Roadway Defect Lawyers in Philadelphia

Serving Clients Nationwide

When a catastrophic motor vehicle accident occurs, the focus is often on driver error. However, when road conditions cause or contribute to a motor vehicle or pedestrian accident, those responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, or repairs of the roadway (or adjacent structures such as guardrails and utility poles) may bear legal liability. At Feldman Shepherd, we have secured millions of dollars in compensation for clients who have been seriously injured or killed in accidents involving roadway defects.

What Are Roadway Defect Cases?

Roadway defect cases generally fall into seven major categories, each requiring a sophisticated legal and technical analysis. Our roadway defect attorneys evaluate how these specific hazards contributed to your accident to ensure every responsible party—which may include state and local government entities, private engineering consultants, and other contractors—is held accountable.

Utility Poles and Wires: We evaluate whether structures were negligently placed in the path of vehicles that are caused to leave the roadway.
Guardrails: Claims often involve guardrails that fail to perform as intended, such as those that penetrate a vehicle’s passenger compartment due to defective design, improper installation, or poor maintenance.
Roadway Design: This category covers fundamental flaws like inadequate traffic signals and signage, poor lighting, improper speed limits, pavement edge drop-offs, and failure to warn of dangerous conditions.
Pedestrian Crossings: We investigate dangerous conditions for pedestrians, including a lack of traffic control signals and signage, inadequate pavement markings, improper speed limits, and vision obstructions.
Failure to Fix Dangerous Conditions: Legal claims may arise when government officials fail to rectify known hazards that have repeatedly caused serious injuries or deaths over many years.
Construction Zones: We determine if a work zone project was properly monitored by police, presented dangerous road surfaces, lacked adequate roadway markings or signage, or required motorists to suddenly or unexpectedly reduce their speed or come to a full stop.
Dangerous Trees: If a motorist is injured by a falling tree, we investigate whether the party responsible for the tree breached a legal duty to safely maintain it. Breaches of duty may arise from failure to conduct routine inspections or failure to remove and/or prune risky trees as necessary.

Blockbuster Results in Roadway Defect Cases

Since our firm’s founding in 1987, the roadway defect attorneys at Feldman Shepherd have achieved multimillion-dollar recoveries in litigation that, in many cases, have helped to make our roadways safer.

Attorneys John M. Dodig and Jason A. Daria secured a $31 million verdict in Camden County, New Jersey, for a driver who lost his leg when a phantom vehicle forced him off the side of the road, causing him to hit a defective guardrail that penetrated his driver’s side door. Through extensive investigation, Dodig and Daria learned that the guardrail was dangerous because it had a “boxing glove” at the end, rather than an impact attenuator, which is a safer design. They argued that the county knew for 20 years that the guardrail was dangerous, but by its own admission, did not comply with safety standards because its practice was not to repair dangerous conditions until there was an accident. As a result of the litigation, dangerous guardrails across Camden County were replaced with new guardrails to prevent the type of injury that our client endured.

Dodig and Daria also achieved a $25.1 million recovery—including a $19.1 million jury verdict and $6 million from other defendants in settlements—on behalf of three motorists killed in a tractor-trailer accident involving multiple vehicles in a construction zone where the project contractor did not provide adequate notice for a truck driver to slow down and stop for a major traffic backup. The verdict was recognized by The Legal Intelligencer as the largest verdict in Pennsylvania in 2021.

In another significant case, Dodig and Daria achieved a confidential settlement with an electric company for a college student who was partially paralyzed when he swerved to avoid a head-on collision with a vehicle that entered his lane of travel and instead drove up the guy wire of a utility pole, spun off the wire, flipped his vehicle onto its roof, and collided with the pole. Dodig and Daria were able to establish that the wires and anchors were 3.5 to 3.10 feet from the edge of the highway, which placed them directly in the path of any vehicle that might leave the highway. The available clear zone (i.e., space for an errant vehicle that leaves the roadway) was at a minimum of 20 feet, meaning there was plenty of available space to place the guy wires further from the highway.

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Justice for Victims of Roosevelt Boulevard’s Dangerous Roadway Design

Our team is highly experienced in handling roadway defect cases involving Philadelphia’s notoriously dangerous Roosevelt Boulevard.

Dodig and Daria achieved a $4.5 million settlement on behalf of a 27-year-old mother and her three young children who were killed by a street-racing driver while legally crossing the Boulevard at a dangerous crosswalk that provided a false assurance of safety. The lawsuit against city and state agencies and private contractors responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of the Boulevard in the area of the crosswalk was hotly contested by the defendants, who relied strongly on the conduct of the street-racing drivers. In addition to the financial recovery, the litigation led to safety improvements on the Boulevard, and the hazardous crosswalk was replaced with a safer crosswalk that has pavement markings, a traffic control signal, signage, and better sight distance. It is named in honor of our clients.

In another case against entities responsible for the roadway design of the Boulevard, Dodig and Daria secured a $1.2 million settlement for the parents of a college student who died after being struck by a motor vehicle while crossing in a designated crosswalk. The accident occurred when the driver was crossing into the outer drive (local lanes) of the Boulevard using a crossover located only 60 feet before the crosswalk. While proceeding through the crossover, the driver was looking behind and to his right for traffic in the outer drive in order to merge. As a result, he did not see our client crossing ahead of him in time to avoid striking her. Through accident reconstruction engineers, Dodig and Daria were able to establish that the crosswalk was dangerously close to the crossover from the express to local lanes. The case was hotly contested, with the defense relying strongly on the fact that our client was crossing against a red light.

Other Significant Roadway Defect Results

Confidential settlement reached during trial for the family of a motorcyclist who was killed when his motorcycle encountered a roadway defect on I-295 in New Jersey. In reaching the settlement, our team had to overcome an extremely challenging liability defense based on the motorcyclist’s alleged intoxication by demonstrating that the blood-alcohol level determined at autopsy was flawed and unreliable.
$6 million verdict for a motorist who became disabled when a large, decayed tree limb that extended over the roadway broke loose and crashed through the roof of his SUV.
$3.8 million settlement for a bicyclist injured in a motor vehicle accident where improper lighting contributed to the happening of the crash.
$1.4 million settlement for a driver involved in a single-vehicle accident when his vehicle encountered a drop-off at the edge of the pavement, causing him to lose control and crash.
Recovery against the City of Philadelphia of the maximum amount allowed by statute for a municipal liability claim on behalf of a driver who died and a passenger who was seriously injured when a large maple tree that was decayed and unstable due to root fungus fell on their vehicle while they were stopped for a red light at a heavily traveled area of Belmont Avenue.

How Feldman Shepherd Can Help

At Feldman Shepherd, we offer seasoned legal counsel for families who have suffered the devastating consequences of roadway defect accidents. We will assemble an investigative team to evaluate your case. Depending upon the nature of the accident, professionals might include a private investigator/photographer, an accident reconstruction expert, a traffic engineer, and construction contracting experts. We will also conduct an expeditious forensic investigation to document the accident site and gather and assess physical evidence before it is lost forever.

When you entrust us with your case, transparency and open communication define our professional relationship. You can count on us to fully explain every step of the legal process and to keep you fully informed with regular updates. Most importantly, we operate on a contingency fee basis—meaning you will not be charged a legal fee unless we win your case and secure a recovery for you.

While every roadway defect case has its own story, our commitment is always to provide compassionate, individualized support to your family while working to ensure a maximum financial recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions Philadelphia Roadway Defect

Who can be held responsible for a roadway defect accident?

Liability may rest with multiple parties, including state or local governments, private contractors, engineering firms, utility companies, or maintenance providers. Determining responsibility requires a detailed investigation into who designed, approved, installed, or maintained the roadway or adjacent structures.

Are government agencies immune from roadway defect lawsuits?

Not always. While government entities may have limited immunity, claims are often allowed when injuries result from dangerous conditions, known hazards that were not repaired, or failure to follow established safety standards. These cases are subject to strict procedural rules and deadlines.

Why is early investigation important in roadway defect cases?

Roadway evidence can disappear quickly due to repairs, weather, or traffic. Early investigation is critical to preserving physical evidence, identifying responsible parties, and meeting shortened notice requirements that often apply to claims involving government entities.