AK Lawyers

Why engage a personal injury lawyer?

• To save time: you can turn the matter over to us and will not have to study all the rules.
• Tailored approach: we support you every step of the way and talk to you about what is important to you.
• Maximum compensation: thanks to our expertise, we get you everything that you deserve.
• A right to good fortune after an accident: we will ensure that we restore you back to your former way of life as much as possible and get you a compensation for your pain and suffering.
• We will go to court when necessary: since we are personal injury lawyers, we can also take the matter to court if there is a dispute.

Send us a message today. We deal with cases of victims of an accident caused by poor road surface or dangerous situations on the road. A personal injury lawyer or expert will handle your file straight away. You can focus on your recovery and we will make sure that you are compensated for your loss. Furthermore, we will ensure that the necessary arrangements are made so that after the accident, you will be able to get on with your life without any worries.

Accidents will happen…

• For instance, when you are walking, you may fall because of uneven or loose paving slabs;
• When you ride a motorcycle, loose gravel on the road may cause you to skid;
• When you ride a bicycle, you may fall because of a hole or crack in the surface of the cycle track.
• When you drive a car, you may run off the road due to poor markings and wrong signs in case of a diversion in connection with road works.

These are all situations that may result in injuries. In some cases, the road authority may be held liable. If that is the case, the road must be labelled as ‘defective’. Experience shows that it is not always easy to hold the road authority liable for an injury. This requires the expertise and experience of a personal injury specialist.

Send us a message today if you want to tell your story and want to know if you can recover the loss due to your personal injury from the road authority.

Duty of care of the road authority

In the Netherlands, the government is obliged by law to ensure that roads are kept in good and safe condition. The road authorities in the Netherlands are usually:

• the municipalities,
• the provinces, or
• the central government.

One of the tasks of road authorities is the performance of road safety inspections. If the road or cycle track surface is damaged, the road authority must ensure that it is repaired.

Evidence of a defective road

Whether you fell because of a loose pavement slab or tripped because tree roots lifted some pavement slabs, you must always be able to prove that the road was defective. By this, we mean that the road was so dangerous that the road authority should have taken action but failed to do so. However, not every unevenness or dangerous situation is always a defect.

When can we say that a road is defective?

The following circumstances are taken into consideration, among others:

– The nature and function of the road: was it intended for walking or cycling? And is it a very busy road? Or is it a road in a rural area with relatively little traffic?
– What behaviour is the road authority entitled to expect from you?
– Was the danger visible for a pedestrian? Or were you taken by surprise?
– Have other accidents happened before in this spot?
– Could an accident have been avoided by taking measures?

An example: In a case, a woman who wore slippers walked on a path of steel plates temporarily placed at a station. One of the plates had not been placed properly, as a result of which there was a difference in height. A slipper got caught on this plate and the woman fell. Should she have been more careful? The court found that a pedestrian who uses a temporary walkway through a construction site cannot expect a perfectly even surface. However, a pedestrian should not have to take into account large differences in height (more than 3 to
4 cm). The court also considered that this was a very busy access path to the station. The fact that the woman wore slippers did not mean that she was to blame for the accident. It is quite normal that people wear slippers in the summer.