It was supposed to be an ordinary Friday morning. Ava Mitchell, a local teacher in Kansas City, was driving to work when a chain-reaction crash on I-70 changed everything. “I heard brakes screeching behind me — and then impact, one after another,” she recalls.
The six-car pileup left her trapped in her vehicle, with fractured ribs and lasting anxiety. “In that moment, I wasn’t thinking about insurance or lawsuits,” she says. “I was just praying someone would pull me out.”
Weeks later, reality set in — medical bills piling up, insurance adjusters calling, and confusion over who was at fault. “They kept asking who hit me first,” Ava says. “But in a multi-car accident, there’s never just one answer.” That’s when she reached out to a Kansas City car accident attorney known for handling complex, multi-vehicle cases.
Unraveling the Legal Maze of Multi-Car Accidents
Her attorney began by reconstructing the entire crash sequence. Using police reports, dashcam footage, and eyewitness statements, they traced how one distracted driver caused the initial collision that triggered the rest. “It was like solving a puzzle,” Ava recalls. “Every detail mattered — tire marks, impact points, even weather.”
Missouri law allows victims to recover damages even if they share partial fault, through its comparative negligence system. Ava didn’t know that. “I thought if they blamed me even one percent, I’d get nothing,” she says. “My lawyer explained that wasn’t true.” Understanding the law gave her hope. “They protected me from making desperate decisions when I was scared.”
Fighting Insurance Tactics
Insurance companies tried to minimize payouts, claiming her injuries were “soft-tissue” and temporary. Her auto accident lawyer in Kansas City pushed back, gathering MRI scans and expert medical opinions. “They fought for every detail — even emotional distress,” Ava says. “They made the invisible pain visible.”
After months of negotiations, Ava won a settlement that covered her treatment and car replacement. But what she values most was empowerment. “Before the accident, I was terrified of legal systems. Now I understand them. My lawyer made me feel human again.”
Today, she advocates for safe driving education and volunteers with trauma survivors. “Accidents break things you can’t see — confidence, trust, peace,” she says. “But with the right support, you can rebuild all of them.”
