Kansas Driver Settles Stop Sign Failure to Yield Crash for $1.25 Million
After trial: The $1.25 million settlement, reached in September 2024, was a policy-limits recovery: a demand for the defendant's automobile policy limits was made during litigation and accepted, so the payment matched what was available under that coverage rather than a jury's assessment of the claim's full value. The case resolved by settlement before trial, so no appeal occurred. Missouri Lawyers Media published the matter under a confidential caption, and no party names or docket number for the Leavenworth County case are public, so the terms could not be checked against a court file.
Won by BG Law LLC.
A 16-year-old driver stopped at a stop sign on Eisenhower Road in Leavenworth County, Kansas, then pulled into the path of a woman driving 55 mph on the right-of-way road, causing a July 2022 collision. She suffered a concussion, and daily headaches, dizziness, balance deficits and diminished concentration persisted for months despite a negative scan taken the day of the crash, which also exacerbated orthopedic injuries from a prior accident. The suit named the teen driver for failing to yield and the driver's mother for negligent supervision and training. A demand for the defendant's policy limits was made during litigation and accepted, and the case settled in September 2024 for $1.25 million without reaching trial.
What happened
In July 2022, a woman was driving south on Tonganoxie Drive in Leavenworth County, Kansas, approaching its intersection with Eisenhower Road. Only the east and west approaches on Eisenhower Road carry stop signs; traffic heading north or south on Tonganoxie Drive has no traffic control device and the right of way. A 16-year-old driver stopped at that sign, then attempted to cross Tonganoxie Drive heading west before the woman's car reached the intersection. She was traveling 55 mph and had no time to react before the two vehicles collided.
The impact threw her head into her driver's side window, causing a concussion. An ambulance took her from the scene to a hospital, where radiology came back negative for an intracranial injury and she was released to follow up with her primary care providers. Over the following weeks and months she developed daily headaches, nausea, balance deficits, dizziness, lightheadedness, difficulty walking and diminished focus and concentration, a post-concussive picture that outlasted the clean scan taken the day of the crash. The collision also exacerbated underlying orthopedic injuries from an unrelated accident a decade earlier. The symptoms impaired her ability to work and to perform daily tasks, and interfered with her caring for her elderly mother and her adult children.
Suit was filed in Leavenworth County District Court against the teen driver for failing to yield, and against the driver's mother for negligent supervision and training. Missouri Lawyers Media, which reported the case, identified Mike Meyer of Bartimus Frickleton Robertson Rader in Leawood, Kansas, as the plaintiff's lead attorney, and Blake Green of BG Law in Kansas City as the plaintiff's other attorney of record. The report did not name defense counsel or an insurer.
The case never reached trial. During litigation a demand for the defendant's policy limits was made and ultimately accepted, and the parties finalized the settlement in September 2024, roughly two years after the crash, for $1.25 million.
Because the recovery was a policy-limits payment, the figure reflects the ceiling of the coverage available rather than a jury's assessment of the claim. For a concussion case with a negative scan on the day of the crash, reaching that ceiling rested on the months of documented post-concussive symptoms that followed, the exacerbation of older orthopedic injuries, and the second defendant added on a negligent supervision theory. The parties, the case caption and the docket number are not public: Missouri Lawyers Media reported the matter under a confidential caption, and no other public account of the case was found.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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