Family Settles after Woman Dies Following a St. Louis County Crash

Crash Results in $750,000 St. Louis County Settlement

On October 14, 2017, Carol Chreist was rear-ended while driving her Chevrolet Sonic northbound on Patterson Road in Florissant, Missouri when she was struck in a rear-end motor vehicle collision.

Due to the force associated with the impact, Plaintiff’s car was pushed into another vehicle. Plaintiff was transported to the hospital via ambulance.

“We had a medical causation problem, ” said Zane Cagle of The Cagle Law Firm. “She went into the hospital after the crash, had some other unrelated health issues and then ended up passing.” Cagle said Creist died five days after the October 2017 accident while in the hospital monitoring due to preexisting heart troubles. She’d been taken to the medical facility directly from the crash scene.

“The morning that she passed, she reported that she was OK, feeling good, ” Cagle said, noting that she was due to be released the day she died.

According to the filed petition, the midday accident occurred when motorist Charles Woods struck the rear of Chreist’s vehicle which pushed it into the vehicle ahead, which in turn struck another car. The decedent’s death certificate indicated cardiac arrest as the cause of death, but Cagle said the medical records from treating doctors showed trauma from the accident played a role in her demise.

“Our argument was that it may not have been the sole cause, but it contributed to cause,” he said.

Cagle said the defendant’s two insurance policies left a gap in coverage between $250,000.00 and $500,000.00, but a settlement was ultimately worked out.

“There were two separate insurance companies, so that made things a little bit tough”, he said.

Missouri Lawyers Weekly, June 17, 2019. D. Baugher. “Family settles after woman dies following wreck”