Personal Injury Law

Driver in Minor Accident Thrown to Death When Another Vehicle Hits His Parked Car

By Jeff Lowe, Esq.

As a southern Illinois auto accident lawyer, I was sorry to see a report about a St. George man who was killed in a downtown St. Louis crash. Zeljko Landup, 43, was thrown from an elevated portion of highway after he pulled into the left lane of Interstate 55 to deal with a fender-bender. Authorities told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that ice might have been a factor in the 6 a.m. crashes, but were still investigating as of Jan. 22. The other driver in the fender-bender suffered minor injuries when the second crash knocked him down. Nothing was reported on the third driver, who hit Landup?s car with a pickup truck. Landup and his wife and teenaged sons came to St. Louis from Bosnia about nine years ago; he worked at Archer-Daniels-Midland.

The article said Landup was likely on the way to work when he got into a minor accident with an unnamed 57-year-old driver. His wife, Jasmina Landup, was with him and planned to take the car home. Landup and the other driver were standing in the far left lane of Interstate 55, talking, when a pickup truck crashed into Landup?s vehicle. That crash pushed Landup over the guardrail, between the northbound and southbound portions of the elevated highway, and into downtown St. Louis below. The other driver was knocked to the ground and was treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening. Police officers were investigating the cause of the crash and did not assign a cause as of Jan. 22, but said parts of the road were icy on the morning of the crash, and parts of some highways were closed.

As a St. Louis car accident attorney, I hope drivers are very careful about weather and pull off highways whenever possible, so they can prevent another accident as senseless as this. Missouri and Illinois have been wrestling with icy weather for weeks, and we?ve had some weather-related accidents as well. But if this driver turns out to have hit Landup?s vehicle out of inattention or carelessness, he or she could face serious criminal charges as well as a lawsuit. As the article notes, this is a family of immigrants; Landup?s 17-year-old son had to translate for his mother in the KDSK story. Without good English, she may not be able to support the family on her own, meaning they may truly need a financial settlement to make ends meet.

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog on January 28, 2011 (boomark / email).