Suing When You’re Injured By Debris Or Items Left On The Road

If you’re driving and you hit debris, garbage, or an item on the road that shouldn’t be there, you may be thinking that you’re out of luck—even if you’re injured, it’s a piece of debris that injured  you, not a person.

But that’s not true. Common sense tells you that debris or items don’t get into the roadway on their own. They are left there by people, or fall off cars or trucks.

What Kind of Debris?

Debris in the roadway often falls into one of two categories.

It may be an item that fell off of a truck or a car that was being hauled, like a piece of furniture or a box, but often, the debris on the road may be a piece of the vehicle itself. Many poorly maintained vehicles may have pipes or parts of tires or fenders that fall off vehicles.

Improperly maintained tires are a common piece of road debris that can cause a serious accident, especially at high speeds. Tore tread is so commonly found on the road, that it has a name—a “road gator,” for the tire tread that looks like the rugged skin of an alligator.

Someone Somewhere is Liable

Regardless of which it is, the cause remains the same: human error. Parts don’t just fall off cars, unless the car isn’t properly maintained or taken care of. Large items don’t fall off trucks unless they are improperly fastened, or they are carelessly loaded.

That means that somewhere, there is a driver that was responsible for those items being on the road. That driver may have never even known that he or she left an item on the road, or else, may have known and just driven off.

All Items are Dangerous

Don’t be fooled into thinking that only larger items are a threat to you on the roadway. Smaller items that are run over by a car in front of you, can shoot out the back of the car after being run over, becoming so dangerous that the item can crash through the front window of your vehicle.

If the debris itself doesn’t cause an accident or injury, efforts to avoid it may injure you. It is, of course, natural human instinct to swerve a vehicle out of the way of debris on the road. But in swerving, a driver can easily lose control of a vehicle, or swerve into oncoming traffic, causing injuries to multiple people.

So Who is Liable?

If you are injured by random debris on the roadway, the debris itself may indicate who owns it. Some items may have labels or manufacture codes or other identifying information.

If absolutely no such information exists, then a driver injured by road debris, can try to get compensation from his or her own uninsured motorist insurance. The driver who left or dropped the debris on the road is no different than a “phantom driver,” who causes an accident and then drives away before being identified. That’s exactly what your uninsured motorist insurance is there for.

Contact our Rhode Island injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help if you have been injured by debris or items left on the highway.