Road Trip Gone Wrong – How Bad Roads Can Hurt You

Travelling across your city by car can be a great experience or a long and annoying one, depending on traffic.  Worse than bad traffic is bad roads – potholes, other damage, or roadwork can harm your vehicle – and can potentially harm you if you’re injured due to loss of control.  That temporary loss of control could potentially send you careening into objects, other vehicles, or pedestrians.  It’s important to do what you can to watch out, but if you were injured, and want to seek recompense for what happened due to bad roads there are some things you should know.

Private Roads

For roads or other areas not controlled by the government there is a reasonable expectation that your safety should be protected.  Management at parking lots for example have the responsibility to keep roads safe and unlikely to cause damage.

Public Roads

The same standard of responsibility holds true for municipal and provincial roadways as well.  However, the idea of what a ‘reasonable’ state of repair is remains somewhat murky.  A city cannot be held liable if they did not know or there was no way of knowing the state of road or bridge, or if it took reasonable steps to prevent the issue.   Also, there are roads that are considered ‘unassumed’ which a municipality may not have jurisdiction over and any damage arising from problems on those roads would not be considered to be the municipality’s problem.

In the case of personal injury caused by snow or ice on a sidewalk a municipality is not liable except in the case of ‘gross negligence’ which can be very difficult to prove in court.

Bad roads can mean bad news for your car and for you which is why it’s crucial to keep an eye out for any difficulties on the road ahead and do your best to avoid the hazards that come with them.  If you feel you have a case for a personal injury caused by a bad road call Conte & Associates at 1-877-614-0008. Based in Vaughan, Conte & Associates works with clients in Vaughan and in the surrounding cities of: Thornhill, Woodbridge, Concord, Kleinberg, Maple and Richmond Hill.

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