Highway Injury Attorneys
Serving Kansas City, Independence, Blue Springs & Lee’s Summit
Missouri’s traffic landscape features numerous interstate routes. These highways include Interstates 29, 35, 49 and 70, which serve the Kansas City metro area. They also include I-44, I-55 and I-64.  While interstates play a critical role in allowing us to carry out our daily business and linking our region to the rest of the country, they can also be dangerous roads.
Traffic simply moves faster on interstates and highways. For instance, the speed limits on Missouri’s interstates are either 65 or 70 mph. But in reality, drivers often travel 10 mph or more beyond that limit. When a careless driver causes an accident at such high speeds, severe or fatal injuries often result.
The lawyers of The Horn Law Firm, P.C., have witnessed how devastating interstate highway crashes can be. If you have been hurt or lost a loved one in one of these wrecks through no fault of your own, we want to help you work through the many legal, medical and insurance issues that you will face. Our goal is to secure a settlement or verdict that will help you to move on in life, and we want to reach that result as efficiently as possible.
Contact us today through our toll-free number or online contact form to schedule a free consultation. If we take on your case, we can start right away to preserve evidence, interview witnesses, research insurance coverage and seek a recovery for you.
Investigating Your Highway Accident
One of the basic areas that a lawyer from The Horn Law Firm, P.C., will cover in handling your case will be determining the cause of your highway crash. Although we certainly will review the police report, we also will look more closely at the accident, retaining an independent investigator or consulting an accident reconstruction expert if necessary.
It is important to look at all possible factors that could have contributed to your crash, including:
- Speeding – As we said, drivers often go well beyond the already high speed limits on interstate highways. In fact, in a AAA Foundation survey, 49.3 percent of the respondents confessed to going 15 mph or higher than the freeway speed limit in the previous month.
- Distraction – Drivers who text, talk on cell phones, fiddle with their GPS devices or allow themselves to be distracted by other passengers or pets in the vehicle can wreak havoc on interstates. For example, research shows that individuals traveling at a speed of 65 mph can go 100 yards without looking up if they check their cell phones for only 4.6 seconds.
- Fatigue – A large number of interstate drivers are traveling through Missouri on a long trip. They may have been gone a major distance without sleep or rest. This is especially a problem among tractor-trailer drivers and tour bus operators. A drowsy driver is no better than a drunk driver. They may drift across lanes, fail to brake or react on time to avoid a crash.
- Aggressive driving – In addition to speeding, drivers on interstates can also be highly aggressive. They may weave through lanes, tailgate or pass other vehicles in a dangerous way.
- Chain reactions – When one accident occurs on the interstate, it can affect many other cars in a chain reaction or pile-up. Highway crashes also can occur when drivers “rubberneck†or fail to move over a lane when a disabled car is parked on the shoulder of the road.
As we look into the cause of your crash, The Horn Law Firm, P.C., also will determine the insurance policies involved in your case and explore all avenues for recovering compensation for your losses. With interstate accidents, this may involve dealing with at-fault drivers who are from out-of-state. In many cases, we may need to seek compensation for you from a trucking company or tour bus company that is from an entirely different part of the country.
Assessing Injuries from a Highway Accident
Another crucial part of our representation will be to assess the full extent of your physical and emotional injuries after a highway accident. This often involves reviewing medical records and consulting with a range of medical experts, therapists and life-care planning specialists.
Our goal is to seek compensation that will pay for the medical care you have received and to ensure that you will be covered for all treatment you will need in the future.
As the lawyers from The Horn Law Firm, P.C. have seen, these accidents can involve a wide variety of injuries, ranging from minor cuts and bruises to more severe harm, such as burns, broken bones, organ damage, traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury. A person involved in a highway crash may also suffer terrible emotional distress from the experience. If a loved one has died, then compensation may be needed for funeral expenses, lost financial support and loss of companionship.
We will thoroughly review all injuries involved in your case and pay close attention to your medical needs. Our goal will be to make sure that justice is served and that a full and fair recovery is secured in as timely a manner as possible.
Our Lawyers Help Kansas City and Missouri Highway Accident Victims
If you have been hurt or lost a loved one in a highway accident in Kansas City or surrounding areas, The Horn Law Firm, P.C., will work diligently to seek maximum compensation for you. You may be able to recover payment for your medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering and more. Our job is to explore all of the options available to you for recovering the funds you need.
It starts with a free initial consultation. Simply call our toll-free number or contact us online to schedule one today.
