As an Atlanta injury and wrongful death attorney I have been asked on several occasions to represent clients injured or killed when a vehicle hydroplanes and causes an accident on metro Atlanta and north Georgia roads. Because of the hills throughout north Georgia, when there are heavy rains (and sometimes not so heavy), roads often times have deep puddles and flooding that can cause a car or truck to hydroplane and drivers to loose control of their vehicles causing serious accidents.
When this happens and someone is injured or killed, the injured individuals and the families of those killed have claims against the person or persons responsible for causing the collision. The driver of the hydroplaning vehicle will often claim they did nothing wrong and there wasn't anything they could have done do to avoid losing control of their vehicle. My belief is that if the vehicle hydroplaned, it is more likely than not that the driver did do something wrong. First, a good argument can me made that if the vehicle hydroplaned, the driver was driving too fast for conditions. Simply put, if the driver had been driving at an appropriate speed for the conditions of the road, the car would not have hydroplaned. What we also find is that the tires on the hydroplaning vehicle are often overly worn, and had the tires been properly maintained, the vehicle would not have spun out of control. These two arguments often are enough to find the driver has some fault for causing the hydroplaning accident.
Other possible at fault parties for causing a hydroplaning accident are developers and contractors. I had a case where the passenger in a car was paralyzed from the neck down when the vehicle she was in hydroplaned out of its lane and was struck by an oncoming vehicle. The case went to trial and a jury found that the developer of a shopping center had negligently designed a shopping center allowing water to run into the roadway. I learned first hand in that case that if a developer or contractor negligently causes water to run into the road and pool, they may be liable for injuries or deaths resulting in an accident caused by their negligence.
Another possible responsible party for causing a hydroplane accident is the Georgia Department of Transportation. In a case that was recently settled, a woman and her unborn child were badly injured when the driver of another vehicle hydroplaned on a small road in Cherokee County, Georgia. Before the accident, numerous prior hydroplane accidents had occurred at the location of accident at issue, and the GDOT was told the road was a problem. Apparently, the GDOT had done some patch work on the road, but did not make the road completely safe. Ultimately, the GDOT paid over a million dollars to settle the claim that it had failed to properly design, construct and maintain the roadway and failed to warn of dangerous road conditions in wet weather.
The thing to understand is that prevailing on hydroplane cases can be very difficult. Even the claims against the driver are difficult to win because juries often don't feel there is anything the driver could have done to avoid hydroplaning. Claims against developers and the DOT can be even more difficult to prove. The theories of recovery against developers and the GDOT are almost always complicated and extensive expert testimony is almost always needed. Lawyer handling these cases must be experience and know how to handle these types of claims. If you have been in an accident caused by a vehicle hydroplaning, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss your case. If you do not contact me, make sure to contact another experienced attorney to handle your claim.
