Piering Law Firm
Practice Areas and Legal Definitions

Dangerous Roadways Causing Injury

Have you been in an accident caused by a dangerous highway? Contact the Piering Law Firm for a free consultation. The Piering Law Firm has successfully represented thousands of accident victims and obtained exceptional results in a wide variety of serious and catastrophic injury cases.

Dangerous Road Accidents

Over 25,000 of the 42,643 people killed on our nation's highways in 2003 died when their vehicles left their lane and crashed. Sometimes these accidents involved vehicles crossing the center line and crashing. Other times they involved crossing into the shoulder and rolling over, dropping down a slope or cliff, or colliding with objects such as trees, poles, walls or abutments. While such accidents may have many causes, one danger often overlooked by lawyers is some problem with road design or maintenance, or what is commonly known as a "dangerous road."

Dangerous roads are a significant cause of car accidents. A dangerous road can result from faulty design, faulty construction, faulty maintenance, or faulty adaptation to changing conditions. Your dangerous roads attorney should assess whether any or all of these problems may have contributed to an accident that may have resulted in injuries to you or a loved one.

20% of all fatal road accidents involve a single car that runs off the road, often rolling over or colliding with a fixed object. While government defendants often argue that such accidents result from driver error, dangerous roads may be all or part of the cause of the accident.

Dangerous road cases are difficult and expensive. The government bodies controlling the roads have strong defenses put in place by the government itself. Therefore, proving that a dangerous road caused an accident can be a challenge. Investigation of the dangerous road site and its history requires substantial attorney work, expense, and expertise. But successful cases not only benefit the client: they directly force changes in dangerous road conditions that can save lives - changes that might not otherwise occur at all.

Dangerous Road Conditions

Dangerous road hazards most often stem from faulty design, construction, maintenance, or failure by the government to make road changes to adapt to new conditions. Following are some examples of each type of dangerous road condition:

1. Defective Design

Dangerous curves in road layout
Dangerous slopes and dips in road layout
Hazards obstructing visibility at dangerous intersections and crosswalks
Dangerous drop-offs such as ravines or cliffs
Entrance and exit ramps that are dangerously short or don't allow safe merging
Defective, missing guard rails, especially in construction zones
Pavement with inadequate skid resistance
Improper drainage that leads to dangerous street surfaces, ponding, and hydroplaning
Parking policies that limit visibility of a dangerous intersection
Absent, defective, or improper warning signage
Poorly placed and dangerous highway traffic signals
Shoulders that are not visibly distinct enough from the road.

2. Defective Construction

Failure to follow approved plans properly
Shoddy materials
Shoddy workmanship

3. Defective Maintenance

Allowing road surfaces to become dangerous, as with potholes
Allowing guardrails to become dangerous
Allowing dangerous highway traffic control lights
Allowing erosion and lowered visibility of painted markers
Allowing signage and warnings to deteriorate or be removed

4. Defective Failure to Adapt

Dangerous road subsidence (sinking)
Dangerous road cave-ins
Changing use patterns by pedestrians and vehicles
Ignoring evidence that accidents keep occurring on a dangerous road

The Road Design We Have a Right to Expect

Agencies that design and maintain roads and highways have a continuing duty to ensure that dangerous street conditions will not imperil motorists exercising reasonable care. Inevitably, cars will sometimes skid, slide, be cut off by other traffic, or run off the side of roads, especially ones with dangerous curves. Drivers will inevitably sometimes fall asleep or be distracted and lose control of their vehicles. One marker of a dangerous highway or road is the failure to take reasonable steps to keep such foreseeable events from turning tragic.

Drivers have a right to expect that their government won't allow dangerous roads to cause accidents. Avoiding Dangerous Roads and roads means taking many steps to protect vehicle and pedestrian safety:

Providing recovery zones that let a driver who strays from the road get back onto it
Providing guardrails to protect cars from dangerous street hazards such as trees, poles, cliffs, or ravines

Avoiding dangerous curves by banking them to keep even speeding cars from flying off a road

Offering adequate signage warning of dangerous highway or road conditions

Installing rumble strips, bumps, or grooves to let drivers know they are straying from a lane

How We Prove a Dangerous Road Caused an Accident

Winning a dangerous road accident case involves proving that the government knew of a significant highway or road danger and failed to fix it. This often means showing that a public employee working to prevent dangerous roads or roads wrongly did, or failed to do, something that caused that dangerous street condition. Other times, it means showing that the government knew (or should have known) that a dangerous highway or road condition existed and had time to fix it, but did not do so.

The government must act reasonably to prevent dangerous roads and roads. It must ensure that there is no substantial risk of injury when someone uses a road, with due care, in a reasonably foreseeable way. The government does not have to prevent dangerous road conditions that are trivial, minor, or insignificant, but only substantial ones. A history, or lack of history, of accidents on a given road or highway may help to show whether a risk is substantial, but it is not conclusive.

Conditions Creating Dangerous Roads and Highways

While we cannot review here all of the types of dangerous highway, road or street conditions that can cause serious accidents, examples of dangerous street conditions include those described below:

Crosswalks can create a dangerous intersection
Inadequate visibility can create a dangerous street, especially for children
Guardrail defects can create a dangerous highway
Poor warning signs on dangerous curves can create a dangerous highway
Defective banking on dangerous curves can create a dangerous highway
Lack of a median divider can create a dangerous highway
Placement of utility poles can create a dangerous street
The presence of roadside hazards can create a dangerous highway

Poorly Designed or Maintained Crosswalks May Result in a Dangerous Intersection

Sometimes crosswalks are located by traffic planners in places where oncoming cars cannot see them, especially around dangerous curves or near dangerous intersections with insufficient traffic controls. Other times, a once well-designed crosswalk may have become a dangerous road hazard with the passage of time, such as when the crosswalk's paint becomes so worn that drivers approaching the intersection cannot see it. When this occurs, the crosswalk becomes a dangerous road trap for pedestrians who are lulled into thinking that it is safe.

When an accident occurs on a crosswalk, your dangerous roads lawyer may seek evidence that establishes the crossing as a dangerous intersection. A dangerous roads lawyer may find it feasible to obtain blueprints of the intersection, the plans for warning signage, and any changes that have been ordered to those plans, which might reflect dangerous conditions. The dangerous roads lawyer may obtain studies of traffic volume and speed at the site, as well as photographs of the dangerous street site from street level and overhead. In addition, the dangerous roads attorney may obtain documentation of the accident history at the crosswalk, including police reports, complaints about the site, and evidence of the service record of signals at the intersection.

Inadequate Visibility May Result in a Dangerous Intersection

When a child runs onto the street from between two parked cars, even a driver using due care may not have the time to stop. Especially where children are concerned, the government has a responsibility to ensure that children are visible when they cross the street even at an unmarked intersection. Given the foreseeable likelihood that children will cross the street, your dangerous roads lawyer may evaluate whether design flaws, such as allowing cars to park where they impair visibility of an unmarked crosswalk, create a dangerous intersection. Your dangerous roads attorney may decide whether various factors such as the proximity to schools or average vehicle speed should have required stronger efforts to avoid a dangerous intersection.

Inadequate Guardrails on Curves May Result in a Dangerous Highway or Road

Many accidents on Dangerous Roads and roads involve defective guardrails. Guardrails protect drivers from dangerous curves by indicating the course of the road and protecting vehicles from leaving the road. Guardrails may be required on elevated roads and bridges, as well as on locations that have other dangerous street conditions such as sharp curves where obstacles such as trees or posts are near the road or highway. When a car has been driven off of a dangerous highway, your attorney or his expert may measure the distance to hazardous objects, the drop-off after the road, and the width of any recovery zone, to see whether a guardrail was required.

Even concrete "Jersey barriers" won't stop a speeding truck that hits them headlong, but guardrails should be designed to minimize the impact of reasonably foreseeable dangerous highway accidents. For example, guardrails should have no more than 75 inches between posts; many older guardrails on dangerous roads have 150 inches between posts - not enough to direct cars back onto the road. Your dangerous roads lawyer may investigate whether a guardrail's crossbeams are high enough to keep a car on the road, whether the ends of a guardrail are treated to prevent a car from impaling itself on it, and so on.

Poor Warning Signs on Curves May Result in a Dangerous Highway or Road

The government must warn drivers of hazards on a dangerous highway or road. This includes meeting federal standards that require signs with an arrow showing the general shape of a curve, along with a speed limit. While dangerous curves on a road will often have low speed limits, an unexpected sharp curve after a stretch of straight road may lack sufficient advance warning that drivers must slow down and pay attention. The question of what signage a dangerous highway requires is sometimes not considered an important part of a road plan. However, signs installed after an accident has occurred are clearly insufficient for those who suffered injuries due to a dangerous street condition.

Even where a sign on a dangerous highway or road has been planned and installed, it may later be removed by a crash or vandalism. If the government that owned and operated that dangerous highway or road was on notice that such a sign had been removed, the government must replace it within a reasonable time or it may face liability. In some cases, a dangerous highway or road might require an additional warning device, such as a rumble strip, in addition to signs. A dangerous roads lawyer will research and evaluate whether the existing signage on a dangerous highway is adequate for its intended purpose of warning motorists of dangerous street conditions.

Defective Banking of Curves May Result in a Dangerous Highway or Road

The "banking" of a road refers to the way it is tilted in order to keep cars from flying over dangerous curves - as is often seen on racetracks - or for other purposes such as water drainage. A dangerous curve may not be banked enough to prevent centrifugal force from carrying a vehicle off of the highway.

A dangerous curve is a prime example of dangerous road design: it can lead drivers to lose control of the car as they steer to avoid going off the highway. A well-designed curve on a high-speed road will be higher at the outside to reduce the angle at which drivers must steer. The effects of aging, and years of heavy traffic, can distort the banking and create a dangerous dip in the road - possibly leading a driver to lose control over a car. A dangerous roads lawyer may check for the presence of a dip in the road and work with an engineer to determine whether the road is banked properly.

Lack of a Median Divider May Result in a Dangerous Highway or Road

A dangerous highway may be one that lacks a median divider. A dangerous road is one that poses a hazard even when drivers use it with due care. Cross-median accidents do occur when drivers lose control of a vehicle despite using due care, for reasons such as sudden illness, mechanical failure, or animals or debris in the road. But dangerous roads cases involving median dividers are still subject to the defense of government immunity, discussed below. Your dangerous roads lawyer may identify the evidence that would be needed to counter an assertion of immunity.

Placement of Utility Poles May Result in a Dangerous Road

Utility poles account for over 76 percent of all pole collisions in the country; a report on dangerous street accidents shows that, in 2000 alone, over 60,000 people were injured in collisions with utility poles. Utility poles can be sited unreasonably, creating a dangerous road that is unforgiving of any circumstances that could lead a driver using due care to lose control of a car. Your dangerous roads attorney may explore what reasonable alternatives were and are available, such as relocating or reducing the number of poles, installing barriers or crash cushions, or using breakaway poles. Where the presence of a utility pole has created a dangerous highway or road, rejecting such alternatives may give rise to liability.

The Presence of Roadside Hazards May Result in a Dangerous Road

Roads are designed to have "clear zones" to each side, where a vehicle that strays off the road can recover and return to safety. These zones should be reasonably wide and free of dangerous street obstacles. Your dangerous roads lawyer may assess whether the clear zones are adequate given the design of a road where an accident occurred. Obstacles such as trees should be kept from encroaching on roads. Your dangerous roads lawyer may explore issues of road maintenance as well as design in assessing these hazards.

Getting Past the Defense of 'Governmental Immunity' in Dangerous Highway and Road Cases

Dangerous road cases are especially difficult because the law grants governments immunity to prevent courts from second-guessing their reasonable decisions about how to design roads. An approved design or plan will often provide immunity from lawsuits, although that immunity may be lost if the actual design or plan varies enough from what has been approved. The failure to maintain or keep up aspects of the dangerous highway or road may also eliminate immunity.

Design Immunity in Dangerous Highway and Road Cases

Even proving that a dangerous road condition exists may not remove immunity from the government. The government will try to prove that the dangerous road hazard that you believe caused or contributed to the accident is due to an aspect of the original plan, and that that plan was reasonable and was approved. If the government has followed that plan, and had no reason to believe that it was no longer reasonable, it is immune from suit. However, your dangerous roads lawyer may be able to show that the plan was not followed from the beginning. Failures in road maintenance may also have caused sufficient deviations from the plan to eliminate immunity. Finally, changing facts - such as the occurrence of accidents signaling dangerous street conditions or physical deterioration of a dangerous street surface or support - may have put the government on notice that the design could no longer be considered reasonable.

Sign Immunity in Dangerous Highway and Road Cases

"Sign immunity" means that many of the government's decisions regarding warnings to be placed on (or omitted from) a dangerous road cannot be second-guessed by the court. The mere fact that a government does not provide traffic or warning signs, signals, markings or devices for a given dangerous road, intersection, or curve does not mean that it is at fault - even if the driver injured in a dangerous road accident exercised due care with their vehicle. To defeat the governmental sign immunity, your dangerous roads attorney may have to prove an additional fact: that the government knew or should have known that omitting signs and warnings of these particular dangerous street conditions was not reasonable.

Steps to Take if a Dangerous Highway or Road May Have Caused Your Accident

If a dangerous road may have caused your accident, you need to see an attorney immediately. We may need to preserve critical evidence to the dangerous road or condition analysis. We may also need to secure your wrecked vehicle and have an engineer with expertise in road design or crash worthiness inspect it. The engineer can determine the angle and speed at which the car left the road. Skid marks must be photographed and measured without delay. Often, if there were injuries, the police will have done so.

We may also want to obtain topographical maps, photos showing warning signs, and plans for building the road. This material may reveal dangerous street design, construction, or maintenance flaws.

Talk with experienced, ethical and dedicated lawyers committed to your recovery. Contact the Piering Law Firm to schedule your free and confidential initial consultation. All cases are handled on a contingent fee basis, meaning there is no legal fee charged until we recover for you.