More than 240 people took part in the first fundraising Slow Down and Move Over Walk, held May 14 at Arnold City Park.
The walk was sponsored by a foundation formed by family members of Kaitlyn D. Anderson of De Soto, who was six months pregnant when she was hit and killed by a car while working for the Missouri Department of Transportation on Nov. 18, 2021.
Fellow MoDOT employee James W. Brooks of St. Louis also was killed in the accident, and Mike S. Brown, 36, of House Springs, who also worked for the agency, was injured.
Anderson was 25 and Brooks was 58 when the accident occurred, authorities reported.
Nearly 230 people completed laps around the lake at Arnold City Park for the walk, and another 16 people took part virtually, said Tabatha Moore, Anderson’s aunt.
Proceeds from the walk will benefit the Kait’s Love for Jaxx Foundation, named after Anderson’s unborn child, who had been named Jaxx Jarvis.
Moore said the event, which included four raffles, raised $7,135 for the foundation, which helps those who have lost a parent, child or pregnancy or someone who recently gave birth to a child.
“This is very emotional,” said Tonya Musskopf, Anderson’s mother. “I know Kaitlyn, James and Jaxx are looking down proud. I am out here for them.
“I want people to realize they have to slow down and move over. We have to do better, and MoDOT has to do better.”
About 25 signs could be seen on a hill near the walk’s starting line protesting MoDOT’s treatment of employees and lack of safety measures taken to protect workers.
“(The support) is encouraging to see,” said Brown, who was at the event with his girlfriend, Heather Ballard, 37, of East Alton, Ill. “I hope it raises awareness.”
Lawsuit
The walk was held four days after Musskopf and Austin Jarvis, Anderson’s boyfriend and Jaxx’s father, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the transportation agency’s board, Anderson’s supervisor and the driver who reportedly caused the accident.
The lawsuit was filed May 10 in St. Louis County.
Anderson and Brooks were killed and Brown was injured when Stanley McFadden of Hillsboro drove through a worksite on a ramp from northbound Hwy. 231 (Telegraph Road) to westbound I-255, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported.
The lawsuit names the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, which is the board that oversees MoDOT, as well as MoDOT supervisor Michael Love and McFadden as defendants.
McFadden, who was 52 at the time of the accident, has not been criminally charged in the incident.
However, Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. Dallas Thompson said the patrol has sent its investigative reports to the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
“The initial crash investigation and reconstruction is completed and is at their office,” he said. “They are reviewing it.”
MoDOT does not comment on litigation matters, communications director Linda Wilson Horn said.
In the lawsuit, Musskopf and Jarvis say that because of the deaths of Anderson and Jaxx, they “sustained a loss of the value of love, services, consortium, companionship, comfort, instruction, guidance, counsel, training, and support.”
Because of that loss, the lawsuit seeks monetary damages in excess of $25,000 for both deaths “as determined fair and reasonable by a jury against defendants jointly and severally.”
The suit also seeks “all interest allowed under Missouri law at the maximum amount, together with all taxable costs and for such other relief this court deems just and proper” from the defendants.
Jarvis and Musskopf said the lawsuit is not about money, though.
“I hope it causes change for other people’s lives,” Jarvis said. “I don’t want anyone else to go through what we are going through.”
Musskopf agreed.
“I want them to make safety changes for their employees so this never happens again,” Musskopf said.
“Hopefully by filing this lawsuit, they (MoDOT) will do the right thing and I won’t be getting pictures daily of workers unprotected.”
The lawsuit says MoDOT did not follow its “non-discretionary rules, policies and procedures mandating the placement of a protective vehicle any time workers are physically working within a lane of traffic.”
The accident report said at about 11 a.m., the MoDOT employees were behind one of the department’s 2013 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 trucks in the right turn lane on a ramp, with the vehicle’s emergency lights on, and McFadden, in a 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier, drove through the construction zone and hit Anderson, Brooks and Brown, as well as the rear of the truck.
The lawsuit says Anderson was crouched down placing lane-control arrows within the traffic lane closest to the shoulder on northbound Hwy. 231 when the Cavalier drove into the work site. She was thrown onto the shoulder by the impact and suffered significant head trauma with open fractures to her skull.
The lawsuit claims McFadden was “negligent, careless, reckless” and didn’t take “proper precautions for his health.”
“MoDOT has not followed its own rules, even after this has occurred,” said Andrew Gregory Mundwiller of the Cagle Law Firm in St. Louis, who is representing Musskopf and Jarvis.
“There are photos that have been provided to me as well as through different social media outlets that show workers working unprotected after this incident.
“Obviously, they didn’t learn anything. We don’t want this to happen to anybody else. That is why the lawsuit has been filed. They are not being held accountable or correcting their behavior because they are hiding behind immunities.”
Brooks
Brigit Brooks, James Brooks’ wife, who was at the walk in Arnold, said she plans to file a civil lawsuit as well. Her attorney, Brent Sumner, said the suit will look nearly identical to the one filed by Musskopf and Jarvis.
“The substance of each claim is the same,” said Sumner of the Sumner Law Group of St. Louis. “We will file our own suit, but work in unison (with Musskopf and Jarvis). I just hope for justice for the family.
“This shouldn’t have happened. There are policies and procedures in place from MoDOT that were just ignored.”
Brigit Brooks, 62, of St. Louis said she does not know when her lawsuit will be filed. She also said she plans to create her own foundation in her husband’s memory and will support the Kait’s Love for Jaxx Foundation.
“This is beautiful,” she said of the walk. “I’m sure this is just the beginning. More needs to be done. I want to do more on my end for awareness of slowing down and moving over for workers out in the field. That is what it is about.”
Work for change
Bills in the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate have been filed to change employers’ responsibility for employees’ safety.
If passed, Senate Bill 1188 and House Bill 2831 would allow companies and public entities to be sued for punitive damages if an injury or death occurs because the employer did not follow its safety standards or those issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
The bill also would increase the compensation employees or their families could receive, and it would allow for compensation to be paid for an unborn child.
“The sad part about all of this is the only way to get a corporation, state entity or anyone to remotely acknowledge you is to sue them for money,” Musskopf said.
“It shouldn’t be that way. Just do the right thing from the beginning.”