From Batesville to Barboursville and everywhere in between, the lush Central VA area is honeycombed with small, often unpaved roads. So, what are some of the dangers in these types of areas? Personal injury lawyers understand some of the major challenges of dealing with these wild and rural environments. While there may not be as much volume of traffic on these “back roads” as there are in cities and suburban areas, there are still a lot of dangers for drivers to look out for — the risks aren’t ‘more’ or ‘less’, they’re just different.
Backing Out
Some graded or curvy roads, or roads encumbered by a lot of vegetation, can have very poor sight distances. That means when it’s time to back out, turn around or otherwise maneuver on these lanes, it’s hard to tell if anyone is coming towards you. This is an issue with many of the small lanes that lead out onto woody and isolated high-speed roads.
Low Alertness
Because so few vehicles come along on many of these roads, drivers may start assuming that there won’t be any oncoming traffic. This can give them a false sense of security and lead to devastating accidents and injuries.
No Signage
While roads in urban and suburban areas are carefully maintained by state transportation departments and municipalities, rural roads tend to lose out. Even where there are some road signs, whether they were installed by government or private property owners, they can get lost or deteriorate over time. In some cases, there’s no signage at all and no indication of a lane or road branching off, which can give oncoming traffic quite a scare when some vehicle suddenly emerges.
Lack of Nearby Medical Facilities
For a legal consultation with a personal injury lawyer, call 434-817-3100
One of the biggest issues after an accident is getting injury victims to a qualified medical professional. That’s very difficult in some of these rural areas because of the distances that emergency crews need to go, and the lack of nearby facilities or services. It’s not just that these houses and roads aren’t near a hospital — in many cases, there’s not even a gas station for many miles around. All of this adds to the challenge of helping injury victims because there are so few people around to assist and because, with so few drivers, a back road can lapse into a less navigable state.
These are just some of the challenges that drivers and others deal with in rural areas of Central Virginia. That’s not to mention the impact of wild animals on accident rates. Local central Virginia personal injury lawyers see this all the time — they have to help their clients navigate through the often difficult task of pursuing compensation after an accident when their injury was due to some kind of negligence or inattention to public safety.
Call a Virginia Injury Law Firm Today
If you or a family member has been injured in the Albermarle county area, call the Virginia injury lawyers at MartinWren, P.C. We’ll help you through every step the process. Let us help you to access your rights under the law. Call today.
Call 434-817-3100 or complete a Case Evaluation form
