The parents of a 14-year-old girl who died last year in a rollover crash with a utility terrain vehicle on a December 2019 snow day have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
Edwardsville attorney Ryan Sweet of Swanson & Sackett PC filed the complaint June 29 on behalf of Kristi DiMarco and Chris DiMarco, individually and as co-administrators of the estate of Alexis DiMarco. The suit was filed against Forrest K. Lerch, Breese Lawn & Garden, Kim Pamatot, individually and as trustee for the Louis F. Keller Trust, Lerch Properties LLC, Lerch Properties Enterprises LLC, Lerch Property Investments LLC, Polaris Acceptance Inc., Polaris Inc., Polaris Sales Inc., and Triple Lakes Farm LLC.
Alexis “Lexi” DiMarco was a student at Collinsville Middle School at the time of the Dec. 16, 2019, crash.
“She enjoyed playing competitive soccer, spending time with friends and making silly videos. Lexi had a contagious personality and loved to make people laugh. She was her mommy’s world and everyone who knew her, loved her,” her obituary states.
According to the lawsuit, Lexi DiMarco attended a sleepover with Lerch’s minor daughter, M.L., on Dec. 15, 2019, at their home on Keebler Road in Collinsville. Between Dec. 15 and Dec. 16, which was a Monday, there was approximately five to nine inches of snowfall in the St. Louis Metro East area. As a result, local schools were canceled for a snow day on Dec. 16.
Sometime around 11:18 a.m. on Dec. 16, Lexi DiMarco spoke with her mother, Kristi DiMarco, and was advised not to travel to M.L.’s mother’s home in Edwardsville due to the winter weather. Sweet wrote that it was determined that Lexi DiMarco would spend the day with M.L. at Lerch’s home, which was less than a mile from the DiMarco home in Maryville.
“At said time, Ms. DiMarco entrusted Lerch with the continued care and control of Lexi,” Sweet wrote. "At no time during this conversation was the subject of riding in a UTV ever contemplated.”
Lerch owned three utility terrain vehicles (UTV) including a 2019 Polaris Ranger XP 1000 Crew. At some point between the time Lexi spoke with her mother and 3:08 p.m., Lerch entrusted his unlicensed, minor daughter with driving the Ranger. He allegedly failed to contact Kristi DiMarco to seek permission allowing her daughter to ride as a passenger in the Ranger.
The suit states that Lexi rode as the front passenger in the UTV driven by M.L. and two other juvenile female passengers. At the same time, Lerch drove another UTV with an adult male business associate as his sole passenger. None of the minors were provided with helmets.
“Instead of driving, Lerch tasked his unlicensed, fourteen-year-old daughter with driving this ‘Extreme Performance,’ 1,900-pound, 82 HP vehicle under blizzard like conditions with three juvenile passengers,” Sweet wrote.
Lerch allegedly led an expedition from his house down Old Keebler Road and onto State Route 157, where they gained access to a levee on the Burdick Branch of the Cahokia Canal. Lerch led the minors west on the levee where they turned south onto the Cahokia Canal levee. They allegedly rode the levee south the entire length of Collinsville farmland known as Keller Farm. They road past Arlington Greens Golf Course, the suit states.
When the group turned to return to Lerch’s home, they made the same route on top of the levees with Lerch trailing the UTV driven by M.L. Approximately six miles into their journey, M.L. lost control of the UTV while on the Keller Farm. The UTV slid off the levee and rolled onto its passenger side. Lexi DiMarco was partially ejected from the vehicle. When the UTV came to a stop, the roll bar was allegedly on Lexi DiMarco's head, pinning her face-down in the snow for over six minutes. Due to the remote location and wintery conditions, it took first responders roughly 15 minutes to arrive on the scene. She was transported to Anderson Hospital by Glen Carbon EMS, where she was pronounced dead at 5:22 p.m. The suit states that her cause of death was determined to be blunt head and chest trauma.
Sweet wrote that Lerch negligently and carelessly permitted Lexi DiMarco to be placed in circumstances that endangered her life and allowed M.L. to operate the UTV, “whose incompetency, inexperience or recklessness should have been known by Lerch.”
Lerch is also accused of failing to properly control or supervise his unlicensed, minor daughter’s operation of the UTV, failing to appropriately train her in the safe operation of the UTV, and allowing his daughter to operate the UTV in a careless manner and at a rate of speed too fast for conditions.
The suit states that Pamatot owns 23.94 percent interest in the Keller Farm, and the Louis F. Keller Trust owns 76.06 percent interest in the farm. Pamatot allegedly publicly avails the farm for use by hunters and fishermen in exchange for “consideration.”
Pamatot is accused of failing to properly control or supervise the use of the farm, failing to appropriately train invitees in the safe operation of the farm, permitting an unlicensed minor child to operate the UTV on the farm, failing to provide adequate warnings to people traversing the farm, failing to provide protective barriers along the levee, and permitting invitees to drive UVs on the levee.
The Polaris defendants are accused of manufacturing and selling an unstable UTV that was defective in design, causing it to have a propensity to overturn under normal operating conditions. The UTV also allegedly contained a flawed occupant restraint system and lacked a throttle limiting device for unrestrained front seat passengers.