Dangerous Roads

Georgia Experienced Roadway Design and Maintenance Lawyer

At the Law Offices of Joseph A. Fried, our serious roadway hazard injury lawyers have extensive experience handling cases with dangerous roadway conditions and road hazards. If you have been hurt in a collision and you suspect a negligent roadway design issue or improper maintenance issue, don’t delay. Call The Law Offices of Joseph A. Fried today for a free case evaluation.

Roadway design cases involve highly technical engineering issues. Attorney Joseph A. Fried has studied physics, engineering and accident reconstruction. He is a former police officer and has personally investigated hundreds of roadway accidents. This background gives him a significant edge against other less specialized lawyers.

Roadway Design Defects:

These cases can take many forms. Roadways are required to be designed to certain well-defined specifications, many of which have a safety component. For instance, the specifications require that in most situations, there is a fall of ¼” per foot from the crown of the roadway to the edge of pavement to allow water to leave the roadway. When specifications like these are not followed, water can accumulate in the roadway and cause hydroplaning. The specifications affect the construction of the roadways themselves, the lane width, the shoulder requirements, curbage, etc. Evaluating roadway design cases is challenging and usually requires a number of expert witnesses.

Design deficiencies can also take the form of inadequate or improper traffic control devices. Examples include intersections where a traffic light should be present, uncontrolled intersections that should have stop signs but don’t or where the stop sign is specified for an incorrect location.

Design cases can also involve roadway safety devices such as guardrails, guide wires, curbs, barriers, and the like.

Finally, design issues can arise from negligent work of private design engineers retained by contractors. For instance, when a commercial business wants to have a driveway on a state highway, it must apply or have a contractor apply for a commercial driveway encroachment permit from the DOT. Similar permits are required by counties for county roads and cities for municipal roads. Whether the driveway will stand alone or be serviced by a deceleration lane, the specifications must be followed.

A big argument often ensues between design engineers and contractors (general contractors, curbing contractors, paving contractors, grading contractors, etc). The issue is often whether the design was deficient or whether the design was negligently executed or built. While these issues can be difficult to figure out, they can also provide tremendous opportunities for the careful lawyer to develop a finger-pointing situation between the design engineer and the contractors. It is important to remember that in many situations the DOT has immunity for its actions related to permitted jobs.

If you want to talk to a lawyer who has studied the specifications and understands roadway design and construction issues, as well as how they can cause losses of control and accidents, contact the Law Offices of Joseph A. Fried today.

Roadway Maintenance:

The Georgia Department of Transportation is the governmental agency primarily responsible for ing all state highways and rights of way in the State of Georgia. Likewise, the roads departments or public works departments of many counties and cities are charged with maintenance of county and city roads, respectively. Under some circumstances, counties will contract with cities or with the DOT to maintain sections of roadways and vice versa. Thus, the first issue which always arises in a potential maintenance-related case is who is responsible for maintainance of the specific section of roadway.

Maintenance cases can take several forms. Some examples are:

• Maintenance crews fail to recognize a hazard (e.g., a roadway edge hazard, a roadway water hazard, debris in the road, etc.).
• Maintenance crew recognizes a hazard, but does not timely repair it.
• Maintenance crew recognizes hazard, but does not timely warn motorists about it.
• Maintenance crew negligently repairs problem and makes it worse.
• Maintenance crew fixes problem but fails to follow up and make sure repair is proper.
• In performing maintenance, crew does not provide appropriate temporary traffic control as required by work zone safety manuals, thus creating a dangerous condition leading to a collision. This can happen in stationary situations like fixing a pot hole or in traveling maintenance like street sweeping, mowing rights of way, and repaving roads.

Under Georgia law, namely the Georgia Tort Claims Act, the DOT has waived immunity for maintenance related activities. The same is not always true for cities and counties. A study of the insurance policies for those entities will usually answer the question, as the law generally provides that immunity is waived up to the extent of insurance coverage.

Finally, a related maintenance type case has to do with shrubbery on private property. Under some circumstances, where a property owner fails to maintain trees and shrubs near a roadway and thereby creates a visibility hazard, the land owner can be held liable. For more on property owner liability, click HERE (crosslink to premises liability)

If you or your loved one has suffered a serious injury resulting from a roadway maintenance issue, We want to hear the details We can investigate the claim for you and let you know if you have a case, all at no charge to you unless we recover. Call us for a free consultation and evaluation.