Personal Injury Law

Plaintiff's Verdict - St Louis Missouri Bicycle Accident at Unmarked Intersection - Failure to Keep a Careful Lookout - Missouri Law Has a Long Way to Go to Adequately Protect Bikers

By Benjamin J. Sansone, Esq.

This week we secured a Plaintiff's verdict in favor of a bicyclist who was hit at an intersection when a driver of a pick up truck made a right turn and crossed the shoulder the cyclist was in, causing her to hit the side of his truck, get thrown from her bike, and break her elbow. The driver claimed he saw her, made and extra wide turn, and that she panicked and lost control of her bike all by herself. Additionally, the police officer, who did not witness the accident, testified against the cyclist essentially claiming the bike accident and injury was her own fault.

Despite the evidence presented by the defense we were able to overcome that bias many people have, and clearly the police officer had, towards bicyclists and our right to use the roadways and the degree of care motorists must exercise towards bike riders.

Almost no cases, at least none that are available in court records or that I know of, regarding collisions between cars and bicycles are taken to trial in Missouri. In fact, many Missouri lawyers drop bicycle accident cases or do not aggressively pursue them. The simple fact of the matter is, despite some good statutes in Missouri protecting bicyclists, there are still many laws that could be passed to protect cyclists. For example, Missouri statutes require a safe distance be maintained when passing a bicyclist, however, there is no state statute regarding the duty of a motorist to yield to a bicyclist traveling in the shoulder when making a right turn. As in the case above, the entire case had to be tried on a "failure to keep a careful lookout" legal theory as the judge would not allow me to argue failure to yield, claiming that there is no specific law creating that duty. A point that we are appealing along with a few others in an attempt to clarify Missouri bicycling law and the legal responsibility in Missouri of drivers towards bicyclists.

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Law Blog on February 22, 2008 (boomark / email).