Missouri Injury Law Blog

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.