Missouri Roadway Fatalities-1st Quarter of 2025

By The Cagle Law Firm | April 18, 2025 | News

Roadway Fatalities-First Quarter of 2025

Seat belts are one of the most important safety features of passenger motor vehicles. The months of January through March of 2025 in Missouri have resulted in 132 fatalities due to motor vehicle incidents.   Six of those roadway fatalities were pedestrians.  Thus, we evaluated the data of 126 motor vehicle fatalities.  Of those 126 fatalities, 68 were not restrained.  About 53 percent of those fatality injured were not restrained. In several of those 126 fatal motor vehicle incidents, it was “unknown” whether or not the fatally injured person was wearing a restraint.  In a number of those specific collisions, the fatally injured person was ejected from the vehicle. Generally, occupants ejected are not restrained but may be listed as “unknown”.  There were 17 fatalities involving unknown seat belt use. Forty-six people killed were restrained.

Data was collected from the Missouri State Highway Patrol website where crashes are initially reported online.  That data is specific to the MSHP and does not include data from municipalities.  Thus, there are other roadway fatalities not included in the MSHP data.  Upon investigation, a nominal few of those statistics will be updated.  The data on the MSHP portal are the initial reports and often, those “unknown” statuses are investigated and adjusted to non-restrained but will not be updated in the MSHP initial crash data. Do seat belts prevent all fatalities? Of course not. There are crashes that are at such an impact, they simply are not survivable. Hence, this article is about promoting safety and it is not about making a specific example of anyone killed tragically on Missouri roadways.

The loss of any life is incalculable loss. When deaths are preventable, they are tragic.  The loss is not just the fatally injured person but their family and their community.  We have represented families in wrongful death cases many times and each time, it is really hard to even explain the toll for the family and friends.  Because there should not be any preventable deaths, we look for safety measures that can reduce the likelihood of deaths.

Wearing a seat belt, following the rules of the road and driving sober are the three most effective ways to reduce serious injury and death.  We are are a broken record repeating the importance of seat belt use in just about every article we publish.  It is that important.

Seatbelt Laws in Missouri?

After reviewing the statistics provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol for the first quarter of 2025, we may need a reminder to buckle up.  Missouri law requires all drivers and front seat passengers to wear a seatbelt. All children under 16 years of age must be properly restrained regardless of seating position.  Anyone under the age of 18 must be wearing a seat belt in a car or a truck.  Easy rule–if you are in the front, you are legally required to buckle up.  Generally speaking, you do not see law enforcement on the roadways pulling people over to give them a citation for failure to wear a seatbelt.    Failure to wear a seatbelt increases your likelihood of suffering serious injury or death by 50 percent.

The national seatbelt usage rate if 91.2 percent  for 2024. The average seat belt usage rate in Missouri is only 88.3% according to 2024 data. We can do better in Missouri. Seat belt use in passenger vehicles saved an estimated 14,955 lives in 2017 nationwide. Fifty percent of passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2022 were unrestrained and those fatality numbers go up at night when visibility is lower. Teens are often the age group that fails to buckle up. Experts have found that the biggest influence a parent can have on their teen’s buckling up is through example.  As a parent, you may tell your teen to wear a seatbelt, but often teens follow the modeling of their parents. Meaning, as in every other situation, kids tend to do what we do rather than what we say.

Seat Belt Myths

• If you have airbags, you don’t need to use a seat belt–MYTH   Airbags are designed to be used WITH seat belts and not instead.  Airbags only deploy once, so do not protect you from multiple impacts. Additionally, air bags do not deploy in every crash situation.
• Seat belts can trap you in a fire or under water-MYTH  Incidents involving fire or water account for 1/2 of 1 percent of all crashes.  And, you cannot escape from water or fire if you are unconscious. Wearing a seat belt gives you a better chance of being conscious in a very rare fire or water crash.
• If you are not going to be traveling fast, then you don’t need a seat belt–MYTH  What seem like routine trips are often the most dangerous and within 25 miles of your home. Fatal crashes can occur at speeds of less than 40 mph.
• You are safer in a pickup truck, so wearing a seat belt is not as important- MYTH  Occupants in SUV’s, pickups, and vans-seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to the driver and front seat passengers by 60 percent.
• Guys are less of a risk of injury, so they really do not need seat belts-MYTH  This is absurd and illogical. Statistically, young men are more at risk for roadway fatalities. Among male passenger vehicle occupants ages 18-34 who were killed in 2017 fatal crashes, 60 percent were not buckled up.

Teen Seat Belt Safety

There are  challenges when trying to get your teen to buckle up and  it is the first, middle and last rule is to not negotiate with your tween about seatbelt usage. As a parent or caregiver, we negotiate almost everything with kids. Negotiation is a natural part of the process to achieving adulthood.  However, some things simply cannot be negotiated when it comes to safety. No, this is not a parenting article–we never claim to be experts in parenting. Parenting is difficult. As the parent or caregiver to a tween, there are steps you can take to improve the likelihood that they will wear seat belts when you are not around.

Consistently Model Seat Belt Safety. Again, teach your children to wear a seat belt by modeling seat belt use.

Never Give Up Until They Buckle Up  Make sure your kids buckle up with their lap and shoulder belt every time you get into the vehicle. No exceptions. No putting the shoulder belt behind their back or under their arms or loose seat belts so kids can move around and wrestle in the back seat.  Simply refuse to move the car.  We promise, if you start this early, it won’t be such a fight later. When you fight that battle when they are little in child car safety seats, it becomes a habit for kids.

Never Assume Your Kids are Buckled Up.  One conversation with your teen is not enough. Remind your kids to wear a seat belt no matter whose care they are getting into and stay buckled up.  Whether it is a trip across town, across the state, day or night–seat belts always. You hope that your modeling and no-negotiations about safety will make a difference when they become teen drivers.  But they are kids, so don’t just assume they are always buckling up.

Roadway Crashes Occur

Statistically, most of us are in an average of four motor vehicle accidents in our lives. Understanding, that may vary from a door ding at the grocery store parking lot to a traumatic crash. We all hope they are minor non-injury collisions.  If you are not hurt, then the process is fairly simple.  Do not confuse “fairly simple” with easy.  Every person who makes an insurance claim goes into that process somewhat unconfident that the insurance carrier will fairly compensate them. And, this is just the property damage. Honestly, insurance companies are at their best when it comes to assessing property or your vehicle. Again, not to say always fair but they are better with property than your bodily injury.  If you are injured, you will need a lawyer.

You will want to involve a lawyer as soon as possible after your crash so that your attorney can gather evidence and build your case. Over time (even a few weeks) evidence has a way of disappearing.  Vehicles are destroyed and witness memories fade.  If you are hurt, running around trying to gather evidence and get witness statements is not the best use of your time when you are trying to physically recover. As well, You cannot officially take a witness statement that can later be used in court. Attorneys hire investigators for that purpose.  Again, if you are hurt, we want you to focus on recovery, getting back to work and back to your regular scheduled life.

Contact our attorneys seven days a week for your free consultation.

Call us toll free 1.800.685.3302 or 314.276.1681 for a free case evaluation

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