Missouri Injury Law Blog

On September 1, 2007 Jerry was riding his Honda VTX custom motorcycle in Sullivan Missouri on highway 50 when a automobile heading the opposite direction made a sudden and unsignaled left turn about 15 feet in front of him. A Motorcycle and automobile collision resulted as Jerry was forced to lay his motorcycle on its side and slide behind it to avoid fatal injury. He finally decided to contact a motorcycle accident lawyer and called our office. Jerry was comforted by the fact that I am a motorcycle rider myself and have personally been in 2 motorcycle accidents, one very similar to his, and understand the injury issues and concerns that a motorcycle has. Additionally, we have represented numerous victims involved in motorcycle accidents and motorcycle related injury.

The driver of the other vehicle admitted fault and negligence and was cited by the responding police officer. Jerry currently has severe burns from the pavement over his legs, arms and back. Additionally, he is suffering from multiple cuts and bruises and a potentially broken or dislocated shoulder along with currently unknown injuries to his ribs and upper chest area.

Motorcyclists know, the biggest danger to them is an unobservant driver that simply does not notice a smaller vehicle or is just not paying attention. The main causes of motorcycle accidents in Missouri and elsewhere are speed, driver inattention and failure to yield right of way.

Motorcycle accident occurred on August 30th westbound on I-44 outside St Louis Missouri. My client, Paul, was riding a motorcycle in the right hand lane at about 70 MPH when another driver came up behind him at over 100 MPH slamming into the back of his bike, throwing him into the windshield and over the car and left to skid for several hundred yards.

As an accident attorney, I see a lot of serious injuries, I have seen serious injuries from decubitus ulcers, open abdomens and the like. Paul was in the hospital just after back surgery to fuse his lower spine, and he is in traction to prevent his leg from falling out of his hip socket. Most debilitating of all, the road rash or removal of his skin from sliding on the pavement; this is a sight I still have trouble stomaching, especially because I am a motorcyclist myself and start imagining how these injuries would feel.

Car accidents occur daily and motorcycle accidents are very common as well. The vast majority of motorcycle injuries and accidents occur from inattention by other drivers, and this is my experience as an injury lawyer. This is the case here, the gross negligence and recklessness of a driver doing 100 MPH and not even hitting the brakes before ramming into the back of Paul's motorcycle and causing severe personal injury.

The rest of the pictures are not shown for client privacy and the gore would be inappropriate

Paul is lucky to be alive and his helmet saved his life. He is unlucky that the accident occurred but lucky the driver has a high policy of insurance. The minimum amount of insurance a motorist must carry under Missouri law is 25,000 for liability. This would not even come close to compensating Paul for such injuries. The driver surprisingly has a high policy limit.

Question here, do we take the policy limit and settle the case? Or do we pursue the policy limits plus liability personally on the driver? I am of the persuasion to go after the driver due to the recklessness in this case, not just inattention, but blatant recklessness. I will update this blog entry when my client decides if he wants to stop at the policy limits or keep going.

There is evidence the driver was drinking but he was not cited for DWI.

Our new client, Erin, was recently involved in a bike accident in St Louis MO while on the Grant Trail. The Grant Trail crosses Grand and at that intersection there is also a gas station. Erin suffered serious personal injury as the result of a driver who failed to yield to her right of way when crossing the intersection. She had the walk signal and the driver simply did not see her, why? because many driver's simply do not look out for cyclists. Erin wound up int he hospital for 4 days with lacerations, bruises, and a severely broken ankle.

The driver admitted fault to Erin and another cyclist witnessed the admission, however, when the police arrived the driver's story changed. Fortunately this is a case supported by evidence of independent witnesses and the fact of the light and crosswalks signal timing, which will show the driver made and illegal right turn on red.

Some bicyclists end up a lot worse than Erin, there are several reported cases of Missouri bike accidents where the bicyclists have died, over 4 dozen in the past 5 years. One such instance was about 30 days ago when 2 cyclists died when rammed from behind by a pickup truck. Charges against the driver are under review, chances are a fine and community service will result.

Bicyclists all know it, many drivers do not like us! and, unfortunately, that sentiment is no different in the legal system. As I have posted before, I am an avid cyclist, I will go for a weeks without missing a day of 20 mile rides and 50 mile rides on the weekend. It is a great activity, however, many drivers just do not pay attention to us or do not care to; that is when injuries or even death occurs.

I am one of the few injury lawyers I know who take bicycle accident cases (unless it is an egregious case, most lawyers take those cases), in fact, some of the best bicycle cases I have are "orphan cases" meaning other lawyers did not want them for whatever reason. I think many injury lawyers draw on their experiences as a motorists and maybe they have had frustration with cyclists in the past and therefore cannot see the side of the cyclist.

Coming up in the nest couple of weeks is the MS 150 in Columbia MO, I am on a a team riding in the event and I hope this year is as great as the last 5 years we have attended, no serious accidents!