Ever tried to Claim that the RTA was at fault

[JAS-25T]

Hey guys,

just wondering if any of you have ever tried to put the RTA (or what ever your local roads authority is) at fault for a motor vehicle accident?

as in saying the roads were shitty/ potholes.....so on and so forth?

any help/experience would be appreciated.

[Bass Junky]

Yep.

Depends on the road.

I had an incident on Bell St in Melbourne one night.

Warped a rim, bashed my front bar into the ground etc.

Was a big pot hole from recent works.

Sent letters to the local council, they said its a vic roads issue, sent letter to Vic Roads, and they blamed the people was did the work on the road.

People who did the work on the road paid for the damage.

That was a definent fault of the road and there was no way I could avoid it.

What happened to you?

[Abo Bob]

Happens all the time in personal injuries cases.

One of my Barristers won the biggest $ personal injuries case in Australia a couple of years ago against the RTA. About $16-17m.

Start with the council though because responsibility for roads is split between local councils, RTA and in some cases the Federal Government.

[JAS-25T]

hmmm

might look into this, only thing that might not help is that the road was wet.

driving up a road that is notorious for being slipperey as there are many oil around a near round about. as soon as it rains the roads become redicuosly slippery. car slid into an armco barrier

[Abo Bob]

Tough one to prove. How much damage?

[predator]

so *you* lost control because the road was "too slippery" ?? and trying to blame it on the road itself.. snowball + hell

wear it buddy.. it was wet, you were going inappropriate for the conditions, you lost control, and hit the barrier..

if anything, they could be charging *you* for fixing the barrier..

[GTRgeoff]

If you can prove it was not signposted and they have a duty of care to warn of/rectify the extant problem you may have a case. Depends on the variation of grip present.

I've been caught out twice with road surfaces changing. Luckily no damage but after appropriate correspondence the roads were resurfaced.

[JAS-25T]

well the road that was being travelled on is one known locally to be very slippery in the wet, especially after so much dry weather then the sudden down pour.

damage to the vehicle is quite extensive. the driver is just wanting to get off a possible neg driving charge due to the fact that the road is coated in oil/deisel from trucks and the like.

barrier was not damaged much at all.

police stated that "....mustn of been going very fast because the barrier is hardly damaged"

[Zahos]

so *you* lost control because the road was "too slippery" ?? and trying to blame it on the road itself.. snowball + hell

wear it buddy.. it was wet, you were going inappropriate for the conditions, you lost control, and hit the barrier..

if anything, they could be charging *you* for fixing the barrier..

only applicable if the driver is familiar with the conditions at that particular spot.

happened to me once, turning right, first time in the wet around this corner. Not only was the road oily, but the road had several small consecutive bumps. As I turned the corner VERY slowly in the middle of a gear change (so not accelerating) the car went slowly sideways into the next lane. This was at about 20km/h, I couldn't belive it!! Lucky there were no cars and i didn't hit the gutter...

For all those in Vic, it was turning right onto Warrigal rd from South rd. If it's wet, ALWAYS take that corner as slow as you can....