$3 Million Pedestrian-Vehicle Collision-Jefferson County, MO

By The Cagle Law Firm | July 16, 2025 |

Initial Incident: On June 3, 2021 at approximately 5:38 a.m., Plaintiff J. Earl was a pedestrian walking across the parking lot of QuikTrip in Herculaneum, Missouri when he was struck by a GMC truck driven by an employee of Capital Railroad.  Plaintiff was knocked several feet and reported pain immediately. Herculaneum Police were called to the scene and Plaintiff denied medical transport.  Plaintiff was an over-the-road truck driver and returned to his truck and drove to Texas where he stopped at Wadley Regional Medical Center emergency room in Texarkana, Texas. Our client was treated and released the same day before successfully making his delivery in Houston, TX. Plaintiff then drove to his home in Georgia.

Medical Treatment: After plaintiff returned to his home in Georgia, he saw his primary care doctor who referred him to Dr. Mark Flood at Ortho Sport and Spine in Macon, Georgia in August of 2021. Plaintiff’s treatment included physical therapy, injections and radio frequency ablations for his cervical and lumbar spine.  Plaintiff’s pain persisted and he underwent a cervical fusion and a lumbar fusion surgery in 2022.   Due to negligence of defendant,  our client suffered serious injuries to spine resulting in two spinal surgeries.  On October 12, 2023, the Defendant driver was dismissed individually from the lawsuit.

Plaintiff alleged Defendant failed to keep a proper lookout and failed to operate his vehicle in a safe way resulting in the collision of the GMC truck with Plaintiff’s body.  In January 2022, Plaintiff was involved in another motor vehicle incident, however, the defense medical expert and Plaintiff’s treating physician indicated that January 2022 collision was not the cause of Plaintiff’s injuries and a surgery had already been scheduled prior to that collision.  Defendant continued to claim that they were not negligent and that Plaintiff was not significantly injured hurt if he did not accept medical treatment. Per defense counsel, our client was really not that badly hurt or he would have been transported via ambulance to the hospital from the scene of the incident. As well, Defendant claimed Plaintiff was not keeping a proper look out and was running across the parking lot in the dark hours of sunrise and some light rain.

Defense medical expert Dr. Frank O. Petkovich did an independent medical evaluation and record review on February 13, 2025. Dr. Petkovich discussed Plaintiff’s fall on June 3, 2021. Plaintiff did fall when he was directly struck by a GMC truck. Defense expert medical testimony indicated that all spine symptoms had resolved within six weeks of the incident and the cervical fusion and lumbar fusion were not necessary.  Defense medical expert indicated no further treatment was needed after the first six weeks and his injuries were caused cervical and lumbar strain and degenerative disc disease.  Plaintiff has continued to seek medical treatment to present day including two spine surgeries.

Plaintiff was 57 years of age at the time of the incident and as his symptoms became increasingly worse, he was not able to continue his over the road trucking career after about a year.

Result: Defendant did not admit liability and never responded to Plaintiff’s offer of settlement until the Friday before trial during a court mandated mediation. At that mediation defendant offered $2 million dollars which Plaintiff declined. During the first day of trial, the Defendant offered $3 million dollars and Plaintiff accepted.

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