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| Car Accidents Caused by Bad Road Conditions |
Involved in an Accident because of Poor Road Conditions?
Even the best driver who pays particular attention to how they drive, ensuring speed limits are obeyed while they are behind the wheel, maintaining their car’s operability and adhering to traffic laws can run into trouble on the road that leads to accidents. Such trouble may be found in bad road conditions like potholes, deteriorating roads and missing guard rails. When an accident occurs because of these issues, who is liable for the accident?
Proving liability in cases of car accidents caused by poor
road conditions can be very difficult. But an experienced personal injury
attorney is able to help you ensure that liability and accountability fall on
the responsible parties, instead of your own shoulders. Negligence of others
should not result in you having to pay for injuries or damages. An auto
accident and personal injury lawyer can help you gain compensation for these
expenses from the people and businesses liable for your accident.
Proving Road Conditions Caused Your Accident
To prove that road conditions are the cause of your auto
accident, the following issues must be determined:
·
Responsibility
for road maintenance: A variety of government agencies may be responsible
for the road’s upkeep. These may include local, state, county and federal
governments. Responsibility can overlap according to the type of maintenance
needed. You must determine which agency is responsible in order to know who can
be held liable through a lawsuit.
·
Road
maintenance negligence: After determining which agency is responsible for
road maintenance, you must then prove that the agency had awareness of the road
condition problem and did not repair it as they are obligated.
·
Confirming
how injury or damages were caused: When you are the plaintiff in this type
of case, you must also prove that the injuries and damages you suffered were
due to the poor road conditions and not other causes, such as your own fault.
This is not easy when there are no other witnesses or evidence backing up your
claim. Weather and other issues, such as your own driving, can be blamed by the
defendant for your accident.
·
Whether
the agency or entity is eligible for suit: Most government agencies have
sovereign immunity. This means that they cannot be directly sued for damages.
But there are exceptions to this rule under some circumstances, such as in
gross negligence in roadway maintenance. There are also statutes of limitations
which will apply to your injury claims. These statutes are usually from 180
days to two years in duration. When suits are filed after the deadline, it will
not be heard in court.
What Causes Unsafe Road Conditions that Lead to Accidents?
Unsafe road conditions can be caused by one factor or many.
There may be a multitude of issues that lead to an accident, such as potholes
combining with icy weather to create problems for cars on a road. Or individual
issues like a pothole can create problems leading to an accident, in and of
themselves.
Gaining funding for road maintenance is always difficult and
requires a great deal of time for the money to be appropriated by the
government. As previously mentioned, multiple levels of the government may be
involved in maintenance of one particular road and all of these entities must
cooperate and coordinate for road maintenance to go smoothly. Once funding is
approved, repair of roads can take a long time for project completion.
Government funding is important to our country’s
infrastructure. Bridges, overpasses, roads, guard rails, rest areas, signage
and other aspects of the transportation realm are managed and maintained using
government funds. When roads become even slightly damaged, major accidents can
occur. These accidents may be single car mishaps or involve dozens of vehicles.
Regardless of whether one car or many car are part of a road
condition-induced auto accident, injuries and even death can result. These
risks to human life make appropriation of government funds to road maintenance
projects very important. When the funds are provided, it is equally important
that the maintenance is performed. As road travelers, we rely on these
processes occurring as they should, when they should and how they should be
conducted.
The average American road built today lasts about 20 years.
Throughout the lifetime of a road, it may be resurfaced with potholes filled in
to ensure safe driving conditions. But eventually, at the end of that road’s
life cycle, the road must be demolished and rebuilt in order to correct
underlying issues that filling and resurfacing cannot.
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