Roadway defects can cause serious and fatal accidents. They are often behind single vehicle accidents but can also cause collisions between vehicles and pedestrian accidents. Proving fault, and sometimes even discovering that a defect was the cause of an accident, requires thorough investigation and the use of expert witnesses who can show the jury how and why the defect caused the accident or contributed to the seriousness of your injuries. Liability typically falls on a government entity responsible for the design, construction and/or maintenance of the roadway. However, roadway defect accidents can also occur on private property, such as a parking lot or structure, making your case a premises liability claim.
Examples of Roadway Defects
Depending on its nature, a roadway defect can cause an accident or contribute to the seriousness of injuries in an accident that has another cause. Examples of roadway defects include:
- Potholes and other surface damage
- Inadequate lighting due to lack of or malfunctioning streetlights
- Intersection that should have a traffic signal but does not
- Malfunctioning traffic signal
- Missing, obscured, unclear or inaccurate road signs
- Inadequate highway division, lane striping and edge lines
- Unmarked shoulder drop-off
- Improper drainage
- Improperly banked curve
- Debris and obstacles which are not been removed in a timely fashion
- Excessive oil and/or gravel
- Improper road or intersection design
- Insufficient shoulder
- Dangerous bus stop design or placement
- Lack of crosswalk or inadequately marked crosswalk
- Dangerous railroad crossing
- Inadequate or insufficient notification of impending conditions such as construction zones, merging traffic, or hazardous weather conditions
- Inadequate barriers to construction zones and pedestrian areas
- Missing or damaged guardrails
- Lack of breakaway devices on pole and posts
Defective roadway cases can be very complex and often involve claims against the government making your time to act very short. To learn more about how you can recover full and fair compensation for your defective roadway injuries, in the Miami – Ft. Lauderdale area, please call the Law Offices of Lee P. Marks, P.A. at 305-444-3343 or email us today to schedule your free consultation.
