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$1.3 Million Award Against Missouri Department of Transportation

Posted on November 24th, 2009 by The Firm

A former member of GHAR represented the family of Jemma Dant, a 28 year-old woman who was tragically killed on December 6, 2005. Ms. Dant, on what would have been her second day at a new job, was sitting in traffic on westbound 44 at Vandeventer. Traffic backup was so severe that Ms. Dant was 1450 feet from the exit. The backup caused her to sit, stopped, on the actual interstate where cars were traveling at high speeds. At the same time, a tractor trailer was traveling in the middle lane. The truck driver saw that his exit was after Vandeventer so he merged right. He saw that traffic was stopped and although he tried, was unable to stop his truck resulting in a collision with Ms. Dant’s vehicle. The collision was so violent that it shoved Ms. Dant’s car underneath the tractor trailer stopped in front of her, killing her instantly.

We all know how big and scary semi-trucks can be, especially when traveling fast. Most people fear driving too close to a semi because we know it is impossible for a, 80,000 pound truck to stop quickly. MoDot knew that traffic was backing up at this location for two years prior to this accident. In fact, it had a plan in place since 2003 to try to correct the problem. Even though it knew of the danger, MoDot did not warn motorists of the stopped traffic. We filed suit against MoDot and the truck driver, on behalf of Ms. Dant’s family. We settled out of court with the truck driver and his family.

The case was tried to a panel of three Arbitrators on November 9, 2009. We argued that the stopped traffic on the highway caused a dangerous condition that motorists should have been warned of. MoDot could have put in place signing telling thru traffic to stay out of the far right lane. It could have put up signing warning motorists of the traffic backup. We see signs similar to this all over today. MoDot had no answer as to why there were no signs. They didn’t think the signs were needed. A MoDot engineer even argued that putting up a sign would have been too difficult because the wind would have blown it down.

The Arbitrators agreed with us that MoDot was partly responsible for Ms. Dant’s death. They agreed that while the truck driver was to blame, MoDot shared that blame for failing to warn motorists, especially out-of-town motorists. An award of $1.3 million was entered in favor of the family. According to Missouri law, MoDot can only be liable up to $378,814 in such a case. This award will be reduced to the current cap.

This was one of the most unfortunate cases I have ever worked on not only because of the immense loss, but because it was preventable. Hopefully, this case will be a reminder to MoDot, and other public entities, that corners should not be cut when it comes to human life.

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