On April 1, 2023, the traffic light at Morgan Ford Road and River Des Peres Boulevard fell onto a car driving past — and that’s no April Fool’s joke.
Milo Rankins, of the city’s Carondelet neighborhood, filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis last week saying that it had a duty to maintain the intersection and be aware that its traffic lights were at risk of falling. When the light struck Rankins’ Kia Optima, the suit says, it completely shattered its back window and did a good deal of damage to the sun roof as well.
Rankins, who is represented by attorney Ben Sansone, says in his lawsuit he suffered injuries and damages exceeding $25,000.
The luck involved in the timing of the accident goes from extraordinarily bad to cosmically bad when you factor in the fact that, according to his lawsuit, Rankins’ vehicle was moving at the time it was struck. He had been driving south on Morgan Ford and was making a right onto River Des Peres when the light atop Des Peres crashed onto his car.