Road and Equipment Defects

Bicycle and motorcycle accidents can be caused by factors beyond your control. If your bicycle or motorcycle accident-related injury was caused by a road or equipment defect, a Rhode Island motorcycle lawyer or Rhode Island bike lawyer will take different measures to help you seek compensation for your injuries.
Road Defects:

Towns and cities are required to maintain the roads and other areas located within their boundaries. This includes removing snow and ice from bridges. The State of Rhode Island is responsible for filling potholes on state highways, causeways, or bridges. Originally, towns were only required to make sure roads were safe for “ordinary vehicles.” This meant that Rhode Island bike lawyers could not gain compensation for their clients’ bicycle-related injuries caused by road defects. A law was later added to make sure cyclists were protected as well.

State statutes place significant limits on your ability to receive compensation for damages caused by road defects. For example, all claims for motor vehicle damages caused by a pothole must be made within seven days of the date when your motor vehicle was damaged. If you are ever injured by a road defect of any kind, it is extremely important that you contact a Rhode Island motorcycle lawyer or Rhode Island bike lawyer to pursue your claim as soon as possible.

Equipment Defects:

Injuries can readily be caused by products that are not correctly manufactured, designed, tested, or labeled. To prove a product was defective, your Rhode Island motorcycle lawyer or Rhode Island bike lawyer must prove the product was defective, the defect existed before the manufacturer transferred control of the product, and that the defect caused your injury. Design defects are products that were created with a defect that makes the equipment dangerous to use. Manufacturing defects exist when a safely designed product is not made properly, which makes the equipment dangerous. Testing defects, which tend to be difficult to prove, lie in the manufacturer’s failure to sufficiently ascertain that the equipment’s suitability for a given activity. Finally, improper labeling creates a claim when the equipment’s instructions do not give proper warnings of the inherent dangers of the product or do not give you proper instructions for use of the equipment.

Unlike road defects where the responsible government entity can be readily identified based on geography, equipment defect cases require extensive research. Potentially responsible entities may include manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and even marketers and promoters of the equipment.