Ask The Risk Manager: Road Defect Claims

In this report of Ask the Risk Manager from Trident Public Risk Solutions, we look over the things you can be doing for your organization or public entity to help protect from road defects. To make sure your organization is doing all it can to keep down road claims, read on to learn more.

Is Spring in the air yet? Believe it or not, it is just around the corner! While that is good news, the bad news is that with the warmer season comes pothole season. The spring thaw and fluctuating temperatures will start to expose all the damage done by water getting into the cracks in the roadways and sidewalks. This, of course, is nothing new for our public works crews who are used to ongoing road repairs and the headaches that spring can bring with potholes.

One factor that is not always taken into consideration is that as with any roadside maintenance, road defect-related repairs are hazardous. The more time our Public Works crews spend repairing roads, the more time they are at risk for injury by getting struck by a motorist. This and the public safety risk of vehicle damage or accidents caused by road-related defects should make this a priority for your municipality.

Road Defect Claims Are Preventable with Proper Administrative Procedures

Each municipality should have a Pavement Management Plan that involves:

• Inspecting your roadways
• Grading them on a scale
• Prioritizing repairs and road replacement

Technology has come a long way in helping with this process. Infrared cameras can be used to evaluate the subsurface of roads that could be contributing to road defects and further enable you to prevent them.

From an insurance perspective, road defect claims are generally preventable. Many states have caps that limit the damages paid on claims of road or sidewalk defects and specific guidance on the method and timing of reporting defects. The law also typically allows a municipality a “reasonable” amount of time to repair road defects once notified. A reasonable amount of time is typically not a fixed duration and can vary depending on weather, public safety emergencies, traffic, location, etc. With these tort protections in place, it is critical for each municipality to have a consistent and effective means to receive, track, repair, and monitor all road defects. If you have not already, now is the time to evaluate your current process and procedures.

Solutions to Create Best Practices for Your Public Entity

• Track And Document All Road Defect Reports And Repairs
  • Track preventive maintenance (PM) and customer concerns.
• Implement A Pavement Management Program (PMP)
  • The PMP should include a baseline grading of each road in the jurisdiction.
• Create Formal Shared Maintenance Agreements
  • Begin by identifying roadways in your jurisdiction with informal shared maintenance agreements.
• Remedy Design Flaws
  • Narrow shoulders, blind curves, and poorly banked roads are examples of design flaws that should be addressed in a timely manner once they have been identified.
• Implement A Formal Road Inspection Program
  • Inspect all roads at least once per month
• Proactively Ensure Proper Procedures For Work Zones
  • Communicate safety expectations regarding work zones with roadwork contractors.
• Outline A Communication Plan
  • Make it easy for the public to communicate road defects to you via email, mobile app, or website.

Next Steps

• Our claims adjusters often hear from our policyholders that they had no prior notice of the problem that was reported. If you have a clear and consistent process, it will be easier to avoid incidents and defend against claims.
• Be sure to maintain a log that identifies the date, time, address, and name of the person reporting the issue as well as the date and time of the repairs.
• Work order programs make tracking easy and can also assist with your Pavement Management Plan by examining roads with high reports of defects.
• Conduct quality control checks of your system throughout the year.
• Also, be sure that you communicate to your public works team and any administrative staff that could be receiving road defect claims over the phone that they should avoid attributing fault for the defect; this allows the insurance company adjuster to handle the facts of the claim.
• Support your public works crews by giving them the tools to manage the roads, which will hopefully require them to spend less time making repairs.