Effective - 28 Aug 1996
304.044. Buses and trucks not to follow within three hundred feet — penalty. — 1. The following terms as used in this section shall mean:
(1) "Bus", any vehicle or motor car designed and used for the purpose of carrying more than seven persons;
(2) "Truck", any vehicle, machine, tractor, trailer or semitrailer, or any combination thereof, propelled or drawn by mechanical power and designed or used in the transportation of property upon the highways.
2. The driver of any truck or bus, when traveling upon a public highway of this state outside of a business or residential district, shall not follow within three hundred feet of another such vehicle; provided, the provisions of this section shall not be construed to prevent the overtaking and passing, by any such truck or bus, of another similar vehicle.
3. Any person who shall violate the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a class C misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished accordingly.
--------
(L. 1951 p. 694 §§ 1 to 3, A.L. 1996 H.B. 1047)
(1959) The purpose of § 304.044 is not only to provide sufficient space between vehicles to permit lighter vehicles to pass but it is also intended for the protection of forward trucks and those following as well as the drivers and passengers therein. Thus violations of the statute under the circumstances was the negligent proximate cause of an accident. Thebeau v. Thebeau (Mo.), 324 S.W.2d 674.