Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer Blog

For over 40 years, I have regularly driven on Roosevelt Boulevard, the major traffic artery running through north and northeast Philadelphia. Just yesterday, I was driving with my son northbound in the middle lane when two vehicles appeared to be racing out of control, weaving in and out of traffic in a dangerous fashion. Police cars were stopped at several locations apparently investigating a number of car accidents. When I was 16 or 17-years old, four of my closest friends were killed in a serious car accident on this highway and since that date, I have investigated and litigated a multitude of other wrongful deaths or life altering catastrophic injuries caused by car accidents on Roosevelt Boulevard. The safety of this well-traveled road raises great concern.

Just this week, I was contacted by a client who has been in intensive care for over two weeks with multiple crush fractures after being hit by a vehicle while crossing Roosevelt Boulevard. The 12 lane highway known as Roosevelt Boulevard contains two of the most dangerous intersections in America, each one and a half miles apart. Many experts and highway design defect experts claim that design highway safety fixes to the dangerous situation are fairly cheap, so why are steps in this direction not being taken? Over 36 million cars travel the Roosevelt Boulevard every year, making it one of the busiest roadways in the country according to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials, who also claim that many of the accidents are inevitable.

As an experienced Philadelphia car accident attorney who has litigated and investigated many Philadelphia and Pennsylvania highway design defect claims which result in catastrophic automobile accidents, I am of the opinion that due to the current volume of traffic on Roosevelt Boulevard, it does not meet roadway design standards and safety equipment standards, even though it may have adequately met them 4 or 5 decades ago. Many traffic engineers, highway design experts, and traffic investigators feel that the roadway and traffic design of Roosevelt Boulevard is inadequate to safely handle the volume of traffic on the highway and the design is frankly out of touch with the times.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a car accident or have been a pedestrian struck by a car on Roosevelt Boulevard, the experienced Philadelphia highway design defect and Philadelphia car accident lawyers of Reiff and Bily always offer a free, no obligation consultation and will inform you with their decades of experience so that those responsible may be held accountable for resulting medical bills, financial damages, loss of emotional security and foundation, as well as the loss of life’s pleasures. In just one split second, a victim’s life can be changed forever. Reiff and Bily always offers a free, no obligation consultation and can be reached toll free at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

We all pay a lot of taxes and when we drive down the roads and streets in our cars with precious cargo on board, we expect that city, state, and federal governments who we pay taxes to will keep the streets safe and free from roadway defects. Many times unfortunately this is not the case and roadway hazards and defect designs puts the safety of drivers and passengers at risk and unfortunately result in catastrophic injuries and wrongful deaths. Improper signage, negligent construction, worn roadways, and improper highway design jeopardize the safety of all drivers and if any of these situations causes a car accident, truck accident, or rollover accident the municipality may be held liable for negligence.

The experienced Pennsylvania car accident lawyers and highway defect lawyers of Reiff & Bily have over 30 years of experience handling car accidents and roadway defects including but not limited to lack of guardrails, lack of signs, construction negligence, potholes, uneven roadway, water pooling, shoulder drop offs, and municipal negligence.

If you have been involved in a car accident due to a defective/improper roadway design, please contact one of our Philadelphia car accident and highway defect attorneys for a free, no obligation consultation toll free at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

A few weeks ago, I was sitting the passenger seat of a car the my wife was driving when she had a major anxiety attack as she entered a “cattle shoot” of a highway construction project on I-476 southbound in Pennsylvania. State and highway traffic engineers had developed a traffic plan, closed traffic lanes, placing cones directing drivers into a “cattle shoot” to travel southbound on I-476 while construction took place on a wet evening in the adjacent lanes. Visibility was poor. My wife, a nervous driver to begin with, was having a panic attack while traveling in this narrow, enclosed lane at a fairly high speed. While she couldn’t stop and get out of the car, she became paralyzed with fear. I am sure that my wife’s reaction is not so dissimilar from many other drivers who enter the strange “cattle shoot-like” closure during road construction projects.

As an experienced Pennsylvania car accident attorney who has handled many highway defect design cases involving catastrophic injuries and death, I am all too familiar with the catastrophic car accidents that occur within highway construction projects, including but not limited to the “cattle shoot”.

Recently a driver was paralyzed in a crash while following a temporary traffic pattern in such a situation and the case was settled during jury selection for $13.5 million dollars. The 50-year victim suffered injuries resulting in partial quadriplegia requiring 24 hour care. The victim, his wife, and daughter sued the highway contractors, planners, and the city alleging that the traffic pattern, which was signed off by city officials, obscured vision creating a dangerous traffic pattern. Also alleged in the highway defect lawsuit was the fact that the contractor had negligently placed signed and cones in the wrong location and were not large enough.

Continue reading "Who Is At Fault When You Get Into A Car Accident While Driving Through A Highway Construction Site?" »

I am sure many of you have had the experience driving your car when all of a sudden you sense a drop-off of the roadway to a different level of the highway. This often occurs in areas where paving has been laid and material has also been added during construction or when a road shoulder has been washed away due to weather or worn down by traffic.

Since 1979 as an experienced Philadelphia car accident attorney handling many road defect cases, we have all too frequently dealt with situations where an unevenly paved highway or street surface causes the driver of a car to lose control resulting in an accident avoidance or oversteer maneuver ultimately resulting in severe and catastrophic injuries or death.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, an estimated 11,000 people suffer injuries annually in crashes related to unsafe or uneven pavement edges. Highway or street drop-off crashes tend to result in more serious and catastrophic injuries than other car accidents. Studies have indicated that victims of highway drop-off crashes are 2 to 3 times more likely to suffer fatalities primarily because the vehicle rolls over or crashes into another object, such as an oncoming vehicle, when the driver attempts to regain control of the vehicle.

Continue reading "Road Drop-off and Uneven Street Levels Can Cause Serious Injuries and Death" »

Government entities such as the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation can be held liable for injuries that occur as a result of improperly maintained or designed roads. At the Philadelphia car accident law firm of Reiff & Bily, we represent people who have been injured and the families of those who have been catastrophically injured or killed on dangerous highways and streets throughout Pennsylvania.

It is very important to recover evidence and take photos before potholes are filled, trees are trimmed, or guardrails added, and it is important to contact an attorney as soon as possible after a car or truck accident caused by a dangerous street or highway. If a defective road or a dangerous highway condition contributed to your accident, contact Philadelphia car accident and defective road design lawyer Jeffrey Reiff today.

Continue reading "Defective Road Design and Improper Road Maintenance Causes Too Many Car Accidents" »