KC family was hurt in police chase. The settlement didn’t even cover their medical bills [The Kansas City Star]

When Kearra Adams awoke from a coma in a Kansas City hospital, she could not remember what had happened to her.

She could not speak because of the tubes that were helping her breathe.

She did not yet know just how much her life had been changed when, three weeks before, the truck she was riding in with her longtime boyfriend and 13-year-old daughter was hit by a driver fleeing police in a high-speed chase on an icy, rain-slicked road.

Adams and her family were on their way home from grocery shopping about 8 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2018, when they were hit by a driver who was being chased by Independence police. She later learned that police were not pursuing the driver for a violent felony or major crime, but only because of a suspicious encounter at a motel.

Independence police had continued the chase across city limits until it ended with the crash in Kansas City.

Adams, 45, suffered 12 broken ribs, a pair of collapsed lungs, a crushed femur, a broken jaw and numerous broken bones in her foot.

She spent three months in the hospital and underwent eight surgeries.

Her daughter, Tranae, was left with a broken back, broken wrists, dislocated hip and cuts and bruises on her face and arms. Adams’ boyfriend, Jeremy Aldridge, had a broken leg, multiple fractures and bruises. The bone in his right arm was dislocated and snapped in half.

The family’s medical bills totaled more than $2 million. Adams’s portion of those medical expenses alone was about $1.3 million.

Nearly five years later, many of their bills are still unpaid. Their lifelong debilitating injuries also remain.

“I’m still hurting. I’m still on muscle relaxers. My legs swell up,” Adams said. “So I’m self-conscious about my voice because of the trachea and my scars. I’m still in pain, that’s the biggest thing. I still have daily pain.”

“My life will never be the same,” she said.

The kind of high-speed police chase that permanently altered Adams’ life is more common in Independence than in any other city in the Kansas City area, according to a monthslong investigation by The Star.

In 2022, Independence police were involved in 330 vehicle chases. Forty-six of the chases ended in crashes, injuring 17 including six innocent victims.

Crashes resulting from Independence police chases have left 105 people, including police officers, injured since 2018. Eight civilians were killed.

Some of the chases with the largest numbers of civilian casualties shared common traits with the Adams crash: the decision by police to chase over a minor matter and to cross city limits, and the firmness of police officials’ insistence that the officers bore no responsibility for the outcome.

In endorsing high-speed chases for virtually any reason, without limits, Independence’s policy is more permissive than those of many other police agencies in the metro. And it is at odds with the guidance from national law enforcement experts who say it is only worth the risk for violent crimes and situations of imminent danger to the public.

During an interview in the fall, Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman said the community expects officers to enforce the laws and hold accountable those who come to the city to commit crimes.

Dustman said the injuries that happened to the Adams family were unfortunate. But he maintained that the responsibility lies with the suspect who fled from police.

“I’m sorry for their injuries, but it’s not the result of the police. The result of that is from the suspect and their actions. It wasn’t a police officer that hit their car,” he said.

“The officer didn’t intend for them to hit a car and have lifelong injuries. The intent is to get the violator to stop.”

High-speed chase into Kansas City

On the night of the crash, Independence Police Officer Alex Steele pulled his patrol car into the Sports Stadium Motel on East U.S. 40 Highway.

As recorded on his dashcam, the officer could see three people dressed in winter coats and ski caps huddled near an SUV, talking to the driver and a passenger inside.

Just as Steele drove up, the SUV accelerated out of the parking lot and sped southbound on U.S. 40 toward Blue Ridge Cutoff, leaving the three people outside the vehicle to step back.

Steele decided to chase the SUV. Speeds quickly climbed to 60 mph and then 70 mph.

With his siren blaring and his emergency lights activated, Steele radioed the police dispatcher.

“He’s past the stadium, no traffic ahead of us,” Steele said. “He’s still southbound. He’s still southbound. I see no traffic. He’s gone through, I believe, Raytown.”

Steele passed 10 vehicles on the rain-slick streets and highway during the six-minute chase.

Icy rain hit the windshield of Steele’s patrol car as he followed the SUV, which was driving without headlights, through multiple intersections and red lights.

As the chase continued, other motorists pulled to the side of the road.

“StarChase will not work,” Steele said, referring to an electronic device police deploy to track a vehicle remotely. “Did you copy that?”

At Interstate 435, the SUV headed north to Missouri 350 Highway, driving 85 mph. He then sped onto Blue Parkway.

Heading north on Blue Parkway, the SUV veered out of control, crossed the center line near Bellaire Avenue and collided head-on into the Adams’ Ford pickup, causing it to burst into flames.

“He just lost it. We need fire and ambulance. The vehicle is on fire,” Steele told the dispatcher.

The impact threw Tranae from the back seat to the front console between her parents. All three remained unconscious and trapped inside their mangled vehicle as Steele pulled up to the scene.

A passenger in the SUV was ejected and found unconscious near the wreckage.

Emergency crews rushed Adams to Research Medical Center. Tranae went to Children’s Mercy and Aldridge was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital.

The chase had lasted five minutes and 50 seconds, reaching a top speed near 90 mph.

“It was the first time he crossed the center line. That was the only time,” Steele said in a police report.

After the crash, in reports dated Jan. 8, 2018, Independence police said the SUV had been reported stolen out of Kansas City.

The report of the chase that was completed by Steele said he was patrolling the area when he pulled into the motel parking lot.

Steele reported that he began the chase after seeing what he thought was the SUV striking two men. It turned out that the SUV did not strike the two men, according to police.

Dennis J. Mead III, 18, was arrested and charged with resisting arrest. He was later convicted and sentenced to four years in a Missouri prison.

He was not charged with a crime related to the events leading to the police chase.

Steele maintains a valid Class A peace officer license with the Missouri Department of Public Safety. He had started working for the Independence Police Department on May 30, 2017, the year before the crash.

He left Aug. 17, 2022, about three years after the crash. Officer Jack Taylor, a police spokesman, declined to say whether Steele resigned or was terminated.

Steele could not be reached for comment on this story.

Attorneys who represented Steele in the civil lawsuit filed by the Adams family declined to comment.

Mounting medical bills, lost income

The collision happened so fast, Adams said, she only remembered seconds before the crash when she spoke to her daughter.

Adams has no recollection of the point of impact. No memory of fire crews removing her broken body from the wreckage and no memory of being rushed to the hospital.

Everything went blank as the SUV barreled towards them.

After waking up in the hospital with tubes in her throat to help her breathe, Adams had to learn how to speak again because of the strain on her vocal cords.

She still has difficulty walking and standing for long periods, which has restricted her ability to work at her job in the radiology department at Swope Health Center on Blue Parkway.

She can only work about six hours a day because of the fatigue and throbbing pain in her legs.

“By the time I get home from work, my whole leg is swollen and there’s nothing else I can do for the rest of the day,” she said.

Working fewer hours means Adams brings home less money.

Tranae, meanwhile, was homeschooled for several months while she recovered from her injuries.

Her teachers at Raytown Middle School brought over homework assignments and made sure she didn’t fall too far behind in her classes.

The medical records for Tranae run 25 pages. They include expenses such as $22,000 for surgery performed the day after the crash.

Another operation was done three days later and came to $96,480. Other medical expenses included $2,271 for a pediatric hip plate and about $1,600 for physical therapy sessions.

Adams’ personal insurance covered some of her medical expenses, but not all of them.

Adams said she has lost track of how much she paid out of pocket, but she does remember spending $200 to rent a wheelchair before she could leave the hospital.

She thinks about the crash often — especially when she’s driving.

“I can drive home from work, look down and realize that my hands are shaking,” she said. “And God forbids it if it’s dark. There is something about the dark when the lights are coming towards me. I have horrible anxiety. It’s like in my mind I am back in the hospital.”

Lawsuit settlement doesn’t cover costs

In November 2019, Adams filed a lawsuit against Steele and the Independence Police Department, citing “negligence and reckless” driving.

According to the lawsuit, Steele violated the Police Department’s pursuit policy when he initiated the chase and failed to get approval from his supervisors. It said Steele “exposed the public to unreasonable danger” when he failed to end the chase.

In 2021, the family settled their lawsuit with the city for $441,130 — the limit under Missouri’s sovereign immunity law, which caps how much government entities pay in liability cases.

The law requires the judge in civil cases to find that the settlement amount is fair and reasonable before approving it, according to the state law.

According to the Independence Police Department’s 18-page vehicle pursuit policy, officers have the discretion to chase a vehicle whenever they believe that a suspect is trying to avoid being detained or arrested. Officers are encouraged to terminate a chase if there’s risk to the public’s safety.

Dustman said police officers made 13,850 vehicle stops in 2022 and the 330 pursuits made up roughly 2% of those stops.

“If you come out here and you seek to disrupt the way of life in Independence, the peace and the rights of those that live here, our residents, our visitors, if you are seeking to engage in criminal activity, we’re going to hold you accountable,” Dustman said.

Geoffery P. Alpert, a criminology and criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina, has studied police pursuits for about 35 years. He said car chases are often more dangerous and deadly than other types of force used by police.

“These pursuits are all dangerous. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do them. It just means you need to restrict them,” Alpert told The Star. “And my line in the sand is a violent crime. In other words, you shouldn’t be risking people’s lives out there. Unless it’s a very serious offense for which the chase has begun.”

“You have to make your decisions on what you knew at the time about the individuals who are fleeing,” he said.

Looking into the future

Before the wreck, Adams said, their lives were full of endless possibilities.

Adams and her family enjoyed visits to the amusement park, bowling, exercising and spending their afternoons walking or relaxing in the park. Tranae played volleyball and often went roller skating.

“Now my hopes and dreams for me and my family is to live a life that is not dictated by pain or limitations,” Adams said.

Adams said she feels that the Independence Police Department or city leaders have ignored the dangers when officers chase suspects for minor infractions.

“They take no fault in the chase, no responsibility,” she said. “That’s why we had to fight so hard to get the little bit that we did because they said it wasn’t their fault.

“I’m upset with him (Mead) for running from the police,” Adams said. “But I blame the police, too, for chasing him on the ice and making him feel like he had to run. So much that they chased him from Independence to the inner city.”

After two innocent bystanders were killed in a police chase in March in Independence, Star reporters began looking into law enforcement pursuits in the Kansas City area. Over the next nine months, the reporters filed more than 140 public records requests with more than 60 local law enforcement agencies across the metro. They gathered police pursuit policies and documents recording chases, crashes and injuries over a period of five years.

Reporters also obtained investigative case files from serious and fatal wrecks, including dashboard camera recordings. They reviewed court documents from lawsuits and legal settlements. In all, the team examined more than 4,500 pages of documents, allowing them to identify patterns in police pursuits and practices in the metro.

They also spoke with more than 60 people, including innocent bystanders who were injured in police chases, families of victims killed in pursuits, police officials, attorneys and academics who have been studying the topic for decades. They interviewed a person in prison serving a sentence for killing four people in a crash during a police chase in 2018.

The project is published in a series of eight stories, with videos of interviews and crashes, as well as infographics showing the scope of police pursuits in the metro.

Katie Moore, Glenn E. Rice and Bill Lukitsch | Reporters

Emily Curiel and Nick Wagner | Visuals

Monty Davis | Video Editing

Neil Nakahodo | Illustrations & Design

David Newcomb | Development & Design

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