JETX said:
For example, in this case, you do NOT know if the accident:
- happened at night, or
- happened at the top of a rise in the road, or
- whether this happened on a highway where 50 mph would be a very reasonable, and safe, speed.
Correct because OP makes 1 post and doesn't even ask a question. Most people will describe their accident inserting things that might be favorable. OP doesn't say, it was night or a bend in the road or just over a rise. If you drive in rural communities, often times the roads have high speed limits but you must also be aware that livestock may be present on the roads and drive accordingly. MO does allow livestock to be driven along the highways. OP only tells us a cow walked out on the road and he was going 50 miles an hour when he hit the cow.
The post by 'babymakesone' is absolutely correct in his/her referring the OP to the Missouri website. And the fact that there is such a website about liability for animals on the highway or roadways.... is further proof to anyone with a reasonable mind that this is NOT uncommon.... nor indicative of 'traveling at an unsafe speed'.
Then you didn't go and actually read what was on the site? If you did you would see that there is provision to determine fault, in this case OP fails to explain anything he did to avoid the situation or anything that prevented him from avoiding it or any specific reason the owner of the cow was negligent.
"Animals on the highway
Generally, animals are on the highway either because they strayed from confinement or because they were being driven along or across the highway. Several variations can arise in this context.
If you are negligent in maintaining your fences and allow your animals to escape onto the highway, your liability exposure is increased.
You can be liable to motorists using the highway for damages that occur when they collide with such animals, provided the driver himself was not negligent. You are also liable if the fences are in good repair, but you keep animals you know are capable of jumping or breaking out of the fence you maintain.
Liability is also possible when fences are adequate and in good repair and the animals, not being known to be capable of breaking out, do escape. If the owner knows the animals have escaped and fails to remove the animals from the highway within a reasonable period of time, he must respond in damages to those on the highway who are harmed. Again the theory behind your liability is negligence — failing to drive the animals off the highway under circumstances when an ordinarily reasonable and prudent person could have foreseen a risk of injury to motorists or to others.
If cattle escape and cause damage but the owner is not negligent, Missouri law may still impose liability upon the owner. In some states, courts require the owner to be at fault before being held liable. Other states impose liability for damage caused by animals regardless of the innocence of the owner.
Missouri appears to be somewhere between these two extremes. Missouri courts have said that if animals stray onto a highway and are involved in an accident, the law presumes negligence on the part of the owner of the animals. To avoid liability in such a situation, the owner must prove that he or she was not negligent or that the driver of the motor vehicle was himself negligent, and that this negligence on the part of the driver was a contributing cause of the accident."
I assumed the later based on experience driving in rural communities where livestock may be encounterd on the highway and that OP said nothing to indicate an excuse other than to speed at whch he hit the cow. If OP had stayed around we might have some answers.
