Each Los Angeles car accident lawyer at our firm may be somewhat biased on this point, but we believe that California roads offer some of the most beautiful scenic vistas in the nation.

Unfortunately, the most beautiful drives are often dangerous. With anything from curves and cliffs to uneven pavement, any driver faces significant risks, particularly since the elemental exposure of many scenic roadways often makes them difficult to maintain.

There is often a fine line between reasonable road conditions and negligent maintenance. When an accident occurs, injury victims often face challenges when determining fault, particularly on the part of municipalities.

Injury Victims Must Turn to CA Government Code to Identify Municipality Liability

After a car accident, establishing negligence on the part of other drivers primarily involves looking at how well they adhered to the rules of the road. When road conditions appear to cause accidents, however, attorneys need to refer to the Government Code, Section 830-831.8, which essentially defines what constitutes a dangerous condition on any public property.

The code first limits the definition of dangerous condition to one that creates a substantial (rather than minor, trivial or insignificant) risk of injury when used with due care in a manner for which it is expected to be used. The bulk of this code, however, serves to limit times when a municipality or its employees might be held liable for injuries. The overall spirit of these limitations is as follows:

• After viewing the evidence most favorably to an injury victim, a court finds the risk created by a dangerous condition to be minor, trivial or insignificant, essentially based on how a reasonable person would assess it.
• A municipality fails to provide regulatory signs and signals, but a reasonable person should have expected the risks.
• The natural condition of unimproved areas does not represent hazards, such as might be the case when injuries are caused by the use of unimproved easements to public areas.
• As a general rule, conditions caused by natural events do not represent municipal negligence.
• Making repairs or improvements following an injury does not automatically represent admission of municipal liability.

Municipalities Can and Should Be Held Accountable When Appropriate

Clearly, the specific points of the Code appear to do a good job of making it seem virtually impossible to hold municipalities accountable, even when hazardous road conditions cause severe injuries.

While most injury victims would have limited success when filing claims directly with municipalities, experienced auto accident attorneys understand how to approach cases based on the standard of reasonable expectations.

To cite just one example, it appears that failure to provide warnings does not represent negligence, but this protection only goes so far. If no road sign warns of construction activity hidden around a curve, the municipality — or the contractor that is in charge of the construction — can potentially be held accountable for injuries caused when a car rounds the curve and strikes an unseen construction vehicle.

Injury victims should not automatically assume they are at fault just because the law appears to protect a powerful municipality. The Rudman Law Firm welcomes the opportunity to assess the tough cases. To learn about all available legal options, call us at (844) 478-3626 / (844) 4RUDMAN, at our Los Angeles office at (213) 375-3777 or at our Studio City office (818) 769-6969.