Poorly maintained roads contribute to thousands of deaths and millions of injuries each year. According to a landmark study commissioned by the Transportation Construction Coalition, On a Crash Course: The Dangers and Health Costs of Deficient Roadways these worrisome statistics proved true for the year 2006.
- Poor road conditions contributed to over 5.3 million crashes
- Defective roadways caused over 2.1 million injuries
- America’s bad roads caused over 22,000 fatalities
It boils down to this: subpar roadways lead to lost lives that could have been spared, and are a serious public concern that costs our nation billions of dollars. Truck accidents caused by defective roadways can be some of the most devastating.
Hazardous Types of Roadway Defects
A roadway is considered defective when it’s poorly built, poorly designed, or poorly maintained. Below are some of the types of errors on roadways that can increase the risk of traffic accidents.
- Potholes
- Cracked and raised pavement
- Uneven road surfaces and shoulder drop-offs
- Low visibility
- Lack of guardrails
- Defective traffic lights that are poorly timed or that malfunction
- Flooding
- Lack of signage
- Road conditions that are inadequate for the volume of traffic (congestion)
The Complexities of Truck Crashes Caused by Roadway Defects
Truck accidents that were caused or worsened by defective roadways are extremely complex cases. First, truck accidents tend to cause a lot of damage to passenger cars, and even fatalities, and poor roadways exacerbate matters. Claims with a high dollar value are much more likely to be refuted or lowballed by the trucking company, as well.
Second, whereas when a truck driver is at fault, you can usually hold the carrier liable for damages, in a defective roadway-related accident, you’re not fighting against a company, but rather a government entity. The government has built-in immunity laws that shield itself from a lot of liabilities that make it exceedingly tough for victims to recover compensation.
However, there are certain cases, including traffic accidents, in which you do have a legal remedy to hold the government responsible for damages you sustained because of poorly built, maintained, or designed roads.
Keep in mind that when filing a claim against the government, there are extremely rigid rules and timeline in which you have to follow. Your case might be further complicated by more than one party that’s liable, i.e., the city and the truck company. Perhaps the truck was improperly loaded and then it hit a grossly large pothole, dumping the unsecured load on the roadway, creating an unavoidable obstacle which you hit. Defective roadway-related truck accidents are complicated but they can be won, usually with the help of a defective roadway truck accident lawyer.
Contacting a Truck Crash Lawyer that Handles Roadway Cases
If you or your loved one was hurt in a truck accident caused by defective road conditions, you will want to contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible to go over your options and to take action. For a truck accident attorney in Ohio that handles unique cases of this nature, call Bressman Law at 877-538-1116 and schedule a free consultation.