Chief’s doctor admits guilty and accepts $2,000 fine after critically striking ‘Good Samaritan’

Michael Monaco, a Kansas City Chiefs team doctor, pled guilty on Friday to misdemeanor careless driving after fatally striking a ‘Good Samaritan’ at the scene of a highway incident in November 2023.

Monaco struck and killed Robert Piper, 50, around 1:45 a.m. on November 6, near I-70 and I-470. Piper, who lived in Blue Springs, got out of his car to assist a Chevrolet Equinox that had flipped onto its back, according to the Independence Police Department.

The Equinox, driven by a 15-year-old without a driver’s license, collided with a rock embankment, swerved off I-70, and overturned back into the highway, according to The Star. The Equinox was found to have been stolen in Kansas City.

Piper attempted to assist the driver of the Equinox for almost three minutes, while several cars swerved around the accident. Monaco failed to brake while driving a Ford pickup truck, according to authorities. Piper and an Equinox occupant were pronounced deceased at the site.

Monaco agreed on Friday to pay a $2,000 fine. He will receive at least two and up to four points on his driver’s license. Prosecutors chose not to impose the one-year jail sentence that is possible for reckless driving infractions in Missouri.

The second victim, a teenager, has yet to be publicly recognized. Monaco is the Kansas City Chiefs’ team physician and specializes in internal medicine. He attended medical school at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

According to the Star, he was heading home from a Chiefs game in Germany against the Miami Dolphins. The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office called the fine as “the most appropriate outcome” in a statement issued Friday.

“Our sympathies go to the families of both victims, one who died young and promising and another who simply was trying to offer aid and comfort,” the attorneys stated. Piper’s family filed a lawsuit against Monaco in January, claiming that Monaco did not even try to brake and that eight other automobiles avoided hitting Piper.

The prosecutor’s office determined that Monaco was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when driving. The January lawsuit also claimed Monaco was weary, which was rejected by Ralph Monaco, Monaco’s lawyer and brother-in-law.

Ralph Monaco described the crash as a “unavoidable accident.” The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office reported that the driver of the Equinox was under the influence of marijuana. “Our community, especially young teens, should heed a life-and-death lesson here,” prosecutors wrote on Friday. “Underage drivers on drugs pose a deadly threat.”

Traffic accidents in Missouri are more likely to involve younger drivers than drunk drivers, but the latter are more deadly.

According to state data, 25% of motor vehicle incidents in Missouri between November 2023 and May 2024 had a younger driver, with alcohol or drugs accounting for 3.9%. Since November 2023, 43 individuals have died in collisions involving younger drivers in the state, while 50 have died in crashes involving drugs or alcohol.