Accidents Caused By Dangerous Roadways

Kraemer, Manes & Associates LLC “KM&A” is a personal injury law firm with lawyers serving all of Pennsylvania. If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident caused by a dangerous roadway involving serious personal injury, or you have lost  a loved one from an accident, we invite you to contact us for a consultation. Call a KM&A accident lawyer at 412-626-5626 or email us at lawyer@lawkm.com. 

Unsafe road conditions can be as dangerous as negligent drivers. Just as drivers are legally responsible for their driving, many public or private entities such as government bodies and construction companies are also legally responsible for the dangerous conditions of roads. If you were involved in an accident caused by conditions on the road beyond your control, there are a number of things you should understand about your legal rights and options for recovery.

When should you contact an lawyer?

If you, your family, or a friend has been involved in an accident caused by dangerous roadways, speak with an auto accident attorney immediately. Courts and insurance companies can be quick to blame the driver after an accident occurs, even when the blame truly lies with those responsible for conditions on the road. Without a competent legal representative, even blameless parties to an accident may face serious legal repercussions or be unable to justly recover for their injuries and losses.

Due to the many legal complications associated with dangerous road cases, it is essential not only to consult lawyers who are experienced in accident and injury lawsuits, but also to contact legal aid quickly so that physical evidence essential to your case is still preserved and important deadlines are not missed. You must commence legal action quickly in the wake of an accident; otherwise you will be unable to recover as a result of notice requirements. Because there are a number of legal obstacles in dangerous road cases, especially when local or state government is involved, your best option is to speak to an attorney soon who has dealt with these cases before and understands how to overcome these challenges. If the injured wants to maximize their chances of a large recovery, it is imperative the case is handled correctly from the start.  An early misstep may completely ruin the chance of meaningful recovery.

Why do you need a lawyer?

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Insurance companies are in the business of reducing their liability and exposure. They try to avoid responsibility for paying medical bills, property damage, and other compensation. Insurance companies have departments dedicated to minimizing the amount of money they pay to victims of accidents caused by people who buy their insurance policies. Here are the top 3 reasons to retain a personal injury lawyer:

• Unscrupulous Insurance Agents – Have you received a call from the  insurance company after your accident to see if you were “alright?” Did they offer you money to “take care of the property damage” and promise it won’t waive claims about your medical injury? Does that check now include the language waiver, net release, or satisfaction? If any of this sounds remotely familiar, you need the immediate help of an accident lawyer.
• Evidence – Think about the accident that occurred. What if the other person suddenly and inexplicably changed their entire story? Imagine they felt pressured by their insurance company, a family member, a lawyer, or because they couldn’t afford to be at fault. This is how our personal injury accident lawyers think about every single case. We operate on the idea that nothing can be taken for granted.
• Money Settlements – Valuation of an injury case is a complicated process based on many variables unique to the accident and the injured person, actuarial tables of prior awards, assessed strength of the case, and the extent of the injuries and damages. Categories of recoverable damages include:
  • Medical Costs: Costs include treatment by physicians, medical centers, clinics, hospitals, emergency rooms, ambulances, paramedics, chiropractors, and physical therapists, other licensed professionals and the cost of medical devices. Future medical costs may be recovered as well.
  • Pain and Suffering, Disability, and Mental and Emotional Distress: Damages include physical pain, disfigurement, discomfort, loss of ability to work, inability to partake in recreational activities, and mental distress and emotional trauma including fear, anxiety, grief, shock, PTSD, loss of dignity, embarrassment, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life.
  • Loss of Earnings and Earning Capacity: Damages include the loss wages, including other benefits, and expected future earning capacity if the ability to earn money has been impaired.
  • Loss of Consortium: If you are married or in a domestic partnership you may recover for the loss of the benefits of married or domestic partnered life.
  • Property Damage: You can recover the value of your property that was damaged in the accident.
  • Other Economic and Out of Pocket Costs: In addition to the economic costs associated with the items described above, you may recover damages for other economic harm and out of pocket expenses.

Who is liable for unsafe roads?

Depending on the specifics of your accident, the responsibility for the accident may lie with the local or state government, or a private business. Many times government bodies are legally protected from lawsuits because of the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity. States and municipalities can still be held liable in certain circumstances, such as:

• When a public employee or entity knew or should have known about the dangerous conditions that led to the accident.
• They had notice and reasonable time to complete necessary work but failed to properly fix a road hazard.
• The public employee or body failed to give adequate warning of a dangerous condition that was practically impossible to fix.

If these sound familiar, the state or local government’s failure to act reasonably to prevent and rectify dangerous conditions could make them responsible for your injuries caused by the unsafe road. Attorneys at KM&A are experienced with protecting driver’s rights know how to unravel these complex legal issues and craft successful claims against the state and municipalities.

When should you hire a personal injury lawyer?

The injured should almost certainly hire a personal injury lawyer if:

• There are serious injuries.
• The injury has or has the potential for long-term long-term repercussions.
• The other side is uninsured or underinsured.
• There is a potential for a dispute over who was at fault.
• A claims adjuster is quickly offering to write a check.
• A claims adjuster is requesting the injured to sign legal documents.
• You are feeling pressured by the claims adjuster to agree to a quick settlement.
• The statutes of limitation laws may come into effect before you can challenge the settlement claim on your own
• You don’t feel you’re being fully compensated for your current and future medical costs resulting from your accident.

When you should NOT hire a personal injury lawyer:

• The injury is minor.
• You went to the emergency room after the accident and never received any further medical treatment.
• There is no medical record.
• There is only property damage and no medical injury.
• The soreness quickly went away.
• You received very mild injuries and the other side’s insurance company is willing to pay a fair amount for your property damage, medical bills and injuries.

You won’t need one for every accident, but if you’ve been injured in an auto accident due to a dangerous roadway, hiring a personal injury attorney can help you receive a fair settlement from your insurance company.

Accidents Due to Poor Design and Maintenance

Roads should be intelligently designed and carefully maintained to protect drivers from the many potential hazards posed by other drivers and physical conditions on the road. Unfortunately, public and private bodies responsible for designing, constructing or maintaining roads sometimes fail in their responsibility to drivers. This leads to damaged property, serious injuries and wrongful death. It is important to challenge those responsible for the safe condition of roads whenever they breach their duty, not just to protect ourselves and our loved ones, but also to prevent future injuries and deaths in our community.

Even the safest drivers can crash or lose control of their vehicle under the wrong road conditions. Common hazardous road conditions that lead to legal action fall under a few different categories:

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  Negligent Construction: Sometimes poor workmanship or shoddy materials lead to dangerous conditions on the road, from eroding shoulders to collapsing bridges.

• Defective Design: Dangerous intersections, unsafe road curves or grades, narrow shoulders, inadequate guardrails, poor lighting, dangerous entrance and exit ramps and lack of proper signage pose hazards to drivers, pedestrians and bystanders alike.
• Improper Maintenance: Those responsible for maintaining the quality of roads are sometimes lax on the job, leading to potholes and worn roads with cracks and bumps, hidden or faded signs, icy roads, broken traffic lights, faded paint lines and dangerous obstacles in the street among other hazards.
• Inadequate Warnings: While hazardous road conditions sometimes take time to rectify, this does not excuse the absence of adequate signage that clearly warns the driver of dangerous conditions on the road. Construction zones in particular must have adequate signs warning drivers of hazards and changing conditions, as well as the proper placement of barriers, reflectors and traffic cones.
• Slow Response: Once put on notice of a road hazard such as water buildup, debris or ice, those responsible for the road’s maintenance must act with a reasonable amount of time to either rectify the problem or provide adequate signage warning drivers of the hazard until it can be fixed.

Our experienced accident and personal injury attorneys will listen to you and act quickly to investigate the scene of the accident and determine your chances of successfully recovering. They will then gather evidence and formulate a legal strategy to recover what you are justly owed by the parties at fault. This may involve negotiating with insurance companies on your behalf or suing those responsible for dangerous roadway conditions. Before you assume that you are out of options, talk to a seasoned KM&A personal injury attorney free of charge today so that you can feel confident in your situation moving forward.

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