What if the road conditions caused the accident?

Drivers must adjust their speed (that means slow down!) to compensate for bad road conditions. A driver has less and less control of their car the faster the car goes. Uneven pavement, gravel, potholes, water on the road, even smashed tomatoes from an overturned tomato truck can all cause car tires to lose traction. One also needs to slow down when driving on a curve, or on mountain roads, and inexperienced drivers should slow down well below the posted speed limit.

Occasionally, a road has a dangerous condition that should be fixed by the government, and that condition contributes to an accident. For a city or county to be held responsible, it will have to be shown that they knew about the dangerous condition (or should have known, perhaps due to many accidents), and had time and a way to fix it. If the dangerous condition was obvious, drivers have a responsibility to notice it and slow down (See “I Was Paying Attention, It Just Jumped Out At Me”).

A few rare folks take the responsibility to compensate for bad road conditions too far. Drivers have to act cautiously, but driving unreasonably slow for the conditions is dangerous to other drivers. When a driver is going significantly faster or slower than the other cars on the road, accidents are more likely to happen.

If you have been injured in an accident and would like to discuss your legal options with an experienced Sacramento Personal Injury Attorney, contact us online or call us at 916.921.6400 to set up a FREE consultation.