Dump Truck Company Settles Crash for $750,000.00: Lincoln County, Missouri

Plaintiff was traveling southbound on Missouri Highway 47, and Defendant was driving a dump truck traveling eastbound on Route U. Defendant reached the intersection of Route U and Missouri Highway 47 then proceeded to attempt to cross Highway 47 and continue on eastbound Route U. At this time, Defendant’s dump truck entered directly in the path of Plaintiff’s motor vehicle. In order to avoid colliding with the dump truck, Plaintiff swerved, traveled off the right side of the roadway and struck an embankment.

Plaintiff alleged Defendant’s driver left the scene of the crash and returned thereafter in another motor vehicle because of the dump truck’s failure to comply with Federal Regulations. Defendant denied these allegations, stating their driver parked the dump truck very near the location of the crash.

Plaintiff was transported from the crash site to an area hospital via ambulance. Thereafter, Plaintiff underwent physical therapy and several injections to her lumbar spine. In January of 2016, Plaintiff underwent a lumbar spinal fusion/

Plaintiff alleged the Defendant failed to keep a lookout while operating his dump truck, and failed to yield the right-of-way to Plaintiff traveling on southbound Highway 47. Furthermore, Plaintiff alleged punitive damages against the Defendant relating to lack of supervision, training, and violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Defendant alleged Plaintiff was careless and negligent in failing to keep a careful lookout, stop, slow, or take evasive actions in reacting to Defendant’s dump truck entering the roadway.

The parties agreed to settlement prior to trial of the case. “We solved it really early in the case,” said Cagle according to the Missouri Lawyer Weekly, 5/1/17 “We did an initial demand on the case, they made an offer. We had some discovery disputes,” he said. “When the discovery disputes were resolved, prior to depositions, we reached a settlement agreement” said Cagle.