Potholes Can Send Your Car to the Shop and Send You to the Hospital

Potholes. You’ve driven over them, around them, and into them. You know how jarring driving over a pothole can be and the damage it can do to your car. But potholes can also lead to serious accidents and injuries.

Extreme weather conditions and the heat and pressure caused by a steady flow of heavy vehicles cause potholes to form. They can sometime reach depths of 20 inches and widths of 15 inches or more.

Potholes can lead to accidents in a number of ways. Driving into a pothole can cause a driver to lose control of their vehicle and hit others. The force and suddenness of the impact could cause the driver or passengers to hit their heads against the vehicle’s interior or cause trauma to their spine or neck. A driver trying to avoid a pothole may swerve into another lane and strike another vehicle.

As with any other auto accident case, if another driver’s negligence in driving into or around a pothole led to your injury, they may be responsible for compensating you for your losses.

However, accidents caused in part by potholes may also form the basis of a claim against the governmental entity in charge of maintaining the road. When the government entity responsible for building and maintaining a road does so in a negligent or careless manner, leading to an injury-causing accident, those who have been hurt may have a claim against that entity for compensation.

The challenges of identifying the public entity responsible for the road and proving that the government should have been aware of and fixed a pothole was responsible are just a couple of the reasons that an experienced car accident lawyer is essential if you want to obtain compensation for your injuries. Unique rules and deadlines apply to personal injury claims and lawsuits against the government. Short time periods as well as complicated and strictly enforced notice requirements can mean losing any ability to seek compensation if you make one wrong move.

If you have been injured in a car accident, please give us a call at (770) 727-5550 or chat live online with a member of our staff today. We can discuss your situation, evaluate your potential claim, and advise you of your options.