Poor road conditions, such as potholes, can cause damage to your vehicle and serious physical injuries to you and your passengers. Even if you were partly at fault – such as by speeding – you can still be entitled to a financial award from the city, state, or federal government.
Below, our California personal injury attorneys address frequently asked questions about hazardous road conditions lawsuits and the injuries you may have suffered:
- Who can I sue?
- Government Responsibilities
- Who else can I sue?
- Proving Liability
- Government Design Immunity
- Statute of Limitations
- Compensation
- In the News
- Additional Resources
The government is responsible for dangerous conditions caused by poor road design or planning, bad construction, or failure to maintain and repair the roadways.
Who can I sue?
If you sustained damages from unsafe road conditions, you can sue the government. Depending on your location, this may be the:
- city
- county
- state, or
- federal government.
Most states have laws permitting the government a “reasonable” amount of time to learn of dangerous road conditions and a “reasonable” amount of time to repair those conditions.
If the condition existed for a much longer period, and the government should have discovered it in that time, the government may be liable for your damages even if it did not actually know the dangerous condition existed.
Government Responsibilities
Assuming the government has not been reasonable in either the discovery or repair of a dangerous road condition, it can be liable for damages as a result of:
- Cracks in the road or potholes that cause you to lose control of your motor vehicle,
- Road signs that are covered by overgrown foliage or have fallen,
- Issues with guardrails on sharp curves, ditches, or on overpasses,
- Failure to include rumble strips on highways,
- Damage to bridges or overpasses,
- Lack of proper warning signs,
- Dangerous curves,
- Inadequate traffic control in construction zones (such as proper marking, cones, etc.)
- Faded lane markings such as edge lines, centerlines, or turn lanes,
- Poor lighting of roads or road signage,
- Clogged drainage causing road flooding, and
- Malfunctioning stoplights at intersections.
Who else can I sue?
There may be other parties you can sue besides the government depending on the facts of the case, such as:
- A construction company working on a road,
- The manufacturer of a defective stoplight,
- The company that developed the faulty asphalt on the roads, and
- A truck that spilled oil on the roads causing you to slide.
In many road construction projects, the government hires a contractor or subcontractor to do the actual repair work. If it is the subcontractor’s poor workmanship that causes your accident, the contractor may be responsible for your injuries, as well as the government.
Proving Liability
The specific evidence of your case will depend on your facts, but common evidence that is used in a dangerous road conditions lawsuit includes:
- Witness reports
- Police reports
- Your testimony
- Accident photos
- Survey records1
- Medical records
- Vehicle repairs
In its defense, the government may try and argue:
- You were driving in an unsafe manner,
- You were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and/or
- An intervening cause was the actual cause of your accident, such as another driver or the weather.
Note that under California’s comparative / shared fault laws, you may still be able to recover damages even if you were partially at fault for the accident.
Government Design Immunity
If you sue the government in California for your injuries from a dangerous road condition, at trial the government can present the “government design immunity” defense. Your lawsuit could be dismissed if the government can show these three things:
- There is a causal relationship between the road design/plan and your accident;
- The road design/plan was approved before being constructed; and
- The reasonableness of the road design/plan is supported by substantial evidence.
To overcome the “government design immunity” affirmative defense, you would need to show three things:
- A change in physical conditions caused the road design/plan to become dangerous;
- The government had notice (actual or constructive) of the dangerous conditions; and
- The government had reasonable time to remedy the road or did not provide sufficient warnings.2
Statute of Limitations
In many states, the statute of limitations period for claims against the government is considerably shorter than the same claim made against a non-governmental party. There may also be separate deadlines for the filing of notices and the lawsuit itself, depending on which state you are in.
In California, the statute of limitations can be as short as six months after the accident.
Compensation
Once you and your attorney prove your case against the government, you can be awarded financial compensation for your injuries and property damage for:
- Medical bills;
- Lost earning capacity;
- Loss in income;
- Loss of consortium;
- Compensation for loss of limbs, scarring, or disfigurement;
- Property damage (such as to your car); and
- Pain and suffering.
In limited circumstances, punitive damages may be available. If the accident resulted in a fatality of a family member, you can bring a wrongful death lawsuit for:
- Funeral and burial expenses;
- Financial losses; and
- Compensation for loss of support and companionship.
In the News
The following are recent news stories involving lawsuits against local California governments for unsafe roadways:
- Another bicycle crash, another $6.5M lawsuit settlement for Oakland – The Oaklandside (Jan. 18, 2024).
- Oakland has paid $35M in 10 years to people injured on its dangerous roads – The Oaklandside (Dec. 12, 2023).
- San Diego to pay $4.8 million after collision left one dead, one injured – CBS8.com (July 23, 2023).
- San Francisco sued for thousands over bump in road that injured 4 – The San Francisco Standard (April 19, 2023).
- Family Seeks $2.3M+ From City of San Diego In Wrongful Death Dangerous Road Condition Trial – Courtroom News Network (April 7, 2023).
Additional Resources
For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:
- Suing Public Authorities: Who Wins – Legal Issues Journal.
- Government Liability and the Public Duty Doctrine – Villanova Law Review.
- The Effect of Automobile Insurance and Accident Liability Laws on Traffic Fatalities – The Journal of Law and Economics.
- Lawsuits Arising Out of Reconstruction – Transportation Engineering Journal of ASCE.
- Self-driving Cars and the Law – IEEE Spectrum.
Legal References:
- Caltrans. Office of Land Surveys.
- Government Code 830.6. Government Code 835. Jesse Baldwin v. The State of California, (1972) 6 Cal.3d 424. Stacy Cornett v. Department of Transportation (Caltrans) (July 12, 2001) 26 Cal. 4th 63. Barbara Cameron v. The State of California (1972) 7 Cal. 3d 318 (re. active versus passive negligence). Henry Winig v. State of California (1995) 37 Cal. App. 4th 1772 (re. design immunity is inapplicable to construction zones). Hilts v. County of Solano (1968) 265 Cal. App. 2d 161. Johnston v. County of Yolo (1969) 274 Cal. App. 2d 46. Mirzada v. Department of Transportation (2003) 111 Cal App. 4th 802; Grenier v. City of Irwindale (1997) 57 Cal.App.4th 931; Higgins v. State of California (1997) 54 Cal. App. 4th 177. Richard Crawford Wyckoff v. The State of California (June 4, 2001) 90 Cal. App. 4th 45. The Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (S.W.I.T.R.S.).