Crashes Caused by Highway Defects

I’m David Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss topics related to personal injury law.

Today’s question comes from a caller who explained how she ended up getting seriously hurt along with her car getting totaled in a one car crash that she insisted was due to the design of the highway, and she wanted to know if the people who designed and constructed the highway could be sued?

The answer is maybe yes. There certainly have been situations where the highway designer and construction contractors responsible for designing and building a roadway have been held legally responsible for their mistakes. An example that comes to mind is a pedestrian bridge in Sweetwater, Florida that collapsed during construction killing several motorists who were stopped in traffic under the bridge when it collapsed. Right now engineering investigators are trying to sort out what happened, but it looks like the structure was under-designed for the load that would be applied once the bridge concrete was poured.

So, what do attorneys look for when trying to determine if negligent design or construction of a roadway caused a collision?

Here are some of the factors, that include things like problems with the pavement, poor signs, insufficient lane markings:

1. Inadequate signage;
2. Inadequate traffic control markings;
3. Failure to warn of unsafe pavement (buckling or potholing);
4. Creation and/or maintenance of unsafe pavement and/or shouldering;
5. Defects due to lack of care in designing, constructing and maintenance:
6. Negligent inspection of roadway;
7. Negligent design;
8. Negligent maintenance;
9.   Failure to correct roadway defects;
10. Failure to warn of condition endangering movement of traffic; and
11. Ignoring dangerous condition of which designer/contractor had notice.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you have questions about your legal rights if you get hurt due to the carelessness of another person, or as a result of substandard medical care, or due to a product defect, construction injury, or any other type of personal injury, please give us a call at (219) 736-9700. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at www.DavidHolubLaw.com – while there make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth”.