Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Several accidents over the Thanksgiving holiday left Missouri residents across the state with serious injuries, according to an article in the Joplin Globe, and a few accidents even claimed lives.

Two separate, fatal auto accidents in Barry County, Missouri claimed the lives of two teenagers and injured at least one more. Both appear to have been single-car accidents; investigators are still trying to determine what caused the cars to leave the road and crash, claiming the lives of their drivers and injuring passengers.

Two additional car accidents, one in Stone County and one in Carl Junction, Missouri, each left a driver with moderate injuries, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. One of the vehicles appeared to have run off the road and struck a tree, while another was unable to stop at an intersection and hit an embankment on the far side. Both men were helped out of their respective accidents by rescue workers and taken to local hospitals, where they are expected to recover from their injuries.

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A sneezing fit has been blamed for a Missouri car collision that claimed the life of a Kansas City woman and left her toddler in need of emergency medical care, according to a recent article in the Kansas City Star.

According to investigators, a sudden bout of sneezing distracted a 44-year-old Smithville woman for only a few seconds, long enough for her vehicle to crash into the car driven by a 30-year-old Kansas City woman. The Smithville woman was cited for “careless and imprudent driving,” as well as for not having required auto insurance. Investigators are still trying to determine if another distraction, like cell phone use, also played a role in the crash.

The 30-year-old lost her life in the crash. Her three-year-old son, who was also in the vehicle, was rushed to a local children’s hospital, where he remains in serious condition.

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In order to improve safety and traffic flow over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is temporarily stopping construction on the interstates and state highways in Missouri. Work on these sites will stop on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and resume on Monday morning after the long weekend.

Officials hope that keeping workers out of these sites during the holiday will help traffic move through more steadily and will reduce the number of Missouri traffic accidents and injuries. However, drivers still need to practice safe driving to avoid causing injuries this holiday season.

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After the death of a worker following the Joplin, Missouri tornado last year, the Missouri American Water Company is now facing total fines of $140,000 from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), according to an article in the Crevecoeur Patch.

The accident claimed the life of a worker who was using a saw at the time. The saw blade kicked back and hit the worker, causing serious injuries that medical workers were unable to repair.

After several months of investigation, OSHA fined the worker’s employer, Missouri American Water Company, for what the agency called “willful violations” of worker health and safety rules. OSHA’s official comments on the investigation and the fine stressed the need for employers to follow all health and safety guidelines in order to protect workers from serious injury while on the job. The company disagreed with the characterization of the accident as a “willful violation,” stating that it was committed to keeping its workers safe.

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A recent spike in the number of collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles in Springfield and other Missouri cities has left officials baffled as to the cause, according to a recent article from KSPR.

The most recent Springfield bicycle accident involved a bicyclist who collided with a car at the intersection of Glenstone and St. Louis Street. The serious crash happened just blocks from the site of another bicycle accident only a few weeks before - one that took the life of the cyclist involved.

Springfield police say they aren’t certain what has led to the recent increase in car-bike crashes, but they point out that inattention, distraction, and complacency can easily lead to a situation in which a motorist or bicyclist does not notice an upcoming hazard in time to stop. They remind Missourians that bicycles have the same right to use the road as cars, as long as bicyclists obey all the same rules of the road as cars. Both bicyclists and motorists need to be alert for one another in order to avoid accidents.

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The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for enforcing workplace safety regulations and for keeping track of accidents, injuries, and violations. Recently, OSHA released its “top ten” list of the most commonly reported workplace safety violations in the past year.

At the top of the list were slip and fall accidents caused by a failure to provide basic fall protection. These included problems like walking surfaces that weren’t strong enough, edges that were not protected by guardrails, and failure to have workers use safety gear like nets or harnesses to protect them from falls. OSHA reported a total of 7,250 violations of these requirements in 2012.

Closely related to the number-one safety violation were scaffolding violations, which came in at number three, and ladder violations, which came in at number 5. Although the types of problems with scaffolding and ladders varied, both can pose serious fall risks, since the purpose of both is to lift workers up so they can reach worksites that aren’t accessible with both feet on the ground. Scaffolding problems accounted for 3,814 violations in 2012, while ladder violations added another 2,310 violations.

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