Road Traffic Accidents represent one of the main forms of personal injury accidents in the UK with over 3,200 people being killed on UK roads every year. Road traffic accidents can occur due to a number of reasons such as driver negligence, mechanical failure and contributing factors such as cyclists, pedestrians and even animals.

One aspect that can also cause serious road accidents is unsafe road conditions. Authorities have a duty to ensure that roads are keep in a safe condition, failure to do so can have serious consequences resulting in road traffic accidents that can cause serious personal injury.

Poor maintenance of a road can be a severe contributing factor to road traffic accidents. When a road surface suffers damage and is in need of repair, these repairs should be carried out immediately as poor road maintenance accounts for one in six vehicle failures, the main failures being suspension and axle damage. This happens when a vehicle continuously drives over pot holes in a road surface. Pot holes can cause vehicle damage such as the types previously mentioned, which can go on to be the cause of road traffic accidents. If you were driving at high speeds down a road, such as a motorway, and you hit a pot hole it has the potential to cause you to lose control of the car; the results of a situation like this would be devastating, you would suffer terrible injury such as fractured/broken bones, head trauma, back injuries or even spinal cord damage.

Any maintenance such as pot holes or general wear and tear as well as the accumulation of debris has the potential to cause a serious road traffic accident. Your local authority should be informed immediately about any new problems and should take the appropriate action straight away to correct the damage. It is also the job of your local authority to perform routine checks to ensure that road surfaces are kept in a safe condition. Failure to perform this duty could leave them open to liability claims.

Poor maintenance isn’t the only issue that can add to unsafe road conditions, you also need to take extra care when you are out in poor weather conditions. Drive safely in icy and snowy conditions as reaction times will be slowed down and the friction between your wheels and the road will be limited but also remember your rights when it comes to driving in bad weather conditions; should the road have been gritted? Did your local authority know about the weather conditions in advance? If they did and failure to grit the road had occurred then they could be liable for a compensation claim if an accident were to happen. This is because they would have failed in their duty of protecting you as a road user.

One other contributing factor to road traffic accidents can be the design of the actual road. This is an aspect that many people fail to think about but is also one that could be deadly if it were to happen. If a road isn’t design correctly it could become difficult to see other road users due to factors such as inappropriate bends in the road. Roads with a bad design are also more susceptible to weather conditions and could have inadequate signage and signals as well as not enough lighting and bad visibility of road markings.

Unsafe road surfaces are more of a contributing factor to road traffic accidents than many people realise and more should be done to improve road surfaces and thus improve road safety.

Helen is the web master of Accident Consult, home of all you Road Traffic Accident Compensation Claim needs.