Defective Roadways

Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

If you were involved in a car accident caused by a defective road, you probably feel not just the pain of your injuries, but anger that your collision happened at all. Why didn't someone do something about the dangerous road? Didn't they know about the threat to drivers, pedestrians, and others? For most automobile collisions caused by a defective roadway, someone did know about the danger and did nothing to correct it. Most of the time, yours is not the first collision caused by a poorly designed or maintained road.

If you were injured or lost a loved one in an accident due to a dangerous road, you should not have to pay for the carelessness of those who knew about the danger and did nothing. The personal injury lawyers at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata, & Siegel, P.C. can identify the Maryland or other government authority responsible and hold them accountable.  Please contact us today for a free initial consultation.

What Makes a Roadway Defective?

A roadway is defective if it does not conform to accepted and published standards for road construction or maintenance. A roadway might also be called defective if its design, construction, or maintenance condition made collisions more likely.  Common examples of roadway defects may include:

• Shoulder drop-offs or inadequate shoulders
• Lack of notification of changes in the shoulder
• Potholes
• Pooling water causing ice accumulations in winter
• No notification of hazardous conditions likely to occur during certain weather
• Inadequate notification of signals
• Malfunctioning signals or poorly designed signals
• No notification of hazards like falling rocks or merging traffic

All of these conditions may represent a foreseeable increase in the likelihood of collisions on a roadway. Once those responsible for a road learn of a hazard, they have a responsibility to correct it.

Road Work Hazards

Sometimes roadway hazards are caused by maintenance operations. If a contractor fails to follow appropriate guidelines in modifying the normal flow of traffic, it can create a danger you could not anticipate, but they could. Common causes of accidents in road work zones include:

• Lane drop-offs
• Shortened or non-existent merge lanes
• Construction equipment entering, leaving, or parked too near traffic
• Inadequate notice of reduced speed or traffic stoppage

Road work zones are especially dangerous places to be with a commercial truck. According the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), nearly a quarter of all fatalities in work zones (24%) are related to large collisions, even though large trucks are less than a twentieth (4%) of the vehicles on the road. The actions of truck drivers are partly to blame, but sometimes cars and trucks are forced into dangerous situations by the layout of a construction zone.

Finding Those Responsible, Fixing the Problem

If you were injured or lost a loved one in an automobile accident due to a defective roadway, your lawsuit can help not only you, but others as well. If your collision is not the first caused by a particular roadway--why was it not fixed? In many cases, those responsible may have dismissed the possibility that a roadway was responsible for the accident.  Your claim can help them understand the dangerous conditions present and the real cost of not fixing the problem so they will finally take action.

To pursue a lawsuit against those responsible for your collision, please contact the Maryland personal injury attorneys at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata, & Siegel, P.C. today for a free consultation.

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