At the intersection where Janae Edmondson was pinned between two cars, her St. Louis attorney claims there should have been a stop sign instead of a yield sign.
“Because of the height of the buildings and where the intersection was located, you essentially have to come to a full stop to appreciate cars coming from the opposite conflicting way,” said attorney Kevin Carnie Jr.
Edmondson was hit by 21-year-old motorist Daniel Riley on Feb. 18. The 17-year-old student-athlete, who was visiting St. Louis from Tennessee, has since had both legs amputated.
Carnie
| Carnie
"She's an inspiration," said Carnie who represents Edmondson. "She's working on getting her prosthetics. She's doing a lot of physical therapy. There's a lot of stuff she has to go through. She's a fighter. I am really proud to be able to help her."
The accident was a catalyst for the ouster of St. Louis city's top prosecutor Kim Gardner who resigned on June 1 and was replaced by Gabe Gore.
Riley was out on bond at the time of the crash and is accused of speeding, according to media reports.
“After this incident, we found out that they changed the yield sign to a stop sign,” Carnie told the St. Louis Record. “That's one of the big issues with the city of St. Louis in this case.”
Carnie filed a lawsuit on behalf of Edmondson on June 20 in the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court alleging that the accident was completely preventable.
“At first glance, everyone says there's one bad actor here but there were a lot of different people that had an opportunity to make sure this didn't happen and that fell through the cracks, starting with why the guy is released in the first place after violating his bond so many times, why we have an intersection that should have a stop sign and has yield sign, and why we have people speeding,” he said.
Defendants named in the lawsuit include Riley, his mother Kimberly Riley, the City of St. Louis, Elizabeth Smith, and Enterprise Rent-a-Car (EAN Holdings) because the car Riley was driving was rented.
“We tried to get information from Enterprise about who they rented the vehicle to because the vehicle was registered in their name and we understood that was the car rental company and they may have rented it to either Daniel Riley or Kimberly Riley, his mother, based on our investigation but they would not confirm for us who they rented it to,” Carnie said.
Gardner was not named as a defendant due to immunity concerns.
"She in particular is protected by prosecutorial immunity and official immunity," Carnie added. "Attempting to file lawsuits against government employees, government actors, and municipalities is a tough thing to do. The law is really stacked against us."