The lawsuit claims Edmonson had her “bright future brutally ripped away” by the crash, which “was completely preventable”
A Tennessee teenager who had both of her legs amputated after she was hit by a car while attending a volleyball tournament in St. Louis, Mo., is suing the city as well as others who were allegedly behind the accident, according to several outlets.
Janae Edmonson, 18, was walking to a hotel in downtown St. Louis with her family when she was pinned between two vehicles after one driver allegedly ran through a yield sign.
That driver who allegedly caused the crash, 21-year-old Daniel Riley, was arrested shortly after the collision. He has been charged with three counts of assault, one count of operating a vehicle without a valid driver’s license and one count of armed criminal action, according to online court records reviewed by . He has pleaded not guilty.
Riley was reportedly on house arrest and had a GPS monitoring bracelet — placed on him while he was out on bond in connectino with a 2020 armed robbery case — at the time of the accident, according to local news station KSDK.
The lawsuit was filed in St. Louis court on Tuesday by attorneys Kevin Carnie Jr. and Robert Blitz on behalf of Edmonson. It names the City of St. Louis, along with Riley, his mother, a rent-a-car business and the driver of the other car, Elizabeth Smith, as defendants, per the lawsuit obtained by KSDK.
The filing, which is available to view on the outlet, alleges Riley violated the terms of his house arrest by letting his GPS monitoring bracelet battery die and broke house arrest more than 50 times before the alleged crash.
His mother was also named in the suit for allegedly letting her son drive the car despite knowing about his “habitual recklessness,” and Smith was also named for allegedly driving with a suspended license.
The lawsuit also accused the City of St. Louis for not properly maintaining its signage on the intersection where the crash happened, saying that it should have done its due diligence to prevent speeding at the intersection by putting a stop sign instead of a yield sign.
“Janae Edmondson, had her bright future brutally ripped away when she was crushed between two vehicles following a car crash, leading to amputation of both her legs,” the lawsuit said, per the outlet, adding that the crash “was completely preventable.”
The incident also turned a spotlight on the office of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, which many blamed for letting Riley roam free despite multiple house arrest violations, per Associated Press. She resigned in May.
Edmondson’s attorney, Kevin Carnie, told St. Louis Post-Dispatch that they were “weighing the possibility” of adding Gardner and the St. Louis Attorney’s office to the lawsuit.
Per the publication, a hearing date has not yet been set for the lawsuit.
A GoFundMe has been created to help aid Edmondson’s recovery.