🏆 $60M+ Recovered • Super Lawyers 2024-25 • 25+ Years Experience • No Fee Unless You Win
Intersection accidents account for nearly 40% of all serious traffic crashes in the St. Louis metro area, where busy crossroads like Grand and Forest Park Avenue, Kingshighway and Manchester Road, and dozens of other high-traffic intersections see devastating collisions daily. When drivers run red lights, fail to yield right-of-way, or make improper turns, the resulting side-impact and T-bone crashes often cause catastrophic injuries that change lives forever.
At The Dixon Injury Firm, we’ve spent over 25 years helping St. Louis intersection accident victims recover compensation when negligent drivers violate traffic laws and cause serious injuries. Our experienced intersection accident lawyers understand that these cases often involve complex fault determinations, multiple witnesses, and severe injuries that require extensive medical treatment and long-term care.
We’re your neighbors in the St. Louis community, and we’ve recovered more than $60 million for clients who trusted us to fight for justice when intersection crashes caused by other drivers’ negligence left them facing overwhelming medical expenses and permanent disabilities.
Intersections are inherently dangerous because they’re conflict points where multiple traffic streams cross paths. The combination of vehicles traveling in different directions, pedestrians crossing, and complex traffic signal timing creates numerous opportunities for accidents when drivers fail to follow traffic laws or exercise proper caution.
Most Common Types of Intersection Accidents:
Why Intersection Accidents Are So Severe: Side-impact collisions at intersections often strike the driver or passenger side of vehicles where there’s less structural protection than the front or rear. The perpendicular nature of these crashes can cause vehicles to spin, roll over, or be pushed into other traffic, creating complex accident scenarios with multiple impacts.
Major Surface Street Intersections:
Highway Access and Interchange Areas:
Downtown and Urban Core Intersections:
Red Light Running: Drivers who run red lights cause some of the most severe intersection accidents, often striking vehicles that have the right-of-way and have no opportunity to avoid the collision.
Failure to Yield Right-of-Way: Drivers making left turns must yield to oncoming traffic, and failure to do so causes numerous T-bone accidents, particularly during heavy traffic periods when visibility may be limited.
Distracted Driving: Drivers focused on phones, GPS devices, or other distractions may miss traffic signals, fail to see other vehicles, or misjudge gaps in traffic when making turns.
Aggressive Driving: Impatient drivers may speed through yellow lights, make unsafe turns, or fail to yield properly in their rush to beat traffic signals or get ahead of other vehicles.
Impaired Driving: Alcohol and drug impairment significantly increase intersection accident risk by reducing reaction times, impairing judgment, and affecting drivers’ ability to process complex traffic situations.
Poor Weather Conditions: Rain, snow, fog, and ice can reduce visibility and increase stopping distances, making intersection navigation more dangerous and accidents more likely.
T-Bone and Side-Impact Collisions: Perpendicular crashes where one vehicle strikes another in the side, often causing severe injuries to occupants on the impact side and potential rollover accidents.
Left-Turn Accidents: Collisions involving vehicles making left turns across oncoming traffic, whether due to misjudging gaps, failing to yield, or poor visibility conditions.
Red Light Running Crashes: High-speed collisions where drivers run red lights and strike vehicles proceeding lawfully through intersections, often resulting in the most severe injuries and damages.
Multi-Vehicle Intersection Pile-ups: Complex accidents involving three or more vehicles that may start with one collision but create chain reactions affecting multiple parties with varying degrees of fault.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents: Crashes involving vulnerable road users who are struck while legally crossing intersections, often resulting in catastrophic injuries due to the lack of protection.
Side-Impact Trauma: Occupants on the struck side often suffer direct injuries from door intrusion, window glass, and the force of impact, including arm and shoulder fractures, rib injuries, and internal organ damage.
Head and Brain Injuries: The lateral forces in intersection crashes frequently cause traumatic brain injuries as occupants’ heads are thrown sideways against windows, door frames, or into the path of deploying airbags.
Spinal Injuries: The twisting and rotational forces during side-impact crashes can cause severe spinal injuries, including herniated discs, vertebral fractures, and potential paralysis.
Pelvic and Hip Fractures: Direct side impacts often cause complex pelvic fractures that require extensive surgical repair and lengthy rehabilitation periods to restore mobility and function.
Internal Injuries: The force of intersection collisions can cause internal bleeding, organ rupture, and other life-threatening injuries requiring emergency surgery and intensive care.
Multiple System Trauma: Severe intersection accidents often cause injuries to multiple body systems simultaneously, requiring coordinated care from trauma teams and multiple medical specialists.
Traffic Signal Analysis: Police reports, traffic camera footage, and witness testimony help establish which drivers had green lights, were facing red lights, or violated other traffic control devices.
Right-of-Way Rules: Missouri traffic laws establish clear right-of-way rules for intersections, and violations of these rules provide strong evidence of negligence in accident cases.
Witness Testimony: Other drivers, pedestrians, and bystanders who observed the accident can provide crucial testimony about traffic signal compliance, vehicle speeds, and driver behavior before the collision.
Physical Evidence Analysis: Vehicle damage patterns, debris fields, skid marks, and final vehicle positions help accident reconstruction experts determine how the collision occurred and which driver violated traffic laws.
Surveillance and Camera Evidence: Traffic cameras, business security systems, and intersection monitoring equipment may capture the entire accident sequence, providing definitive evidence about fault.
Immediate Scene Investigation: Our intersection accident lawyers work quickly to preserve evidence from the accident scene, including photographs of traffic signals, signage, road conditions, and vehicle damage patterns.
Traffic Engineering Analysis: We work with traffic engineers and accident reconstruction experts who can analyze intersection design, signal timing, visibility issues, and other factors that may have contributed to your accident.
Witness Interview Process: We conduct thorough interviews with witnesses to gather detailed accounts of the accident while memories are fresh and before people become unavailable or forget crucial details.
Medical Team Coordination: Intersection accidents often require immediate trauma care and ongoing treatment from multiple specialists. We work with your medical team to ensure proper care while documenting all injuries.
Traffic Signal Compliance: Missouri law requires drivers to obey traffic signals, including coming to complete stops at red lights and not entering intersections when signals are changing to red.
Right-of-Way Requirements: Drivers must yield right-of-way to vehicles already in intersections, oncoming traffic when making left turns, and pedestrians in crosswalks.
Turn Signal Usage: Drivers must signal their intentions when turning or changing lanes, giving other traffic adequate notice of their planned maneuvers.
Speed Regulations: Drivers must reduce speed when approaching intersections and drive at speeds that allow them to stop safely for changing traffic conditions.
Our intersection accident lawyers investigate thoroughly using traffic camera footage, witness statements, traffic signal timing records, and physical evidence to determine which driver actually had the right-of-way.
We use multiple forms of evidence including surveillance footage, witness testimony, police reports, vehicle damage analysis, and sometimes traffic signal timing data to prove red light violations.
Left-turning drivers must yield to oncoming traffic, but if you had a protected green arrow or the oncoming driver was speeding or distracted, they may bear primary fault for the accident.
Yes. We can often prove fault through physical evidence, vehicle damage patterns, surveillance footage, and expert accident reconstruction even without eyewitness testimony.
Malfunctioning signals create dangerous conditions, and government entities responsible for signal maintenance may bear liability. Drivers must treat non-functioning signals as four-way stops.
The timeline depends on injury severity, fault disputes, and insurance company cooperation. Complex cases with serious injuries may take 12-24 months to ensure maximum recovery.
The red light runner typically bears primary fault even if you were turning left. We analyze all factors including signal timing, vehicle positions, and traffic patterns to establish liability.
Government entities may be liable when dangerous intersection design, inadequate signage, or poor visibility contribute to accidents. These cases involve complex liability issues requiring specialized legal expertise.
Protected vs. Permissive Left Turns: Understanding the difference between protected green arrows and permissive left turns is crucial for determining fault when left-turn accidents occur at controlled intersections.
Yellow Light Requirements: Drivers approaching yellow lights must stop if they can do so safely. Accelerating through yellow lights that turn red before clearing the intersection establishes negligence.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Rights: Pedestrians and cyclists in crosswalks have right-of-way over turning vehicles, and drivers who strike them while making turns bear liability for resulting injuries.
Emergency Vehicle Protocols: All drivers must yield right-of-way to emergency vehicles, and failure to do so can create liability when accidents occur during emergency responses.
Comparative Fault Arguments: Insurance companies often attempt to assign partial fault to our clients to reduce their liability. We gather comprehensive evidence to counter unfounded fault allegations.
Signal Timing Disputes: Insurers may claim their drivers had adequate time to clear intersections. We investigate signal timing, traffic patterns, and vehicle speeds to establish actual fault.
Injury Severity Minimization: Companies often claim intersection accidents cause only minor injuries. We work with medical experts to demonstrate the serious nature of side-impact collision injuries.
Surveillance Evidence Challenges: Insurance companies may dispute video evidence or claim it’s unclear. Our experts enhance and analyze footage to clearly establish fault and accident sequence.
Emergency Medical Response:
Specialized Medical Treatment:
Long-Term Care Considerations:
Economic Impact Assessment:
Driver Education Initiatives: Promoting awareness of intersection dangers, proper right-of-way rules, and the importance of defensive driving at traffic signals and stop signs.
Technology Solutions: Supporting implementation of red light cameras, collision avoidance systems, and smart traffic signals that can reduce intersection accident rates.
Infrastructure Improvements: Advocating for better intersection design, improved visibility, enhanced signage, and other engineering solutions that make St. Louis intersections safer.
Enforcement Programs: Supporting increased police enforcement of red light running, failure to yield, and other intersection violations that cause serious accidents.
Our intersection accident lawyers represent injury victims throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area, including:
St. Louis County: Clayton, University City, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Florissant, Hazelwood, Maryland Heights, Creve Coeur, Ballwin, Chesterfield, and surrounding communities
St. Charles County: St. Charles, O’Fallon, Wentzville, St. Peters, and Lake Saint Louis
Jefferson County: Arnold, Festus, Hillsboro, and Imperial
St. Louis City: Downtown, Central West End, Tower Grove, Soulard, and all city neighborhoods
Illinois Metro East: Belleville, O’Fallon, Collinsville, Edwardsville, and Alton
Our team has over 25 years of experience handling complex intersection accident cases throughout the St. Louis area. We understand the technical aspects of traffic engineering, signal timing, and accident reconstruction that are often crucial in these cases.
We work exclusively on a contingency fee basis—no fee unless we win—ensuring that quality legal representation is accessible regardless of your financial situation. Our track record of recovering over $60 million for clients demonstrates our ability to achieve maximum compensation even in challenging intersection accident cases.
Intersection accident cases require immediate investigation to preserve crucial evidence before it disappears or is destroyed. The sooner our intersection accident lawyers can begin working on your case, the stronger we can build your claim for maximum compensation.
Don’t let insurance companies minimize your intersection accident injuries or unfairly shift blame for clear traffic violations. Contact The Dixon Injury Firm today for a free consultation about your case.
Your neighbors at The Dixon Injury Firm are ready to fight for justice when intersection accidents change lives. Because when someone runs a red light and changes everything, we’re here to hold them accountable.
The Dixon Injury Firm – St. Louis Intersection Accident Lawyers Serving accident victims throughout Missouri and Southern Illinois.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and results may vary. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Many personal injury law factories get as many clients in the door as possible, hoping one will be the jackpot. Not us. At The Dixon Injury Firm, we’re highly selective about our cases because we devote considerable time and attention to each client.
