Hit a barricade

[Thor200587]

Phoenix, AZ

I was driving down a street that was undergoing construction. There were barricades set up to direct traffic. One was laying on the ground and since it was night I did not see it and ran over it. It stood up an put a pretty good scratch on the side of my truck.

My questions are:
1. Is the contractor or the barricade company responsible?
2. Does the fact that the site seemed to be put together haphazardly help me at all?
3. I am meeting with the site supervisor is there anything I should be prepared for?

Thanks in advance for a response. I just take pride in my truck and would like to have it fixed.

Ryan

 

[sumatra77]

Hello... You can attempt to see if the site supervisor will accept liability for this but I SERIOUSLY doubt it. You hit a fixed object and they will probably ask why you didn't see the object and say you didn't provide adequate lookout and avoidance.
Not to be discouraging, but hope for the best, but expect the worst.

 

[ecmst12]

You hit a stationary object. That is nobody's fault but your own, at least legally speaking.

 

[xylene]

You hit a stationary object. That is nobody's fault but your own, at least legally speaking.

I find this claim as a universal statement very unlikely.

It might seem there are multitudes of scenarios where a 'stationary object' in a roadway might result in liability upon the entity who caused it to be in the roadway.

Further, their are standards for roadways, and this includes construction zones.

If this guy just hit a parking cone - well thats one thing.

But a barricade should not be lying in the road (and I am having a hard time following what he means by barricade at that...)

 

[moburkes]

I was thinking that he was talking about an orange barrel. Those things get knocked over and blown by the wind. If he's talking about a concrete barriers, then, that's another story. However, generally, it is true that he will be deemed at fault in the situation.

 

[Zigner]

You were driving in a construction zone. You should have taken reasonable care to avoid obstacles that might be present.

 

[alnorth]

Realistically, even pretending for a moment that the contractor had full liability (which isnt certain), youll need to prove that the barricade was negligently allowed to lay on the ground. If you walk into court and accuse them of negligence leading to your car damage, I would be willing to gamble that they will say "no your honor, the barricade was properly set up and highly visible, he just didnt pay attention and hit it!"

Hopefully the site supervisor will offer you at least some kind of partial settlement just to avoid the hassle of going to court.

 

[Thor200587]

Sorry for not being as clear as I could. What I hit was one of the things that redirects a lane, it has diagonal lines and a yellow orange flasher on the top. As I said the site is not maintained well. The one I hit was on the ground in the lane and the light was not on. I went back and took pictures of the site and also measured one of the points and it seemed that given the way they were setup there was no way a large truck could fit through with out hitting one.

 

[moburkes]

How will you be able to prove that another vehicle didn't knock it over? What time of day was this, that you didn't see the sign or the reflection from the unit that houses the light?

 

[Thor200587]

It was about 10 at night. The non reflective black base was sticking into the road. I don't know that I can prove another car didn't knock it over, would they not be responsible anyway? I talked to the site superintendent today and he said that the city of phoenix risk management set them up; I'm going to give them a call, but I have the feeling that I'm going to get the run around. I'm only 20 and in my experience in dealing with things of this nature I get no respect. I am hoping that if I can go in with all of the pertinent information that they will not try to pass it off and I can just make a claim to their insurance and get it taken care of.

 

[Zigner]

It was about 10 at night. The non reflective black base was sticking into the road. I don't know that I can prove another car didn't knock it over, would they not be responsible anyway? I talked to the site superintendent today and he said that the city of phoenix risk management set them up; I'm going to give them a call, but I have the feeling that I'm going to get the run around. I'm only 20 and in my experience in dealing with things of this nature I get no respect. I am hoping that if I can go in with all of the pertinent information that they will not try to pass it off and I can just make a claim to their insurance and get it taken care of.

You're not getting it. It's YOUR fault you hit it...not theirs.

 

[ecmst12]

The driver of a vehicle in motion has the primary responsibility to avoid any object which is STATIONARY in the road, whether it belongs there or not. That's part of the driver's job.

 

[moburkes]

And, usually when the government is at fault, you are responsible for the deductible. They don't pay very many claims.

 

[Thor200587]

Zigner,

I understand that there was a STATIONARY object in the road, but are there not circumstances where the person who put it there is responsible. What about the case where teenaged boys put a large rock in the road as a prank and when a driver hit it and his passenger was ejected and died the boys were charged with a crime. Was it a different state? Am I trying to compare apples and oranges? I merely heard the story on the news several months maybe even years ago so I do not remember details.

 

[moburkes]

Yes, apples and oranges. Those kids did it on PURPOSE.