Georgia Motor Vehicle Accidents: Dangerous Streets and Freeways Causing Serious Accidents
When one thinks about serious traffic accidents, one often imagines drunk, inattentive, or reckless drivers. Many would be surprised to learn that a recent study showed that over 52% of all motor vehicle fatalities are a result of faulty roadways. A great number of these accidents do not even involve a second vehicle. Pursuing a claim for compensation against a public entity for a faulty road or highway can be extremely difficult and costly, because the government itself has created special rules to protect government entities from such lawsuits.
Important: Time Deadlines apply to all legal matters! Failure to file a claim within the required period of time results in the loss of your rights to bring your claim. When a government entity is involved the time period can be very short!! Sometimes it is as short as 6 months. That is one reason why it is so important to consult with an experienced personal injury lawyer without delay.
Even if a person suffers catastrophic injuries, such as, head and neck injuries, brain trauma, paralysis or even death, it takes an experienced attorney who understands the special rules, procedural requirements, and challenges of pursuing liability against a government entity to obtain appropriate compensation for one's injuries. At Montlick and Associates, Attorneys at Law, we have been helping auto, truck and motorcycle accident victims throughout the State of Georgia for over 39 years.
Recent studies on defective roadway conditions reveal some alarming statistics regarding the prevalence and seriousness of accidents caused by poorly maintained or constructed roadways. Defective roadway conditions cause 5.3 million auto accidents per year, which amounts to ten traffic accidents per minute. These accidents result in 38% of all non-fatal traffic accident injuries and cause 22,000 fatalities. The economic costs of compensating victims who suffer injuries in car accidents involving defective roadways is enormous, amounting to $20 billion in medical costs; $36 billion in productivity costs (i.e. lost wages); $52 billion in property damage and other resource costs; and $99 billion in quality of life costs, which measure the value of pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life by those injured or killed in crashes and their families.
Dangerous roads are one of the leading contributing causes of automobile accidents. A dangerous road can result from faulty design, faulty construction, faulty maintenance, or faulty adaptation to changing conditions. These accidents may cause a driver to leave one's lane and crash. Sometimes these accidents involve a car crossing the center line and crashing. Other times an auto may cross onto the shoulder and roll or fall down a slope, or collide with objects adjoining the roadway. There are a multitude of road defects that can cause a serious auto accident, but a few examples include the following:
• Dangerous Curves, Slopes or Dips
• Poor Visibility
• Unsafe Drop-offs
• Poorly Constructed Freeway Ramps
• Lack of Guard Rails
• Slippery Roads Based on Inadequate Design or Maintenance
• Inadequate Traffic Controls or Signs
• Lack of Median Dividers
A government agency or municipality has an obligation to design and maintain roadways without significant defects that pose a reasonably foreseeable risk of contributing to traffic accidents. If a roadway has a high incidence of accidents it may help establish a public entity's knowledge of the dangers posed by a defective roadway. Even in traffic accidents where another driver is partially at fault, an experienced dangerous road attorney should be consulted, because pursing a claim against a government entity may be necessary to obtaining full compensation for one's damages and injuries. The dangerous roads lawyer will assess whether the government has met its duty to build and maintain a road that is somewhat forgiving of foreseeable driver error.
A case involving a defective roadway means pursuing a claim against a public entity who will aggressively defend that case and has virtually unlimited resources. At Montlick and Associates, Attorneys at Law, our Georgia motor vehicle accident lawyers have been assisting those injured in all types of accidents in the greater Atlanta area and throughout the State of Georgia for over 39 years. We are available to assist clients throughout all of Georgia including, but not limited to, Albany, Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Marietta, Rome, Roswell, Savannah, Smyrna, Valdosta, Warner Robins and all smaller and rural towns in the state. Call us today for your free consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333), or visit us on the web at www.montlick.com and fill out our free online case evaluation form. We are just a phone call away, and we will even come to you.