The Impact of Roadway Design Flaws On Truck Accidents in Oklahoma
Oklahoma has a thriving trucking industry and offers a strategic location for trucks from other states, thanks to its major highways that run through the center of the United States. As crucial as the trucking industry is to Oklahoma residents, it also means motorists share the roadways with immense vehicles that far outsize and outweigh them.
Drivers and passengers in 4,000-pound cars are vulnerable to serious or catastrophic injuries in accidents involving trucks that weigh up to 80,000 pounds. Although driver and trucking company negligence is a common cause of truck accidents in Oklahoma, poorly planned roadways, unsafe merges, and dangerous intersections significantly contribute to devastating truck accidents.
If you’ve been injured in such a crash, an Oklahoma City truck accident lawyer can help you identify all liable parties and pursue full compensation.
How Do Poorly Designed Roadways Cause Truck Accidents in Oklahoma?
Road planning is carried out by city, state, and federal agencies, working either independently or collaboratively, depending on the type and location of the road or highway.
Planners and engineers are responsible for researching terrain and traffic flow before designing highways, urban streets, intersections, entrance ramps, and exit ramps, all to facilitate smooth traffic flow. Unfortunately, human error, rushed planning, and oversights sometimes result in design flaws that leave a section of roadway dangerous for drivers.
Safe roadway designs are especially crucial for large trucks, which have extended blind spots, require wider turns, and need longer stopping distances than average vehicles. When a road planner doesn’t adequately consider the inherent challenges of navigating the roadway in a large truck like an 18-wheeler, the result may be a section of roadway that’s prone to serious truck accidents.
What Types of Road Design Flaws Cause Oklahoma Truck Accidents?
City, county, state, and federal agencies all have regulatory standards that engineers and planners must meet when designing and implementing new roadways, road improvements, and road maintenance. Unfortunately, sometimes agencies cut corners, fail to adhere to regulations, or use substandard materials, resulting in flawed road designs.
The most common types of road design flaws that lead to truck accidents in Oklahoma include the following:
- Placing an unguided intersection in a place where a traffic signal light should be implemented
- Designing too-narrow lanes
- Entry ramps that aren’t long enough to allow for safe merging
- Short exit ramps that don’t allow adequate time for a truck to decelerate
- Designing highways without enough lanes to allow for heavy traffic flow
- Creating exit ramps with obstructed views
- Failing to allow enough shoulder space
- Failing to install guardrails in places with steep inclines, ditches, or ravines
- Lack of adequate signage at intersections and merges
- Failing to adequately level road edges
- Choosing poor-quality road surfacing materials
- Designing intersections with obstructed views
- Designing intersections with unclear right-of-ways
- Creating roads with blind curves or sharp curves that do not safely accommodate trucks
- Designing poor road drainage systems
- Unsafe bridge designs
- Lack of clear lane dividers
- Inadequate lighting
- Installing insufficient or ineffective reflectors
- Failing to account for inclement weather conditions
Inclines, declines, curves, and other geographical features present unique challenges for trucks. When a truck accident rate is significantly higher than usual on a section of roadway or at an intersection, it typically indicates a flawed road design that fails to accommodate the unique needs of large trucks.
Road Construction and Oklahoma Truck Accidents
Another crucial aspect of road planning involves the timing and implementation of road maintenance and construction, as well as providing adequate signs for driver directions and warnings, safe lane closures, and ample time for traffic to merge.
Roads with high truck traffic volume require longer merging distances for lane closures during construction. When road planners fail to plan appropriately for roadway maintenance or use negligent construction contractors, it leads to serious safety hazards, including the following common causes of truck accidents:
- Uneven lanes
- Narrow lanes
- Bottlenecks
- Inadequate signage
- Short merges
- Dangerous obstacles
- Debris in the road
- Obstructed views
- Poorly timed roadwork projects
- Lack of breakdown space on road shoulders
- Vehicles forced to stop at merge points
There were 3,602 large-truck crashes in Oklahoma between 2021 and 2025, resulting in 120 fatalities and 1,305 injuries. Although no clear data exists on the number of Oklahoma truck accidents caused by flawed roadway designs and poorly planned road construction, road planning agencies are defendants in many Oklahoma truck accident claims due to negligence in road planning and construction. An experienced Oklahoma City truck accident attorney can investigate whether road design flaws contributed to your crash.
What Types of Truck Accidents are Caused by Roadway Design Flaws in Oklahoma?
Trucks are much taller than average vehicles, but the lane-width restrictions on roadways do not allow for wider wheelbases to compensate for their extended height. This leaves trucks prone to tipping, while long trailers can jackknife during a crash. For these reasons, truck accidents often cause catastrophic crashes.
The most common types of accidents caused by flawed road designs include the following:
- Collisions with smaller vehicles, including rear-end collisions, head-on collisions, and T-bone accidents
- Tire blowout accidents
- Roadway departures
- Tipover accidents
- Rollover accidents
- Jackknife accidents
- Underride accidents
- Override accidents
- Multi-car pileups
According to data from the National Safety Council (NSC), about 70% of truck accident injuries occur to those in other vehicles involved in the collision, not the truck driver.
Liability in Oklahoma Truck Accident Claims
Because trucks cross state lines, trucking companies, truck maintenance companies, and truck drivers must carefully adhere to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations.
When an accident results from negligence on the part of any entity related to the trucking industry, the responsible party is liable for damages to injury victims, like medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering.
When the at-fault party is a negligent road planning agency, the government entity is legally liable for property damage and personal injury costs. Claims against government entities have different deadlines and unique filing requirements, which require careful handling for successful recovery of compensation. An Oklahoma City truck accident lawyer understands these complex procedures and can ensure your claim is filed correctly and on time.
What If a Road Planning Agency Is Only Partly at Fault for a Truck Accident?
Oklahoma is a modified comparative negligence state for accident claims. Under this law, all parties that contribute to the cause of an accident can be held liable for their portion of fault.
Investigators from the insurance company assign fault percentages to all parties involved. As long as an injury victim is less than 50% at fault for an accident, they can recover compensation for their damages. The insurance company of the at-fault party or parties subtracts the injury victim’s percentage of fault from the total amount they pay out on the claim.
For example, if a trucking company is partly at fault for having poorly maintained tires, but a negligent road design caused the blowout, the road planning agency may be 70% at fault and the trucking company 30%. In this case, if an injury victim in a car impacted by the blowout accident didn’t contribute to the cause of the accident, they can recover the total amount of their damages from both liable parties.
A truck accident lawyer can help you navigate complex liability issues and ensure all responsible parties are held accountable.
Contact a Truck Accident Attorney in Oklahoma City
If you’ve been injured in a truck accident, contact the truck accident lawyer at Dan Davis Law today at (405) 930-4210 for a free consultation. Our experienced legal team of Oklahoma City truck accident attorneys will fight to protect your rights and maximize your compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.