September 8, 2009, written by Andrew F. Fick, Esquire of the law firm of Liever, Hyman & Potter, P.C., personal injury attorneys Reading, Pennsylvania.
The Honorable Scott E. Lash of the Berks County Court, Reading, Pennsylvania recently issued an opinion in Coleman, et ux. v. Centre Township, et al. which was published in the Berks County Law Journal on July 30, 2009. The opinion was in support of his order dismissing the township from a lawsuit arising out of an automobile accident on the basis of governmental immunity under Pennsylvania law. Our firm did not represent the victim in this case. The law firm of Liever, Hyman & Potter, P.C., personal injury attorneys Reading, Pennsylvania has handled many successful lawsuits on behalf of injury victims against municipalities and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The victim was involved in an automobile accident in which his vehicle slid on a township road, causing it to cross into the oncoming lane and strike another vehicle. The victim and his wife sued the driver of the other vehicle. They also sued the township, alleging negligence in the “design, construction, supervision and/or inspection of the roadway.” The victim and his wife retained an expert who determined that the curves in the roadway at the scene of the collision were sufficiently dangerous to require traffic controls, such as a warning sign or blinkers to warn of the oncoming hazard; that the township failed to warn oncoming motorists of the hazardous condition; and that the township was negligent in failing to do so, The Judge concluded that, even so, the victim and his wife failed to establish that the township had a duty to provide traffic control devices at the site because that the expert’s report was insufficient due to the fact that no traffic control studies, and only limited engineering testing, were conducted. He further noted that, even if traffic control devices were present which would have advised the victim to slow down, the victim and his wife had failed to establish a nexus between that and the accident, pointing out that the victim testified in his deposition that he was travelling as slow as 15 miles an hour at the time of the accident and that he did not believe that the accident would have been avoided if he had been driving any slower because of the nature of the wet roadway and the weight of his vehicle.
It is important to promptly hire attorneys to assist in pursuing any type of injury claim. If you are trying to find personal injury attorneys Reading, Pennsylvania, contact Liever, Hyman & Potter, P.C.