The north county corridor, where this desk takes its readings.

Every notebook has a location written inside the front cover, and this one says north county. The Lab is based in the part of the St. Louis metro that sits above the city, where I-270 bends across the top of the county on its way to the river and Lindbergh Boulevard cuts through Hazelwood and Florissant on its way to the airport. This entry is about the corridor as a place where crashes happen and where an exam is within reach.

I-270: the top of the loop

I-270 is the outer loop's northern arc. It carries the commute from St. Charles County across the Missouri River, past the airport interchange, through Hazelwood at Lindbergh and McDonnell, and on to the Mississippi, where it crosses into Illinois at the New Chain of Rocks Bridge. The Lab's notebook fills fastest from this road. Rear-end impacts in stop-and-go traffic near the interchanges are the single most common crash story the desk hears, and the neck readings that follow, described in the crash week entry, are the ones the Lab knows best.

The bridge itself is worth a note. The old Chain of Rocks Bridge, the one with the bend in the middle, is a pedestrian and bicycle crossing now. The interstate runs on the newer bridge just upstream. Traffic on it moves fast, the approach is long, and the lanes are narrow for a road that carries that much.

Lindbergh: the spine of Hazelwood

Lindbergh Boulevard, US 67, runs north from the airport through Hazelwood, with the I-270 interchange near the middle of it. It is a commercial arterial: shopping centers, turn lanes, signals every few hundred yards, and the kind of left-turn-across-traffic crash that produces a side impact and a neck that was turned at the moment of the hit. The headrest entry is about why the head's position at impact matters.

The clinic's North County room is on Lindbergh's side of Hazelwood, at 14 Village Square Shop Ctr, Hazelwood, MO 63042. From the I-270 and Lindbergh interchange it is a short drive. From Florissant, Black Jack, Bridgeton, or the airport area, it is the closest of the three rooms. The phone is (314) 627-1411. Hours are Monday through Thursday 9 to 6, Friday 9 to 12, closed daily from 12 to 2.

Where the ER is and where the clinic is

The Lab does not list hospitals, because it does not publish facts it cannot keep current. What it does say, on every page, is the bright line. Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic. If you are on I-270 or Lindbergh with those symptoms, the nearest emergency room is the destination and the clinic can wait. The clinic is for planned care: an exam inside the week, findings, a written plan. The two are not in competition and the order is not negotiable.

The Lab's rule for picking a room

Pick the room you can drive to this week. For this desk that is usually Hazelwood. For someone in Affton or Oakville it is Tesson Ferry, at 11144 Tesson Ferry Road, Suite 200, (314) 530-5480. For someone in Wentzville or Lake St. Louis it is O'Fallon, at 2163 West Terra Lane, (636) 280-0990. The rooms entry has all three in full with hours. A neck that hurts to turn does not want forty minutes of I-270 when a room is ten minutes away, and the exam is identical in all three: a history, an exam, findings, and a written plan, published as the clinic's auto injury lane and run by Joseph L. Hollingsworth, DC.

What the desk hears

The corridor's crash stories have a shape. Stop-and-go on 270 near the airport, a glance at the phone in the car behind, a hit at low speed that did not even deploy an airbag. A left turn off Lindbergh into a shopping center, a car that did not stop for the yellow, a side impact with the driver's head turned toward the turn. A morning on the bridge in the rain. In nearly every story, the driver felt fine at the scene and the readings arrived the next day. The Lab has stopped being surprised by that, and the protocol has not changed: a change after a crash is a reading, and the reading gets examined inside the week.

Disclosure. This page is advertising. This desk is compensated for featuring Missouri Injury Clinic, and it is not the clinic, not a law office, and not a party to anyone's insurance claim. We publish only the lanes, rooms, and hours the clinic publishes on moinjuryclinic.com. We do not write reviews, rank providers, or give medical or legal advice. This entry is educational and is not medical advice.