Moberly Truck Accident Causes Extensive Injuries to Local Man

Randolph County saw its second serious collision involving a semi-truck in the past two weeks as authorities responded to one early Sunday morning. The crash occured in the town of Moberly Missouri, which is about 20 miles north of Columbia on Highway 61. Randolph County ambulance and Moberly Fire responded to the truck crash within minutes, as 911 calls came from witnesses. Reports indicate that Robert Cooney was making a turn onto a private road in his Mack tractor-trailer. 78 year-old Donald Ragsdale of Paris, Missouri, was traveling westbound when his vehicle collided with the Mack truck. Ragsdale was not responsive to EMT personnel at the scene and had to be rushed to Moberly Regional Hospital and then onto Columbia where trauma staff are more capable of handling catastrophic injuries such as these.

As a tractor-trailer accident lawyer representing injured plaintiffs throughout Missouri, I can tell you that one of the first things that are done at an accident scene like this is evidence collection and retrieval by the trucking company and its liability insurance carrier. Commonly referred to as the "immediate response team", the liability insurance company typically has experts on scene within an hour. The goal of the IRT is to gather evidence and protect the trucking company and its insurance company from a future lawsuit by people injured or killed due to the negligence of their truck driver. I have seen evidence be purposely manipulated or destroyed by the IRT. It is truly an injustice when evidence is tampered with. It can 'devalue' the claim of the injured or killed party.

One of the first thing that an experienced truck accident injury attorney must do in a case like this is file for a "temporary restraining order" (TRO), so that the tractor-trailer, its contents and other evidence is not tampered with by the defense attorneys and insurance companies. If they disobey a temporary restraining order, the judge can impose stiff sanctions and/or "strike the affirmative defenses" of the trucking company in the event that a personal injury lawsuit is filed.

So what should you do if you are involved in a crash with a 26,000-80,000 pound tractor-trailer? The first thing is to call police. The second thing is to seek immediate medical care. The third thing is to contact a Missouri semi-truck accident lawyer who can file a TRO on your behalf and protect your evidence from "spoliation" by the IRT and any liability insurance companies involved. Spoliation of evidence can have a devastating effect on your case and truth be told, insurance companies will destroy evidence in a 18-wheeler case if they think they can get away with it.