In many ways safer road design can make transportation safer for motorists, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Federal and state transportation guidelines stress the importance of good design that is both safe for road users and sensitive to the surrounding environment.
Safe design requires that road users must have sufficient time to be able to see, process and react to information. The principles are the same for all road users, however, the standards are more critical for motorcyclists as errors can have more severe consequences.
A safe road environment should:
- Give consistent messages to road users.
- Provide no surprises
- Provide a controlled release of information
- Warn road users of any possible substandard features
- Inform road users of the type of unusual conditions that are likely to be encountered
- Guide road users through unusual sections of road
- Control road users through conflict points or areas of conflict
Who Is Responsible for the Design & Defects of State Roads & Highways?
Local municipalities and state agencies are responsible to maintain and to control tens of thousands of miles under their jurisdiction These agencies have a legal responsibility for dangerous and defective conditions that exist on the roadways under their jurisdiction.
What Types of Hazardous Road Design & Defects Cause Automobile Accidents?
Automobile & Motorcycle accidents are often caused by bad roads and defective conditions of state roadways. A number of road design situations that cause automobile accidents, which include but are not limited to the following, may define dangerous & defective roadways:
- Inadequate or insufficient notification of an impending condition such as construction zone
- Inadequate or insufficient notification of an impending condition such as merging traffic
- Inadequate or insufficient notification of an impending condition such roads affected by weather conditions
- Reduction of shoulder or shoulder drop-off
- Roads poorly marked with highway division status, line striping and edge lines
- Excessive oil and/or gravel due to tar and road maintenance procedures
- Potholes
What Types of Hazardous Road Design & Defects Cause Motorcycle Accidents?
Some of the most common design hazards include:
- Adverse camber/ cross fall (slope of the road)
- Blind corner
- Lack of appropriate warning
- Glare from poorly sited street lights
- Poor sight lines
- Speed hump
- Poor delineation of vehicle path
- Barrier curbing
- Low curbing
- Cobble stones or pavers
- Landscaping
- Traffic islands that are not lit or delineated for night visibility
- Culverts
- Uncovered drainage pits
Who Is Liable?
Most state laws allow you to collect, if you are the victim of defective or dangerous roadways, from either the local municipality or the state itself. The local municipality or the state may hold the sole responsibility for injuries sustained while traveling on their roads.
Filing a Claim
You will need legal representation familiar with state and local guidelines which must be followed. The Law Office Of Cameron Brock has many years of experience and resources for handling road design defects cases involving automobile and motorcycle accident cases. Often engineers need to be hired along with accident reconstruction experts, or experts in another field will be hired to prove and win these cases. Within six months from the date of the accident, that agency must be put on written notice. Because of the complexity and time limits usually associated with these cases, it is imperative that collection of evidence is immediate.
Damages
Limits for economic damages vary from state to state and local municipality to local municipality.
For further information see the related sections:
Legal Representation - California Personal Injury Attorney
If you have been unfairly treated by insurance companies, sustained a serious personal injury or have lost a loved one because of negligent or wrongful conduct in California and need representation by an experienced trial attorney, Cameron Brock has over 35 years experience in Personal Injury Law:
- an experienced attorney in establishing and proving personal injury damages,
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- is familiar with the right experts who will evaluate the client's losses,
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Our Law Office has sufficient funds to underwrite the cost of expensive litigation, and we are determined to commit all resources toward the goal of obtaining a fair and just recovery for our clients.
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Millions of dollars in Trial Verdicts and Settlements have been recovered for our clients for Personal Injury cases.
Our Verdicts and Settlement Results speak for themselves!
