Expert’s Testimony on Motorcycle Passenger’s Death Creates a Question of Fact; Missouri Contractors Must Defend Construction Work Zone Lane Markings

Terri Casey died in 1994 when the motorcycle she was riding crashed head-on with a pickup in a construction area in Independence. Her children and parents filed a wrongful death suit against Florence Construction Company, the general contractor for the highway construction project. Florence Construction filed a motion for summary judgment which the circuit court granted. Casey’s children and parents appeal. We reverse and remand.
The crash occurred on Mo. 291 on March 13, 1994, when Jeanette McIntire drove her pickup southbound across the highway’s center line into a lane designated for northbound traffic. Casey was a passenger on a motorcycle traveling northbound on Highway 291. The vehicles collided head-on.
In their petition for damages for wrongful death, Casey’s children, Sean and Adam Casey, and her parents, Marion and Ernestine Morgan, claim that Florence Construction was negligent and caused or contributed to causing Casey’s death by (1) not placing proper signals and warnings to indicate two-way traffic in the area; (2) using a confusing and misleading traffic control, and (3) making the area appear to authorize only one-way traffic.