A terrible accident on Route 30 in Missouri involved six vehicles — one
of which was a commercial vehicle — and left the westbound lanes closed
for a while. The wreck left eight people with injuries. Two of the victims
were taken to a hospital via airlift due to the severity of their injuries,
and the other six were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Those six suffered
“moderate” injuries.
Little else is known about this crash at this time, other than the fact
that it happened in the afternoon last Thursday. We don’t know how
the wreck occurred, and we don’t know if any of the drivers involved
were negligent in any way.
There are two things to take away from this story. The first is that the
investigation into a car accident is extremely important — but also time-consuming.
Don’t expect answers immediately. It may take the police a few weeks
to complete their investigation into your particular crash. In addition,
don’t think that the final report on the wreck truly is “final.”
New evidence may come to light that can lead to the report being altered
— and, potentially, giving you a chance to file a lawsuit under the report’s
new verbiage.
The other lesson from this story is that multi-vehicle wrecks like this
are often complicated when it comes to liability. “Shared liability”
is often utilized, splitting the liability among all participants, even
if some of them are “innocent.” But usually the party who absorbs
the most liability pays those who have less liability under the “shared”
structure.
