Motorcyclist settles for $113,500 after hitting parked trailer

A Blue Springs motorcyclist who impaled himself on the corner of a parked trailer during a turn settled his claims for $113,500.

Plaintiff’s attorney Laurie Del Percio of Horn Law Firm represented Douglas Stacer, whose severe injuries included a pelvic girdle fracture and abdominal trauma, in the 2018 collision with the stationary trailer owned by Vanderford Construction. He was left with scarring from the incident after enduring months of painful wound-debridement procedures.

According to Del Percio, her client was forced to lay down his bike after spotting the trailer located just around a curve. Reflective tape on the vehicle was not visible from Stacer’s perspective, and the investigating police officer concluded that it was parked in an unlit area facing the wrong way on the residential street.

Del Percio said the defense claimed the obstruction was open and obvious, and also presented an accident reconstructionist who said the crash was avoidable. The sides disputed whether the Vanderford vehicle was parked legally.

She said there was little argument regarding the extent of injury, though the defense argued the plaintiff had made a good recovery.

Del Percio said the key to the settlement at mediation was dashcam video from arriving police, which showed that any reflective striping was effectively invisible to Stacer.

“Because it was contemporaneous within five minutes, it showed what our client would have encountered that night,” she said. “It showed poor lighting, that you couldn’t see even with the streetlights and that even though there was reflective tape on the sides of the trailer, it wasn’t on the tongue.”

John Wilcox of Dysart Taylor represented the defense. He did not respond to a request for comment.

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