If you’ve been injured in an accident occurring on a public sidewalk in Pennsylvania — whether due to a rogue car that mounted the curb and caused a collision, or due to a trip-and-fall on the sidewalk — then the law may entitle you to compensation.
There is a variety of negligence that can give rise to a sidewalk-related injury. Understanding the breadth of potential causes is critical to bringing an effective claim for damages, as it can strengthen your claim to have multiple avenues for recovery (against multiple different defendants). For example, if you are injured by a car that swerved accidentally and mounted the curb, then you could ostensibly bring a suit against the negligent driver and against the city for failing to implement sidewalks with adequate grade separation or with barriers to shield pedestrians.
Let’s take a closer look at four common design issues.
What happens where sidewalks and roadways meet is often a point of serious contention among urban planners. Safety considerations demand a balanced perspective — in some areas, it may be better (for safety) to have only a short separation between the sidewalk and the roadway so that cars can mount the curb gently and come to a stop without losing control over their vehicle.
These considerations can be quite complex, and cities don’t always get it right. As a pedestrian, a gentle gradation on the sidewalk could be a significant and contributing cause of your injury. It is particularly frustrating in scenarios where the defendant’s vehicle was moving at a low-speed, and as such, a sharper gradation between the sidewalk and the roadway could have deflected the vehicle and prevented a collision altogether.
Whether the sidewalk was defective in its design is a complex, fact-based question that demands investigation by industry experts. A knowledgeable personal injury attorney can work with a trusted network of leading experts — including urban planners and other designers — who understand the many factors that are considered when designing and implementing a sidewalk. It is recommended to speak to an experienced Stroudsburg personal injury attorney to begin the process of having your claims evaluated.
The lack of a buffer zone between the sidewalk and the road — otherwise known as horizontal separation — can pose injury risks in that it reduces the room for error when either a driver or pedestrian makes a mistake.
For example, if the sidewalk has no horizontal separation from the roadway (i.e., the sidewalk drops off immediately into a trafficked auto lane), then a sudden turn to avoid a road hazard could lead to a severe pedestrian collision, as the vehicle will very likely mount the curb, since there is no room for it to avoid both the hazard and the sidewalk.
By implementing some horizontal separation between the sidewalk and the road, there can be room for the sort of mistakes that happen quite regularly.
If the municipality has not prohibited the use of bicycles on the sidewalks, then the design should be considerate of the mixed-use of those sidewalks. There should be sufficient space for both bicyclists and pedestrians to move on the sidewalk without impeding the other. If there is insufficient space for both, then an accident is highly likely to occur, particularly as bicycles move rather fast and can be unwieldy to start and stop in smaller, more contained areas.
Where bicycles are prohibited, warnings should be posted to ensure that bicyclists are aware that they cannot use the sidewalks. If there is no adequately visible sign or other warning, then bicyclists may inadvertently use the sidewalk, exposing pedestrians to a serious risk of injury that could have easily been prevented.
Oftentimes, city designers focus on beauty as opposed to functionality, which can lead to the use of materials that — while traditional and interesting — pose a serious danger to some pedestrians.
For example, the use of brick or cobblestone (if insufficiently maintained) can lead to jutting portions of the material that become tripping hazards, particularly for elderly pedestrians or others whose balance is shaky.
If you’ve tripped on rough, non-concrete sidewalk material, there’s also a chance that you’re not the first to have done so on that stretch of sidewalk. The occurrence of a similar accident on the same stretch of sidewalk is sufficient to have given the city notice of the danger so that they can correct it. Failure to correct the dangerous hazard (i.e., the material) could give rise to an actionable claim for negligence. If you’ve been injured due to a faulty sidewalk, don’t delay in seeking the assistance of a skilled personal injury attorney to review the details of your accident and possible claim.
