Personal Injury Law

Family of Mother and Son Killed by Drunk Driver Suing Bar for Over-Serving Him

By Jeff Lowe, Esq.

About two years ago, I wrote a blog post as a southern Illinois auto accident attorney about the unnecessary deaths of three people in a drunk driving accident. So I was interested to read in the Alton Telegraph Feb. 13 that the family of two of those killed is suing a bar they say served the driver too much alcohol. Arnold Jackson Jr. and Takia Jackson are suing an establishment called Pink Galleon for allegedly continuing to serve alcohol to Newton Keene even though he was visibly intoxicated. Keene went on that evening to drive on the wrong side of Illinois 255, causing the accident that killed Tawanda Jackson, Takia?s mother, and Arnold Jackson III, her nine-year-old brother. Another passenger, 28-year-old Jon Moss of Dellwood, Mo., also died but is not a party to the lawsuit. Keene is currently serving 28 years in prison.

Tawanda Jackson and her children were former St. Louis residents who had moved to Tennessee but returned to the area for her grandmother?s funeral. They were on their way home on the evening of Feb. 5, 2009, with a friend, Jon Moss of Dellwood, Mo., in the car. Just north of Interstate 270 in Edwardville, they ran head-on into Keene, who was driving drunk on the wrong side of the road. Keene had six previous drunk driving convictions in Missouri and Illinois, but was still free. The crash killed everyone but Takia Jackson, who was 11 at the time, and kept her in the hospital for weeks. She and her father allege that Pink Galleon served Keene even though he was ?obviously intoxicated. They are also suing Tawanda Jackson?s auto insurance company, saying their uninsured motorist coverage was not sufficient to cover the costs of the accident.

No insurance policy is sufficient to give Takia Jackson back her mother and brother, unfortunately. But as a St. Louis car accident lawyer, I suspect that this accident caused very high medical costs for her family. Weeks of hospitalization can easily cost six figures. If Takia Jackson was seriously injured, which is likely, she will need follow-up medical care that will also cost a lot of money. And of course, she is entitled to claim financial damages for the loss of her family and her own injuries. In Illinois and many other states, including Missouri, victims have the right to sue establishments that served alcohol to people who were visibly or obviously intoxicated. These establishments can make a lot of money catering to drunks ? so the law makes sure that they also have an incentive to ?cut off? people who could pose a danger to the public.

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog on February 15, 2011 (boomark / email).