The City of St. Louis is an independent city. It is not part of St. Louis County, and courts and crash records treat it as its own county. That one fact decides where your case is filed, which police department holds your crash report and which notice rules apply if the City itself is at fault.

A claim over a city street, sidewalk or bike path can require written notice to the mayor within 90 days. Five years to sue does not help if that notice was never sent.

Where Will My Case Be Filed?

In the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, the 22nd Judicial Circuit. Missouri’s venue statute says that when a plaintiff was first injured in Missouri, a tort case goes in the county where the injury happened (RSMo 508.010.4). You are “first injured” where the trauma occurred, not where symptoms showed up later (RSMo 508.010.14).

Civil cases are heard at 10 N. Tucker Blvd. downtown. The building was long called the Civil Courts Building. The City renamed it in 2024 for Judge Clyde S. Cahill, Jr. (City Ordinance 71921), and the court now calls it the Clyde S. Cahill Courts Building.

A crash on Kingshighway is a city case. A crash just across the city limits is usually a St. Louis County case filed in Clayton. If you are not sure which side of the line you were on, the crash report will say.

How Do I Get My Crash Report?

Most crashes in the city are worked by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. You have three ways to get the report.

  • Online, through the SLMPD public records portal. You can submit the request, track it and message the department there.
  • In person at the Records Service Center, 1915 Olive St., 1st floor, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Bring state photo ID or a passport.
  • By mail to SLMPD, Attn: Sunshine Law Unit, 1915 Olive St., St. Louis, MO 63103. The unit’s number is (314) 444-5388.

SLMPD’s posted fees are $15 an hour, prorated, to locate a report, plus 10 cents a page. The department says crash reports are usually approved within five days. Its daily accident list online covers the last 31 days, and it asks you to allow three business days after the crash before you look.

If a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper worked the crash instead, wait 10 days, then file the Patrol’s records request form. A basic report costs $6.00, paid by check or money order. The Patrol does not take cash.

Which Hospitals Treat Serious Injuries in the City?

Four of Missouri’s Level I trauma centers are inside city limits, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Barnes-Jewish Hospital and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital treat adults. St. Louis Children’s Hospital and SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital treat children.

Ask for your records from the trauma center early. The ambulance run sheet, the emergency department notes and the imaging are the first proof of how badly you were hurt.

Where Do the Serious Crashes Happen?

East-West Gateway, the region’s planning agency, studied every reported crash from 2018 to 2022. The city had 315 fatal crashes and 1,552 serious injury crashes in those five years. Fatal crashes rose from 49 in 2018 to 69 in 2022. Speeding was the leading factor in fatal and serious injury crashes, followed by failure to yield and running signals or signs.

About 19 percent of those fatal and serious injury crashes were on the interstates. The rest were on city streets, and 81 percent of the street crashes happened within 150 feet of an intersection, well above the regional share of 67 percent.

The agency’s priority lists name the same roads again and again. City segments of I-70 rank first, third and sixth among the region’s interstate corridors. I-44 from Walnut St. to the Stan Musial Bridge ranks second. On surface streets, West Florissant Ave. from Acme to Emerson ranks first in the whole eight-county region, Natural Bridge from Shreve to Prairie ranks fourth, and Kingshighway from West Florissant to Cote Brilliante ranks sixth. Kingshighway at St. Louis Ave. and Grand at Montgomery top the city’s intersection list.

Gravois is a state highway, Route 30. MoDOT counted 22 deaths, 8 of them pedestrians, and 77 serious injuries on its 5.7 miles in the city from 2020 to 2024, and it is studying a redesign. Jefferson, Kingshighway, Grand and Union are among the arterials in the City’s $46 million traffic safety program.

What About Pedestrians and Cyclists?

Walking in the city is dangerous, and it has been getting worse. From 2018 to 2022, East-West Gateway counted 339 fatal and serious injury crashes involving pedestrians. About 29 percent of all fatal crashes in the city involved a pedestrian, and 72 percent of fatal pedestrian crashes happened after dark, most of them on streets that had lights.

Trailnet’s analysis of state crash records found 23 pedestrians killed in the city in 2024, the most on record. Its report pointed to Grand, Kingshighway, Broadway and Gravois.

Cyclists face an added trap. In 2024 the Missouri Supreme Court held that a bike path in Forest Park is a “thoroughfare,” so the 90-day notice to the City applied to a cyclist’s injury claim (Sender v. City of St. Louis, No. SC100110).

Can I Bring a Claim Against the City?

Sometimes. Missouri keeps sovereign immunity for public bodies but waives it in two situations that matter after a crash (RSMo 537.600).

  • Motor vehicles. Injuries caused by a public employee’s negligent driving within the course of the job, such as a city truck or a police car.
  • Dangerous conditions of public property. You must show the property was dangerous, the condition caused the injury, the risk was foreseeable, and either a public employee created it or the City knew or should have known in time to fix it.

Recovery is capped. The statute sets $300,000 per person and $2 million per occurrence, adjusted each year (RSMo 537.610). For 2026 the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance lists $532,148 per person and $3,547,658 per occurrence. Punitive damages are not allowed against a public entity.

There is also a deadline that comes much sooner than five years. In a city of 100,000 or more, a person hurt by a defect in a bridge, boulevard, street, sidewalk or thoroughfare must give the mayor written notice within 90 days, stating where and when it happened, how, and that damages will be claimed (RSMo 82.210).

Check who owns the road. Gravois (Route 30), Natural Bridge (Route 115) and parts of Broadway (Route 231) are state routes, so a road-defect claim there may be against MoDOT rather than the City.

What If a MetroBus or MetroLink Train Was Involved?

Metro Transit is run by Bi-State Development, a compact agency created by Missouri and Illinois. The Missouri Supreme Court treats it as a public entity for sovereign immunity, so its immunity is waived for negligent driving by its employees and the same per-person cap applies (Moore v. Bi-State Development Agency, No. SC98169, 2020).

A MetroLink case has to fit one of the same exceptions, and which one depends on how the crash happened. Bus and train video, operator records and maintenance logs are kept on the agency’s schedule, not yours. Ask for them in writing early.

What Happens After You Call?

We start with the facts. We pull the SLMPD or Patrol report, find the 911 recording, and look for cameras along the corridor before they record over the footage.

We send preservation letters to the drivers, their insurers, any employer, and Bi-State or the City when a public vehicle or a public street is part of the story. If the City may be responsible, we prepare the written notice to the mayor so the 90-day window does not close on you.

We identify every policy that might apply: the other driver’s liability coverage, an employer’s coverage, and your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Then we tell you plainly what we found.

Our office is in Clayton, about ten minutes west of downtown. Call The Injury Counsel at (314) 727-7220 for a free, confidential consultation.