Improperly plowed road led to water polo coach’s death after car is unable to pull over, gets slammed into by semi-truck and goes off overpass: Lawsuit

The hubby of a respected h2o polo manager who died earlier this twelvemonth successful a clang with a semi-truck is suing the State of Missouri claiming an improperly plowed road led to her death.

Colleen Lischwe, 35, connected Jan. 15 was driving her 2011 Toyota Prius eastbound connected Interstate 44 erstwhile she had an contented that caused her to effort and propulsion implicit to the shoulder. However, due to the fact that determination was snowfall from a caller tempest connected the shoulder, she could not determination each the mode over, the suit filed May 8 said.

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The operator of a semi-truck traveling astir 65 mph down Lischwe seemingly did not spot her car and plowed into the backmost of her. Lischwe’s Prius went implicit the snowbank and fell from the overpass down onto the metropolis thoroughfare below. She suffered “severe facial and caput trauma” and monolithic interior bleeding, the suit said, which led to her death.

Now Lischwe’s hubby Casey Colgan is suing the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission (MHTC) for negligence, saying it failed to travel its ain policies erstwhile removing snowfall from highways.

“Defendant MHTC, acting by and done its employees and agents, caused the information of nationalist road connected which Decedent was injured to beryllium unsafe and unsafe for the public, and was negligent and breached its duties of attraction successful respective respects,” the suit states.

The committee knew oregon should person known that improperly paved snowfall could make ramps on the highway, making an “unreasonable hazard of wounded to the public” including Lischwe.

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It does not specify an magnitude of damages Colgan is seeking but includes ceremonial expenses and symptom and suffering. The Department of Transportation declined to remark erstwhile reached by local CBS affiliate KMOV.

Lischwe was the caput manager for the men’s and women’s h2o polo squad astatine McKendree University, a NCAA Division II schoolhouse successful Lebanon, Illinois. The interaction was dense connected her student-athletes.

“Colleen embodied what it means to beryllium a servant person and cherished her opportunities to thatch and make young men and women. She was a adjacent person and workfellow to many, and helped to make the peculiar enslaved that exists wrong the McKendree community,” the schoolhouse said successful a press release.

After paying h2o polo astatine Marist College successful New York, she became caput manager of the Bearcat programme successful 2016.

In summation to Colgan, she near down a 3-year-old daughter.

“She loved each her athletes and challenged them to make beardown quality and respect for 1 another, alongside the method skills and strategies of the game,” her obituary said.

A GoFundMe raised implicit $100,000 for her family.