 12-foot federal standard and making shoulders important. MoDOT has already lowered the speed limit on the highway from 55 to 50 mph, and plans to add shoulders and turn lanes in certain areas.

I wrote last week about safety improvements to the MLK Bridge into East St. Louis, which also has a disproportionately high rate of accidents. Chief among the safety concerns about the bridge are its lack of shoulders and ten-foot lanes -- problems that Highway DD shares. As with the bridge, the narrowness of Highway DD presents serious problems because motorists have no place to go if, for example, a vehicle in the oncoming lane swerves into their paths. As with the bridge, Highway DD is a major artery for people in the area -- and unlike the bridge, it will have two schools on it by this time next year. As a Missouri auto accident attorney, I hope the efforts to address the problems with the bridge lead to similar efforts on Highway DD before someone else is killed in a preventable accident.

Continue reading "St. Charles County Residents Call for Improvements to Rural Highway After Teenager’s Death" »

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As a southern Illinois auto accident lawyer and a commuter who maintains officers in St. Louis and southern Illinois, I was pleased to see that the Illinois Department of Transportation has set dates for its work on the Martin Luther King bridge. According to the Belleville News-Democrat, the department plans to close the bridge, which connects St. Louis with East St. Louis, for 12 days starting Oct. 12. The work will add a concrete center barrier and widen the lanes on the bridge by turning four 10-foot-wide lanes into three lanes of 12 feet -- safety measures IDOT and other observers hope will decrease the high number of accidents on the bridge.

In fact, the News-Democrat said, the project was explicitly intended to address the bridge’s unusually high number of fatal accidents. According to an older story, 14 people had died on the MLK bridge between 1998 and summer of this year, almost all in head-on collisions. As I have written here before, this gives motorists a 25 times greater risk of death if they choose the MLK bridge. Safety experts told the newspaper that the bridge’s safety problems include its narrow width, which can pressure drivers traveling alongside a semi truck and leaves no safe place for people to stop if they have car trouble. Other safety problems include the lack of a center barrier to prevent crossover accidents and its connection to a major highway, which encourages speed. Authorities have already reduced the speed limit on the bridge and may install cameras to automatically ticket speeders.

The work is expected to slow commutes for people who routinely cross the river, and that is understandably generating a lot of complaints. But as a St. Louis car crash attorney, I believe the inconvenience will ultimately be worthwhile if it stops the unusually high number of deaths and serious accidents on the bridge. The design of the MLK bridge may have made sense when it was built, when vehicles were smaller, semi trucks weren’t widely used and there was less traffic overall. But these days, when ordinary people drive SUVs and must share the highway with 18-wheelers, 10-foot lanes are simply not safe. It’s not surprising that drivers with literally no room to swerve or stop are involved in an unusually high number of serious accidents -- with that little wiggle room, it takes just one driver to cause a catastrophe.

Continue reading "IDOT to Start Work in October to Widen Lanes and Install Barrier on MLK Bridge" »

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Last week, I wrote about the sentencing of a man with five prior drunk driving convictions who stayed free -- long enough to kill a couple and their unborn child in another crash. On Sept. 13, I was pleased to see that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had followed up, after a fashion, with a special report on just how multiple DWI offenders like that one manage to stay on the road. According to the newspaper, the answer is complicated -- but failures by nearly every part of the justice system play a role. The Post-Dispatch listed poor record-keeping, omissions and confusion by police, outdated laws and slowness by the courts as major reasons why chronic drunk drivers keep their driving privileges.

Under Missouri law, drivers charged with a third or subsequent DWI should be charged with a felony. But according to an analysis by the Post-Dispatch, 105 of the 275 such arrests in 2008 in a six-county region around St. Louis did not result in any felony charge. In two-thirds of those cases, county prosecutors said police simply never asked them to file it as a felony. In order to do that, police need to show that the offense is a third DWI, something that incomplete databases don’t always do. Under certain circumstances, even a known conviction doesn’t count if it was tried by a judge who was not an attorney, which confuses police and prosecutors. And requests for court records to prove that it’s a third offense can take months to receive, the newspaper said, leading some prosecutors to file charges as misdemeanors before the case is too old to prosecute at all.

The article goes into detail about one chronic drunk driver named Michael O’Fallon. Until early August of this year, the Eureka man had four prior drunk driving convictions, all in Missouri. Because of incomplete records, none of those had been prosecuted as felonies, and O’Fallon had served no jail time. Then, on Aug. 3, O’Fallon swerved his car head-on into the path of the Colombini family’s van. The crash sent wife Jamie Colombini and the family’s 16-year-old daughter, Amanda, to the hospital. Jamie Colombini and her husband, Andy, may both need back surgery. Their children are still shaken up by the incident; Amanda has her driver’s license but was afraid to use it. O’Fallon, meanwhile, checked himself into an inpatient addiction treatment program -- but because the wheels of justice turn slowly, he does not yet face any charges.

As a St. Louis auto accident attorney, I hope this report will inspire our state’s lawmakers to streamline and modernize the systems named in the article and bureaucracies to shape up. These systems are in place specifically to help law enforcement and prosecutors identify repeat offenders -- but they can only do that if their tools are working properly. Because they are not, chronic intoxicated drivers like O’Fallon and others profiled in the article are allowed to stay on the street, where they could catastrophically injure or even kill the innocent people they happen to pass. Governments may have to struggle through budget problems to find money for a project like this, but as a Missouri car crash lawyer, I believe saving lives is worth that struggle.

Continue reading "Bureaucracy, Poor Communication and Bad Rules Keep Repeat DWI Offenders on the Road" »

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A Granite City man received the maximum prison sentence for causing a car wreck that killed a couple and their unborn child, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sept. 8. Donald W. Canterbury pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 28 years in prison for killing Adam Zimmer and Lindsay Arnold-Zimmer, who was five months pregnant at the time. Law enforcement said Canterbury had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.246, more than three times the legal limit in Missouri and Illinois, when he rear-ended the Zimmers’ car at a high speed, pushing them into oncoming traffic. He is required to serve at least 85% of his sentence, or about 23 years and 10 months.

The case attracted media attention after it was discovered that Canterbury had five prior convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol -- including one in Madison County in January of this year. He was sentenced to court supervision for that most recent DUI, but according to the prosecutor in the case, he may have gotten a more severe punishment if prosecutors had realized it was not his first drunk driving conviction. His history may have influenced the decision to give him the maximum possible sentence for the charges he faced, including two counts of aggravated DUI resulting in death, four counts of aggravated DUI resulting in great bodily injury and one count of reckless homicide of an unborn child.

The prosecutor in the case used the sentencing to call for a nationwide database of driving records, which would allow law enforcement to identify problem drivers like Canterbury. There may be practical and civil rights considerations to work out before starting such a database, but as a St. Louis drunk driving accident attorney, I would support giving law enforcement such a tool. Federal statistics show that people with past drunk driving convictions are routinely around 20% of all drivers involved in fatal DUI accidents. Identifying them would allow law enforcement to revoke their driving privileges after they demonstrate that they cannot be trusted. As things stand, courts may be able to give out harsh sentences after the fact -- but it would be better to prevent these terrible, unnecessary deaths in the first place.

Continue reading "Driver Sentenced in Pontoon Beach DUI Crash That Killed Couple and Unborn Baby" »

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A group of highway safety officials from around the nation planned to endorsed a ban on text messaging while driving, the New York Times reported Aug. 30. The Governors Highway Safety Association, a group of leaders from state highway safety agencies such as MODot, called for the ban at the beginning of its weeklong annual meeting in Savannah, Georgia. Calling text messaging a form of distracted driving, Chairman Vernon F. Betkey Jr. said in a press release that a ban on texting and driving in all 50 states, and for people of all ages, would tell the public that the practice is dangerous and unacceptable.

The association’s press release said its action was directly influenced by a recent study on texting and driving from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Using cameras mounted in the cabs of long-haul trucks, the Institute found that truckers had a 23 times greater chance of crashing, or almost crashing, when they were sending text messages. In fact, the study found that they took their eyes off the road for an average of five seconds every time they texted -- enough time for a truck to travel the length of a football field at highway speed. The association said it still had concerns about how texting bans would be enforced, but supported a project by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it hopes will help develop good enforcement strategies.

As a Missouri auto accident lawyer who has long been interested in issues of text messaging while driving, I believe public interest in this issue has snowballed in the past few months. The Times has devoted several articles to texting while driving recently, federal legislation mandating a nationwide ban is being considered, and multiple state legislatures have recently considered or passed a ban on texting for at least some drivers. That includes a law here in Missouri that took effect on Aug. 28, making it illegal for drivers under 21 to text while driving -- and an Illinois law, effective Jan. 1, banning the practice for all drivers. And as the Times notes, a growing body of research supports those bans. If texting while driving is eventually banned nationwide -- and followed up with serious enforcement -- I believe lives will be saved.

Continue reading "Association of State Highway Agencies Endorses Ban on Texting and Driving" »

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Used Chevy Impalas sold by rental company Enterprise Rent-A-Car were missing a standard safety feature, the Kansas City Star reported Aug. 15. Side air bags were standard on Impalas sold to consumers between 2006 and 2008, the article said -- but Enterprise asked the manufacturer to delete that option when it placed its order, as a cost-saving measure. When the cars were later retired from the fleet and sold as used cars, the Star reported, consumers may have mistakenly believed they came with the same standard equipment other Impalas had. Furthermore, the newspaper found that hundreds of online advertisements by Enterprise incorrectly touted the cars as having front and rear side air bags.

Safety experts consider side curtain air bags important because side-impact crashes are the second deadliest kind of crash. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, side-impact crashes caused 17.4% of all fatal crashes in 2007, second only to head-on crashes (32.2% of fatal crashes). And according to the Star article, studies have found that side air bags with head protection reduce drivers’ deaths by 45% in driver-side collisions. Side air bags are not federally required, as front air bags are, but observers expect side air bags to be near-universally standard soon, in order to comply with stricter federal side-impact safety rules taking effect Sept. 1.

According to the article, Enterprise ordered about 66,000 Impalas nationwide without the side air bags. This did not violate federal safety standards, the company said, and helped save $175 per car, for a total of $11.5 million. Nonetheless, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research organization funded by auto insurance companies, called the decision “astounding.” He noted that used-car buyers researching safety ratings could be misled, because cars are rated according to their standard safety features, and suggested that Enterprise’s decision could provoke numerous car accident lawsuits in Missouri and around the U.S. He and another safety expert said deleting a standard safety feature is not a practice they’d ever heard of before.

In response to the article, Enterprise pulled the incorrect advertisements off its Web site and said it planned to correct the information. It also said it would write to the owners of the 745 Impalas it had already sold to explain the problem and offer to buy the cars back at $750 over their Kelly Blue Book value.

As a St. Louis car crash lawyer, I have read a lot of the research into the dangers of side-impact crashes. They are considered extremely dangerous, in part because they can cause jagged metal and broken glass to protrude into the passenger area of the car, endangering all the occupants nearby. They can also trigger a rollover accident, which throws occupants around the inside of the vehicle or out of it, exposing them to head injuries and spinal cord damage that can leave them permanently disabled. Parents and others concerned about safety may well want to look up which vehicles contain side air bags before renting or buying -- but when Enterprise and other sellers provide misleading information, consumers can’t make well-informed decisions. If they are later involved in a serious accident and discover that they’re missing the air bags they thought they had, the law says they may hold the sellers legally liable for their injuries.

Continue reading "Newspaper Investigation Finds Rental Car Company Advertised Cars Had Side Airbags When They Did Not" »

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An Iowa girl is recovering from injuries sustained in a serious St. Louis car crash, the Fort Madison Daily Democrat reported Aug. 4. Shyanna Hoenig was on her way to the St. Louis Zoo with her family when a driver pulled out unexpectedly and hit the side of her mother’s van. Shyanna sustained damage to her aorta as well as intestinal damage so serious that three sections had to be removed. She was taken to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis, which released her last week -- in time to start the first grade at the end of August.

Shyanna’s mother, Sarah Hoenig, said she was on Highway 61 when she passed a car stopped on the median. When she saw that driver pull out suddenly into the road, she swerved to avoid a collision. Unfortunately, the car hit the side of their van, sending it into a rock bluff. Shyanna was the most seriously hurt of the seven people in the van -- in part because she was wearing a lap-only seat belt, which her mother said was improper for children of that age. Because the belt was around her abdomen rather than her lap, the impact damaged Shyanna’s aorta -- the vital arterty that comes from the heart -- and parts of her intestine that Sarah Hoenig said looked like hamburger.

Iowa law does not require children over six to use booster seats, although safety experts recommend it. Here in Missouri, children ages 4 through 7, or weighing between 40 and 80 pounds, must use an appropriate safety seat or booster seat. As the article notes, this elevates the child to allow the seat belt to cross his or her lap, preventing serious injuries like Shyanna’s or possibly even death.

I am glad that this little girl and her family have what appears to be a good outcome to her medical care. But as a St. Louis auto accident attorney, I know that they probably also face substantial financial losses as a result of the accident. Shyanna spent more than two weeks in hospitals -- and even if the family has insurance, that’s likely to be very expensive. Because St. Louis is a fair drive from their home, her parents may also have had to take all of that time off work to be with her and be part of her care. And of course, they probably faced costs for repair or replacement of the van and care for the other family members. All of this can be financially devastating for an ordinary family, which is why so many accident victims come to our Missouri car crash lawyers for help.

Continue reading "First-Grader Released From Hospital After Catastrophic St. Louis Car Accident" »

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Two people were seriously hurt and another suffered minor injuries in an unusual Missouri pedestrian accident, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported July 13. Randy Smith of Steele, Mo., was driving north on the interstate at around 10:30 p.m. when he saw pedestrian Henry Dempke of St. Mary’s, Mo. in the road. He swerved to avoid Dempke, but his Ford Explorer hit the man anyway, then overturned. Smith, who was wearing his seat belt, was not seriously hurt, but his passenger, Lacrisha Arender of Steele, was partly ejected. She was not wearing a seat belt. Arender and Dempke were both hospitalized in serious condition.

As a St. Louis auto accident attorney, I was interested in this accident because the investigators may ultimately decide that it was the pedestrian’s fault. That would be unusual, and it goes against most people’s ideas about pedestrian accidents. Cars are larger and more powerful than human bodies, which gives drivers a greater legal responsibility to avoid accidents. However, pedestrians also have a legal responsibility to take reasonable care for their own safety. When they fail in that duty, they can be held liable for the injuries and costs in any accident they cause -- even though they weren’t driving.

If investigators do decide that the pedestrian is responsible for the accident, it could create interesting problems for the insurance claims of everyone involved. Legally, the insurance company for the person responsible for causing the accident should cover the injuries. However, insurance companies don’t like paying expensive claims -- and when the responsibility for an accident goes against most people’s ideas, insurance companies are not afraid to use that fact to simply deny the claim. Frequently, accident victims in unusual situations must hire a Missouri car crash lawyer to force their insurance companies to provide the coverage they are legally entitled to.

Continue reading "Driver Involved in SUV Rollover Accident After Trying to Dodge Pedestrian on Interstate 55" »

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After more than a month of waiting, Gov. Jay Nixon has vetoed the Legislature’s decision to repeal Missouri’s mandatory motorcycle helmet law, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported July 2. The vetoed legislation would have given riders 21 and older the option to not wear helmets, except on interstate highways. With the veto, riders of all ages must continue to wear their helmets in Missouri, although they may take them off in many neighboring states, including Illinois. Lawmakers may still override the veto when they convene in September, but the newspaper suggested that this will not be easy.

News reports suggested that Nixon had genuine doubts about the law, which may explain the long gap between the veto and the Legislature’s passing the law in early May. Supporters of the repeal argued that it was a question of freedom; adults should be able to choose whether to take the risk of riding without a helmet. Opponents, who included the Missouri Department of Transportation, countered with statistics showing that helmets substantially reduce motorcyclists’ risk of death and brain damage in an accident. Nixon cited some of those statistics when he vetoed the bill, adding that he was concerned about the likely increase in the financial cost of treating motorcycle accident victims.

As an American, I sympathize with concerns about where individual freedom ends and responsibility to others begins. But as a Missouri brain injury attorney, I believe that voluntarily using a helmet is the smartest choice for motorcyclists (and bicyclists and ATV riders). As the article points out, the federal Department of Transportation has found that helmets cut the risk of death by in a motorcycle accident by 37% and the probability of brain injury by 67%. They also cut costs to public health programs, as well as to riders and insurance companies. One DoT study estimated that helmet use saved $1.3 billion in 2002 alone in the U.S., and universal helmet use could have saved $853 million more. That’s a high price to pay for feeling the wind in your hair.

Continue reading "Governor Vetoes Repeal of Motorcycle Helmet Law, Leaving Helmets Mandatory for All Riders" »

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It's that time of year again, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol is ringing it in with somber statistics that unfortunately ring all too true with a Missouri auto accident attorney like me. In a press release on Monday, they reminded motorists to buckle up, obey the speed limit, and keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road.

MSHP participated in a campaign last year called Operation C.A.R.E. (Combined Accident Reduction Effort) from the evening of July 3 through the night of July 6, 2008. During that time, Operation C.A.R.E. had all available officers patrolling Missouri's highways and roads to enforce Missouri's speed limit, seat belt and alcohol laws. They also were there to tally a staggering number of injuries and deaths.

According to MSHP, seven people were killed and 194 people injured in car crashes over last year's holiday counting period. That's an average of one person being killed and injured every 20.3 minutes. In addition to those injured and killed, state troopers arrested 195 people for driving while intoxicated -- just one less than the number of reported injuries, and those are only the ones who got caught.

This year's counting period for the Fourth of July holiday takes place 6 p.m. Thursday, July 2 through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, July 5, 2009. To prepare, MSHP advised motorists to make sure their cars are in good condition before starting a trip to see friends, relatives or fireworks. It also suggested checking the Missouri Department of Transportation's traveler info map at www.modot.mo.gov to anticipate detours for construction or flooding.

In closing, MSHP reminded drivers who need assistance or witness crime while traveling on Missouri roads to contact their nearest Highway Patrol headquarters via their emergency hotline. All I can add is that if any Missouri motorists are injured in a July Fourth drunk driving accident, they should contact a Missouri reckless driving attorney right away to learn about their legal options. People hurt by an irresponsible drunk driver have the right to hold that driver legally responsible for the injuries he or she caused, including wrongful deaths, permanent disabilities and all of the financial costs related to the crash.

With offices in St. Louis and Belleville, Ill., The Lowe Law Firm represents victims of serious personal injuries caused by car crashes in Missouri and southern Illinois. Our Missouri auto accident lawyers help people who have been seriously hurt or lost a loved one in a car, truck or motorcycle wreck recover the money they need to pay medical bills, make ends meet and eventually move past the incident. If you and your family are in this position and you’d like to learn more, please contact The Lowe Law Firm online, or call us toll-free at 1-877-678-3400.

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This week I read a local news story that was remarkable by any measure, and of particular interest to a Southern Illinois car accident attorney like me. On May 27 in Jefferson County, Ill., a school bus driver with a full load of children passed out at the wheel. The bus veered off course, hit a tree and continued about 100 yards before the students onboard managed to shut off the bus.

Miraculously, none of the children were harmed. However, the driver, 41-year-old Tonya Glass, was taken from the accident site to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. This week, Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch revealed that blood drawn from the Glass at the hospital had tested positive for a controlled substance. Glass was subsequently charged with a DUI.

“The story is that the kids did physically shut off the bus,” Mulch stated. “They checked on each other and made sure each other were all right.” They also were the ones to call for help, he said. The students' ages ranged between 5 and 14. As for Glass, Mulch said, “She’s received one citation for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and a second citation for DUI.”

Naturally, this story interests me as a Southern Illinois auto accident lawyer -- particularly because so many questions remain unanswered. The substance found in the driver's blood has still not been disclosed; further tests are pending from the Illinois State Police Crime Lab, according to Mulch. The sheriff said the case will undergo further investigation as to what the substance was; he did not say whether information would be released as to whether it was prescribed to Glass, but that would be one of my first questions as a Southern Illinois personal injury attorney.

As of press time, no charges have been filed. Time will tell as to whether the driver will be charged for this incident, but at any rate the case bears extremely thorough investigation and is far from over.

If you or a loved one has been injured by or suffered trauma due to a driver who was incapacitated by a substance, legal or otherwise, you should seek legal advice as soon as possible. Based in St. Louis, The Lowe Law Firm offers free, confidential consultations, so you can learn more about your rights and your claim with no risk or commitment. We handle personal injury lawsuits for people throughout Missouri and southern Illinois, and our Southern Illinois auto accident lawyers are ready to help you. To set up a free consultation, please contact us online or call us toll-free at 1-877-678-3400.

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A Belleville city police cruiser was involved in a three-car accident Tuesday on Illinois 161, the Belleville News-Democrat reported May 27. The officer, who was alone in his car, apparently lost control just before 8 p.m. and veered into oncoming traffic, hitting a minivan head-on. Another sedan then rear-ended the minivan. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured, but the police car and the minivan were both badly damaged, and emergency responders had to cut the doorjamb off the minivan to release the two children who were passengers.

According to the article, it was raining hard at the time of the accident. A spokesperson for police declined to say whether the officer had his lights and siren on to respond to a call, and the Belleville chief of police referred questions to Illinois state troopers.

This could be an important question for southern Illinois auto accident lawyers like me, because whether the officer was speeding, and whether he was responding to an emergency, are both important questions for establishing liability in any Belleville car wreck lawsuit. Under Illinois law, local government employees, including police officers, are not liable for acts that arise out of doing their jobs. However, they can be liable for unsafe acts that fall outside their jobs, or doing their jobs in a “willful and wanton” way. If the officer was driving at a safe and reasonable speed, especially if he had warning lights and sirens on, he probably cannot be held liable for the accident.

This is not to say that suing a government agency in Illinois is easy. Every Illinois lawsuit has a deadline by which you must start your claim, called a statute of limitations. These deadlines vary according to the type of claim you’re making and your own circumstances, but they typically give plaintiffs two or three years. By contrast, if you’re suing a local government agency (such as a city, township or county), you have just six months to start your claim. For claims against a state government, that deadline is one year.

The process of starting a claim against a local government in Illinois is also more complex than usual, requiring you to give written notice to the government of your claim, including details about the accident, before you can file a formal lawsuit. Mistakes could take away your right to sue at all, which is why experts recommend that plaintiffs call a southern Illinois car crash attorney as soon as possible. At The Lowe Law Firm, we prefer to hear from potential clients with these cases as soon as they begin to consider a lawsuit. One of the least pleasant parts of our job is telling clients that they are unable to get the compensation they’d otherwise by entitled to because a deadline has passed.

Based in St. Louis, The Lowe Law Firm handles personal injury lawsuits for people throughout Missouri and southern Illinois. If you or a loved one was seriously hurt because of someone else’s negligence, our Missouri auto accident lawyers would like to help. We offer free, confidential consultations, so you can learn more about your rights and your claim with no risk or commitment. To set one up, please contact us online or call toll-free at 1-877-678-3400.

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Lawmakers in Missouri and Illinois are both on the verge of making it illegal to send and read text messages behind the wheel, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported May 18. Missouri’s legislature has already passed a bill forbidding drivers under the age of 21 from texting while driving, while their counterparts in Illinois are considering a broader bill that would apply to drivers of every age. The goal is to reduce the number of crashes caused by irresponsible uses of cell phones while driving, which even opponents of the bills agree is a problem, the article says.

The Missouri measure was originally written to apply to all drivers, but died in the state House and was passed in its current form as an attachment to a different bill. The article did not specify a penalty for those caught breaking the new law, but judging by other states’ approaches, the drivers would be ticketed. Opponents of the bill argued that it could give bad police officers an excuse for racial profiling, and that police have better things to worry about. But the sponsor of the original bill, state Sen. Ryan McKenna, D-Crystal City, worried only that the bill doesn’t go far enough. After all, he pointed out, the conductor in the recent Boston train accident involving texting was over 21.

In Illinois, the texting ban would apply to drivers age 19 and over outside Chicago; younger drivers and Chicagoans are already banned from using cell phones in any way while driving. Lawmakers debating the texting ban brought up concerns about allowing police officers unfettered access to drivers’ phones. They also worried that the use of GPS devices, which are intended to help drivers navigate unfamiliar roads, would be illegal under the bill. Nonetheless, the paper said, the bill is expected to pass and go to Gov. Pat Quinn for approval. The bill was driven in part by a fatal 2006 crash in which a teenaged driver hit a bicyclist while she was downloading new ringtones to her phone.

As a St. Louis car accident attorney, I believe these bills, if they are enforced properly, could do a lot to prevent accidents caused by cell phone use. Anyone who drives has a story about driving behind someone who is drifting or driving at the wrong speed for conditions with a phone pressed to one ear. While cell phones are far from the only distraction that can cause an accident, they are one of the most common -- even people who cannot afford a car can afford a phone. While a ticket may seem like a cynical revenue-generating device, our Missouri car crash lawyers believe it has value both as a deterrent and as a way to show younger drivers that cell phone use while driving is a safety problem, teaching them to change their behavior without the need for tickets.

Based in St. Louis and Belleville, Ill., The Lowe Law Firm represents victims of serious personal injuries caused by car wrecks in Missouri and southern Illinois. Our Missouri auto accident lawyers help people who were seriously hurt or lost a loved one in a car, truck or motorcycle accidents recover the money they need to pay their medical bills, make ends meet and eventually move past their accidents. If you and your family are in this position and you’d like to learn more, please contact The Lowe Law Firm online or call us toll-free at 1-877-678-3400.

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Legislation repealing Missouri’s mandatory motorcycle helmet law has passed the Legislature and is headed for the desk of Gov. Jay Nixon, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported May 1. The legislation, passed 95-63 in the Missouri House, makes helmets optional for riders age 21 and over. Riders below age 21 would still be required to wear helmets. If the bill is approved, Missouri would become the 31st state with partial or no helmet laws, including almost all of our neighboring states.

The law has provoked several disapproving editorials in the past few days, with the Post-Dispatch claiming that the repeal is “a spectacularly bad idea.” I know this is a sensitive subject for those who ride, many of whom feel strongly that they should have the right, as adults, to make their own decisions. The issue pits public safety arguments against freedom arguments, and both are worthy goals. I do not wish to comment on whether helmets should be mandatory. But, using my experience as a Missouri brain injury lawyer, I would like to explain why I believe that motorcyclists in our state should freely choose to wear helmets when they ride.

Helmets protect the brain, one of the few tissues in the body that cannot heal in the same way a cut or bruise heals. Once the brain is damaged, the abilities controlled by the damaged parts of the brain are most likely gone forever. Practically speaking, that translates to a lifelong disability of some kind -- physical, mental, sensory or emotional. In mild cases, this could leave the victim functional but with a permanent loss of abilities, personality changes or trouble controlling emotions. In serious cases, the victim will need lifelong care in an institution or with a live-in helper. It is also extremely expensive to treat -- hospital costs for a serious brain injury easily total five or six figures, and the lifetime cost reaches into the millions.

It’s well-established that states with mandatory motorcycle helmet laws have much higher helmet use rates than states without. It is more controversial, but still well-established, that helmets save lives and prevent brain injuries without adding risks. Studies by the federal Department of Transportation have found that an un-helmeted rider is 40 times more likely to suffer a fatal head injury and 15 times more likely to sustain a non-fatal injury than one wearing a helmet in the same crash.

Furthermore, of the states that have repealed their universal helmet laws, all have seen a pronounced rise in motorcycle crash fatalities -- a 31% rise in fatal motorcycle injuries in Texas, for example. And according to a 2002 study by the federal DoT, just under half of motorcycle accident victims have no health insurance, meaning that hospital charity care and government health programs pick up their bills. Given the staggering cost in abilities and money, I believe the protection a helmet offers is well worth the cost, both financially and philosophically. Riders may soon have the chance to make this choice for themselves, but as a St. Louis brain damage attorney, I hope they do it with full awareness of their risks.

Based in St. Louis, the Lowe Law Firm represents clients throughout Missouri and southern Illinois who have suffered brain injuries through another person’s careless actions. In addition to motorcycle accidents, this includes car and truck accidents, crashes with semis and big rigs, ATV crashes and accidents in the workplace. In a Missouri brain injury lawsuit, we can help our clients win the money they need to pay their sky-high medical bills, make ends meet while they cannot work and ensure that they get the care they need throughout a lifetime of disability. If this sounds like your situation and you’d like to know more, please contact the Lowe Law Firm today for a free, confidential consultation.

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St. Louis County prosecutors have taken more than a month to consider whether to file charges against an off-duty police officer for her role in a fatal car crash, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported April 28. According to the Post-Dispatch, off-duty Sunset Hills policewoman Christine Miller drove her car the wrong way down Dougherty Ferry Road early in the morning of March 21. No charges have been filed, but the Missouri Highway Patrol said it handed the case to St. Louis County prosecutors on March 25. A spokesman for the prosecutors’ office said it may take six months to a year to hear from accident reconstruction specialists.

The crash killed four people and injured two, including Miller herself. The Post-Dispatch said that Miller was driving east at a high rate of speed when she hit a westbound Honda head-on in the westbound lane. The crash killed three young women studying at Eastern Illinois University: Anusha Anumolu, Anita Lakshmi and Prya Muppvarapu. Also killed was Lakshmi’s cousin, Satya Chinta of Chicago. Lakshmi’s fiancé, Nitesh Adusumilli of Ballwin, suffered serious injuries. Miller herself was critically injured in the crash. A Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman said after the accident that police suspected Miller may have been drinking, but no further information was reported.

Judging by comments to the article, the delay in prosecutors’ decision has generated some anger among people who believe Miller is receiving special treatment because of her job. However, as an experienced St. Louis car accident attorney, I see a couple of possible legitimate reasons to delay filing charges. One has to do with the seriousness of the alleged crime. If they can file stronger charges after proving that Miller was legally intoxicated, prosecutors may feel that waiting is worthwhile. Given the seriousness of Miller’s injuries, they may also be delaying charges until she is well enough to give her side of the story. And in last July’s tragic trucking accident on I-40, it took nine months for prosecutors to bring back charges, suggesting that the wheels of justice turn slowly and carefully in all cases.

Regardless of whether law enforcement presses charges against an irresponsible driver, victims of that driver have the right to pursue their own cases in civil court. People who have been hurt on our roads because of another driver’s carelessness may file a southern Illinois auto accident lawsuit to seek compensation for their injuries, the deaths of loved ones and all of the costs of a serious accident such as this one. Money cannot undo a serious accident, unfortunately, but it can help victims put their lives back together by paying for past and future medical care and other bills caused by the accident, helping them make ends meet if they cannot work and compensating them for a permanent disability or loss of a loved one.

If you are in this situation and you’d like to learn more, The Lowe Law Firm can help. For more than 20 years, our Missouri car wreck lawyers have won millions of dollars for clients injured through no fault of their own. To tell us about your case at a free, confidential consultation, you can contact The Lowe Law Firm online or call us toll-free at 1-877-678-3400.

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Loose cattle and dense fog caused one Missouri car accident and one train accident outside Springfield, Missouri April 11. According to the Springfield News-Leader, the first cow was struck by a passing train early in the morning. A short time later, the driver of a pickup truck found 10 to 15 cows standing in the roadway near the railroad tracks. That driver struck three cows. Two of the cows hit were killed; two others were so badly hurt that they had to be euthanized. The pickup was so badly damaged in the accident that it had to be towed.

If you have never lived near livestock, you may be surprised at how serious an accident between a cow and a car can be. Cows are fragile creatures without metal shells, seatbelts or airbags -- but unlike human beings, they weigh up to 1,600 pounds. Hitting one with a passenger vehicle is not totally unlike hitting a wall. Cattle have been known to total cars and cause serious injuries to the people inside those cars. To all appearances, this driver must have been lucky, given that his truck was not drivable after this accident. Under normal visibility circumstances, cow-car accidents are rare because cows just don’t move that quickly.

Cows don’t carry auto insurance, of course, but drivers who hit one in Missouri may be covered by the insurance of an at-fault party, depending on the circumstances. Under the law, farmers who have livestock must maintain fences to corral their livestock; owners of neighboring land often must split the cost of these division fences. If either neighbor has failed to maintain a solid fence that meets legal standards, that person is legally responsible for the results of cattle escaping. That includes causing an auto accident. Of course, drivers may also be liable for the accident -- including the cost of the cow -- if they were driving carelessly. Many drivers must file a Missouri auto accident lawsuit in order to prove they were not at fault and get the insurance settlement they are owed.

A car accident involving a cow may sound funny, but it can destroy vehicles, cause serious injuries and cost many thousands of dollars. If you or someone you care about was involved in an auto accident in Missouri or southern Illinois -- whether or not it involved livestock -- you should talk to the Lowe Law Firm. Based in St. Louis and Belleville, Illinois, our St. Louis car crash lawyers represent people who sustained serious injuries or lost a loved one in serious traffic accidents. To learn more about your options at a free, confidential consultation, please call the firm toll-free at 1-877-678-3400 or contact us online.

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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.

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A St. Louis family lost two of its members a fatal car crash near Edwardsville, Ill. Feb. 5. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Tawanda Jackson and her two children, nine-year-old Arnold and 11-year-old Takia, were headed home from Tennessee to attend her grandmother’s funeral, along with Jackson’s friend, Jon Moss. Authorities told the Bloomington Pantagraph that the other driver, Newton Keene, was drunk and driving without a license when he drove the wrong way on Illinois 255, crashing into Jackson’s car and killing her, Arnold Jackson and Moss. Takia Jackson remained hospitalized Feb. 6.

In fact, the Bloomington paper reported that Keene had six previous intoxicated driving convictions in Illinois and Missouri, as well as two convictions for driving without a valid license. Local law enforcement agencies also told the paper that Keene had been pulled over three times for driving on the wrong side of the road while drunk. Despite all of this, he had never served more than 120 days in jail. In fact, he had petitioned the State of Missouri to restore his license, a matter that would have been heard Feb. 9.

Public education efforts have done a lot to reduce drunk driving over the past three decades. According to research by the federal Department of Transportation, 48% of drivers involved in fatal crashes had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher in 1982, the first year for which this record was kept. In 2007, that percentage was 32%. Education and outreach have eliminated many casual drunk drivers, making chronic or repeat offenders like Keene the majority of DUI offenders.

Drunk driving is illegal, of course, and it can and should be prosecuted as a crime. But when the criminal justice system fails to stop a drunk driver from hurting the innocent people around him or her, victims also have the option of filing a Missouri or Illinois car accident lawsuit. A lawsuit won’t send anyone to jail, but it helps victims recover the often substantial financial costs of a drunk driving accident, including hospital bills, repair costs and sometimes funeral costs. It can also help victims win compensation for their non-financial injuries, such as the loss of a loved one, a permanent disability or lifelong scarring from serious burns.

The Lowe Law Firm can help. Based in St. Louis, our experienced auto accident attorneys help clients in Missouri and southern Illinois who were seriously hurt in motor vehicle accidents caused by someone else’s carelessness. If you believe you or someone you love has a claim and you’d like to know more about your options, we offer free consultations. To set up a free evaluation of your case with our experienced Missouri car wreck lawyers, please contact us online as soon as possible or call 1-877-678-3400, toll-free.

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The mother of a young man hurt in a single-vehicle accident wants to know what caused ice to appear in the road, MyFox St. Louis reported Jan. 12. A truck driven by Keyon Matthews, a 25-year-old father of three, slid on the road in North St. Louis and fishtailed before hitting a tree, according to his brother, who was following in another car. Neighbors said they reported a leak in a manhole cover, which froze into ice, Jan. 10, but the City of St. Louis Water Division told the television station that there was no record of the leak. Crews from the Water Division later confirmed the leak and took steps to repair it.

Ice in the road is nothing new here in Missouri -- but drivers who don't realize it's there don't know when they should be especially careful. If the allegations in this article are true, the city may have been negligent (a legal term for "extremely careless") in its handling of the neighbors' complaints. Like businesses and individuals, government agencies have a legal duty to remove hazards on their property as soon as they reasonably can, especially when the hazard may be hidden, like this one. However, the key there is "reasonable." Is it reasonable to expect immediate action on a leak that creates a large patch of ice in the road?

Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules about what is considered reasonable. A jury or a judge might ultimately decide in any St. Louis car crash lawsuit the family might choose to file. City governments may be held legally responsible for their negligence, just like private citizens. However, thanks to a doctrine called sovereign immunity, city, state and even federal government agencies can set special rules about how they may be sued. These include special deadlines -- some as short as 30 days -- by which you must give them notice that you intend to sue. Missing those deadlines takes away your right to claim any relief at all, which is why it is so important to get help from an experienced Missouri personal injury attorney.

At The Lowe Law Firm, we have successfully represented many people who were seriously injured on the road by someone else's carelessness. That includes the carelessness of other drivers and of manufacturers of defective tires, seatbelts and other auto parts, as well as bad decisions by government authorities. Our record of success includes multiple verdicts and settlements of more than $1 million in motor vehicle accidents, and multiple millions for victims of defective products. If you were hurt in a car wreck in Missouri or southern Illinois, and you believe it was caused by someone else's careless or illegal behavior, The Lowe Law Firm can help. Contact us as soon as possible for a free evaluation of your case.

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A Webster Groves-area high school student is recovering after being hit in a pedestrian accident Jan. 9, the Webster-Kirkwood Times has reported. The teen was crossing at a crosswalk outside the public library to meet his ride home, the paper said. One car stopped at the crosswalk and motioned him forward, but another passed the first car on the right and hit the teenager. Authorities told the paper that the teen's padded bookbag and the tough clipboards inside may have taken some of the force of the impact. Nevertheless, he sustained a broken shoulder, a sprained ankle and some cuts and bruises.

As a Missouri pedestrian accident lawyer, I believe this is a good chance to discuss the importance of yielding at crosswalks. Most drivers realize that they absolutely must stop at crosswalks when pedestrians are crossing, but not all of them realize that it's also a crime to pass a car that's stopped at a crosswalk. These laws were likely designed to help pedestrians avoid just this sort of accident, in which the oncoming driver literally can't see the pedestrian until it's too late. The penalty is normally just a ticket, but when someone is hurt, the driver may be legally liable for both serious criminal charges and a Missouri pedestrian accident lawsuit.

The article also mentions numerous calls for a stop sign at the intersection, many of which predate this accident. This is a common concern; many people can point to intersections in their own neighborhoods that they wish had stronger traffic signals. It is rare for roadway design to cause or contribute to accidents, but it does happen. And when it does, the local government agencies that design, build and maintain roads may be partly or entirely to blame. As a motor vehicle accident attorney in Missouri and southern Illinois, I handle cases of defective road design as well as cases of vehicle defects and negligent driving.

Lawsuits involving government agencies are generally much more complex than other legal claims. To sue a local, state or federal government agency, you generally have a very short deadline (just sixty days for federal claims) to give the agency advance notice, without which you cannot sue at all. In some cases, you may have to fulfill other requirements before filing. Because this process can be difficult and confusing, experts recommend that you talk with an experienced car wreck lawyer as soon as possible. If you or someone you love has been hurt in a Missouri car wreck, with or without roadway defects, and you'd like to learn more about your legal rights and options, The Lowe Law Firm offers free consultations. To set up a meeting today, please contact us online.

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A Plattsburg, Mo., man was killed and two other people were injured in a traffic accident on Missouri Highway 116 on the evening of Friday, January 2, the St. Joseph News-Press reported.

Gailon V. Green, 45, was killed after his eastbound 1997 Dodge crossed the center line and collided with a westbound Chevrolet Monte Carlo driven by Melissa R. Prescott, 29, of Riverside, Mo., the highway patrol said.

Mr. Green was pronounced dead at the scene. Ms. Prescott was transported to North Kansas City Hospital, according to the patrol report.

A passenger in Mr. Green’s vehicle, Jessica A. May, 21, of Plattsburg, Mo., was taken to Liberty Hospital, where she was reported in good condition Saturday evening.

Drivers who lose control of their vehicles are legally responsible for the results of any serious car wreck that results. If you or someone you love was hurt in this kind of auto accident in Missouri, you have the right to claim compensation for your financial, physical and emotional injuries. The Lowe Law Firm can help. To set up a free case evaluation with our experienced attorneys, please contact us online or call us at 1-877-678-3400.

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A 50-year-old man was killed Jan. 10 in a crash on Interstate 70 near Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reported. Gregory Hawley, who was known for his role in unearthing the sunken Steamboat Arabia and turning it into a museum, was on his way home from that museum when he was hit by an out-of-control BMW. The BMW was reportedly racing another vehicle on the highway when the driver lost control and hit Hawley's pickup truck. The truck left the highway and rolled over, throwing Hawley from the vehicle and killing him. The BMW's driver was charged Jan. 12 with involuntary manslaughter.

It's well-known that street racing is dangerous, which is why it's also illegal in many states. The federal Department of Transportation doesn't keep Missouri car wreck statistics for street racing in particular, but it does keep national statistics on speeding-related crashes. According to the department, speed caused or contributed to 31% of fatal accidents in 2007, at a cost of more than 13,000 lives nationally and 434 in Missouri. Speeding is a problem because it reduces the driver's control over his or her vehicle -- as was the case here -- and makes it harder to react in time to hazards. And of course, higher speeds translate to greater force in a crash, raising the likelihood of a serious injury or a wrongful death.

Unfortunately, enforcement of criminal laws against street racing is spotty, in part because law enforcement cannot always charge racers unless they are caught in the act. Too often, it is only after a tragedy like this one that racers face criminal charges. If those charges seem like too little, too late for some victims, they also have the option of filing a civil claim -- a Missouri car wreck lawsuit. A lawsuit cannot undo a terrible accident, of course, but it can help victims defray some of the more severe consequences of a crash, including high medical bills, loss of income and sometimes funeral costs. Just as importantly, it can also compensate victims for the pain and lost quality of life they suffered when they became permanently disabled or lost a loved one forever.

At the Lowe Law Firm, we're proud to handle both injury-related car accident claims and wrongful death lawsuits. Based in St. Louis and in Belleville, Ill., we represent clients throughout Missouri and southern Illinois. If you or someone you care about has suffered a serious crash, we want to learn about your case and help you understand all of your legal options. And we offer free consultations, so there is no risk in speaking with us. To set up your free consultation today, please contact us through our Web site or call 1-877-678-3400, toll-free.

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The parents of a young man killed during a police car chase have filed a lawsuit against the city of Independence, Kansas City’s KCTV reported. Seventeen-year-old Chris Cooper was riding his bicycle in November of 2007 when he was hit and killed by a vehicle driven by Wilfredo Pujols, Jr. Pujols had earlier hit another car and run from police; he hit Cooper after running a red light.

The Cooper family’s Missouri wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the city of Independence didn’t train its police officers properly in chase procedures, which led to Cooper’s death. It also alleges that police officers made jokes at the scene. In addition to the city itself, the lawsuit names the police, the paramedics who responded and Pujols, the fugitive, as defendants.

The case has attracted attention in part because Wilfredo Pujols is a cousin of star St. Louis Cardinals batter Albert Pujols. Police eventually apprehended Pujols, who has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, resisting arrest and fleeing the scene of an accident. He faces up to 80 years in prison at his sentencing this spring.

Many people don’t realize that victims may file a Missouri car crash lawsuit even if the defendant is also charged criminally. (Naturally, they may also sue if police cannot or will not pursue criminal charges.) A wrongful death lawsuit might also be filed in a situation like this, where victims believe that law enforcement or another government agency is legally responsible for the death.

A wrongful death is any death caused by the wrongdoing of another. That includes criminal wrongdoing, but also reckless driving and other forms of extreme carelessness. The Lowe Law Firm has handled numerous wrongful death claims in Missouri and southern Illinois, including wrongful deaths stemming from serious car accidents. If you have lost someone you care about in a car accident and you believe another person’s negligence was to blame, we can help you learn about your legal options. To speak to an experienced auto accident lawyer today, contact the Lowe Law Firm online or call 1-877-678-3400 for a free consultation.

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In 2008 an Illinois state trooper driving 120 miles an hour slammed into a car killing to sisters. Near that site another state trooper has been involved in an accident, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

This time the trooper, Jeffrey Gagen, was driving the wrong way on Interstate 64 near the Scott Air Force Base exit when he struck an oncoming car. Fortunately, the driver of the other vehicle only suffered minor injuries.

Gagen was arrested at the scene and charged with driving under the influence.

The lawyer representing the sisters who died last year called the latest incident an example of a department that can’t control its officers.

If you have been hurt in a motor vehicle accident resulting from the negligence of another or a loved one has been hurt or killed in such an accident, please contact our attorneys for legal assistance as soon as possible.

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A woman who was driving an estimated 70 miles per hour in a 35 mile per hour zone and weaving in and out of traffic has been convicted of reckless homicide in the death of a 9-year-old boy.

According to The News-Gazette, Melissa K. Darr, 42, of Gifford, Ill., was darting in and out of traffic on U.S. 136 headed toward Interstate 57 on May 25, 2007. Darr testified that she had argued with her husband the night before and that her husband had taken their 4-year-old son. While she was driving, her husband told her she would not be getting their son back.

Darr got onto the I-57 ramp which limits speed to 35 miles per hour because of a tight curve. Her SUV blew a tire then went through the grass and up on the highway.

Raymundo Vazquez Sr. of Chicago was driving his van southbound. He testified that Darr’s SUV hit the back of his van, causing him to a hit a guardrail. His 9-year-old son, Raymundo Vazquez Jr. was thrown from the van and died of head and chest injuries.

Two state troopers testified that, in their opinion, the vehicles did not touch because there was no paint transfer.

But that didn’t matter, Assistant State’s Attorney Chris Kanis told the jury.

“She’s flying on that ramp. It was inevitable. She couldn’t hold the curve. If she didn’t hit him, he was avoiding her.”

It only took the Champaign County jury 90 minutes to convict Darr of reckless homicide. Her sentencing is set for Oct. 23. Darr faces a maximum of five years in prison.

In this case, it didn’t matter if Darr intended to hurt or kill someone. All that mattered was that she meant to drive recklessly.

If you have been hurt in a motor vehicle accident resulting from the negligence of another or a loved one has been hurt or killed in such an accident, please contact our attorneys for legal assistance as soon as possible.

The lawyers of The Lowe Law Firm are experienced in helping people who have been hurt as a result of the negligence of another. We will seek compensation for past and future medical expenses, past and future wages, pain and suffering, disability and other damages. We also represent family members in wrongful death cases.

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Two Missouri motorcyclists were injured in a Labor Day crash, when a pick-up truck crashed head on into the motorcycle they were riding, The Carthage Press reports.

The accident occurred on County Road 130 just south of Carthage. The driver of the pick-up truck failed to remain on his side of the road and crashed into the motorcycle when the vehicles reached the crest of a hill.

Daniel L. Cupp, 55, and Deborah Cupp, 54, were riding on the motorcycle. They suffered moderate injuries as a result.

The seminal “Hurt Report” noted that in two-thirds of multiple-vehicle accidents involving motorcycles a motorist violated the motorcyclist’s right-of-way. The failure of motorists to notice motorcyclists was also found to be a common cause of motorcycle crashes. Drivers involved in accidents often did not see the motorcycle before the accident or until it was too late to avoid the crash.

If you have been hurt in a motorcycle accident resulting from the negligence of another or a loved one has been hurt or killed in such an accident, please contact our attorneys for legal assistance as soon as possible.

The lawyers of The Lowe Law Firm are experienced in helping people who have been hurt as a result of the negligence of another. We will seek compensation for past and future medical expenses, past and future wages, pain and suffering, disability and other damages. We also represent family members in wrongful death cases.

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As the number of motorcycle riders continues to climb, so, too, does the number of motorcycle-related fatalities. In the Illinois area of Champaign-Urbana, ten people in the past five months have died in motorcycle accidents, The News-Gazette reports.

The News-Gazette reporter Steve Bauer writes in “Local fatalities illustrate bad trend in motorcycle accidents,” that local motorcycle crashes have claimed the lives of riders between the ages of 20 and 66. In addition, two husband-and-wife couples were killed in separate accidents when cars struck their motorcycles.

In a related article, “Police attribute increase in motorcycle accidents to rise in riders,” Bauer notes that motorcycle fatalities now account for 13 percent of total traffic deaths in the United States. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration also reports while auto-related deaths have dropped 3.9 percent from 2006 to 2007, motorcyclist deaths roses 6.6 percent.

Several factors seem to account for the increase. The number of motorcycle registrations has been rising steadily for the last ten years. In 2006, there were 2.3 million more motorcycle registrations than the previous year.

In addition, as oil prices soar, owners who might have limited their motorcycle outings to weekends are now riding daily to save on gas.

Safety experts urge riders to wear gloves, heavy jeans, a heavy jack, over-the-ankle boots, and helmets for protection. Motorcyclists should drive defensively, make their presence known to motorists and never drive impaired.

If you have been hurt in a motorcycle accident resulting from the negligence of another or a loved one has been hurt or killed in such an accident, please contact us online for legal assistance as soon as possible or call 877-678-3400. The experienced motorcycle accident lawyers of the Lowe Law Firm will contact you immediately.

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A car crash killed three Missouri teens and the deaths may have been preventable; this maybe one of the worst thing that could happen to a parent. Three Missouri teens died after a crash Saturday in Morgan County.

The crash happened at 12:44 a.m. on Missouri 135, near state Route BB in Florence, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Ashton drove off the right side of the road, then back onto the road before the truck overturned several times.

"The truck was beyond recognition," Hibdon said. None of the victims were wearing a seat belt, reports stated.

very time I read the paper about a automobile accident fatality in Missouri, Illinois or any other state I look to see it the deceased was wearing a seat belt. I know as a personal injury lawyer that modern cars are designed to have safety features for persons wearing seat belts. These safety features include front, side, and side curtain air bags, pillars designed to keep the roof from crushing in a roll over accident, and most of all wearing a seat belt will keep occupants from being ejected from cars.

Statistics in Missouri revealed that approximately 69 percent of the 1,096 people that died in Missouri car crashes last year were not wearing a seat belt. Based on an analysis of traffic accidents, anyone involved in a traffic accident has a 1 in 31 chance of dying if they were not wearing a seat belt, however, if the passenger was wearing a a seat belt the chance of dying decreases 1 chance in 1,300.
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As for the dividing line between genders, the study showed that 82 percent of women wear their seat belts while only 76 percent of men wear theirs. Teens and pickup truck drivers tend to wear their seat belts the least. Pickup truck drivers only wear theirs 66 percent of the time while only 61 percent of teens buckle up. Within past years, teens have been the group to be least likely to buckle up when either driving or being in a car at all.

On a better note, the numbers of people wearing their seat belts has gone up in general. Back in 1998, only about 60 percent of drivers did not wear their seat belts while the current number is number is up to 77 percent this year.

Source: MDOT. "Missouri Seatbelt Use Remains Below National Average." http://www.modot.org/newsandinfo/District0News.shtml?action=displaySSI&newsId=12984

Contact The Lowe Law Firm Missouri/Illinois auto accident lawyers online or by calling 877-678-3400.

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