Are you and your Insurance Company aware of your Liability?
All roads have traffic signs. They give us directions, warnings and information. They are found on public roads, private roads and parking lots. All agencies that have public or private roads open for public travel must have a traffic sign management and assessment plan.
You may be thinking that the government has added paperwork. Although this may be true, it is important to prepare for retroreflectivity if your business or commercial establishment has a parking lot.
What are the reasons to be concerned about traffic signs assessment and management? Simply put, allowing motorists to drive on your property is a new area of potential liability.
Your Insurance Company and you should be aware of the consequences of failing to plan and assess traffic signs and managing them. Most agencies and businesses don’t know what traffic signs mean.
Let me tell you a story about how it can impact you. You or the owner of the property at the time needed a permit for access to and from the public roads. It is likely that your plan included a stop sign at its entrance. But, it is not. If a driver leaves your property and pulls into the path or oncoming vehicle, an investigation agency will look at whether proper traffic signs were in place and operational. The signs will be examined by the investigating agencies to determine who is responsible. It may not seem like a big deal if the accident is minor, but it could be a problem if the victim suffers serious injuries or even death. You can rest assured that the insurance parties or the family members of the deceased or injured will be searching for someone to cover the pain and suffering.
You get the idea! The example above only refers to one sign, a stop sign. Let me ask you some questions that investigators might want to know.
What date did the stop sign go up? Do you have any records regarding the purchase? Are the specifications for highway traffic signs met at the time the stop sign was installed? The sign was purchased from where? Did it conform to highway standards in terms of height and mounting standards? When was the last time that compliance was assessed?
Holy cow! How would you as a property owner know this information? It’s simple: A traffic sign management and assessment program.
Many permit and civil plans for property have more than one sign. Did you know that certain state, county, and local agencies include language to permit plans that assigns responsibility for new signs that were added during construction to the property owners. You are probably wondering why they would do this. It’s simple, relieve or transfer the responsibility to someone else. They were smart, but it was bad for you and your insurance company.
The MUTCD (Manual of Uniformed Traffic Control Devices), is set to make our lives more interesting. Traffic signs are a potential source of liability. Federal Highway Administration and the MUTCD have both stated that private roads that are open for public travel must comply with the MUTCD’s provisions, including the minimal retroreflectivity standards. Parking lots may not be included in the MUTCD, but I think this applies to all parking lots. This is because there are drive lanes within a parking lot. What is a drivelane other than a private street? That point will be argued by the lawyers, however.
Auto Insurance quotes.com found that 13 percent of all parking lot accidents were caused by Nationwide Insurance’s 2012 claims data. My research has shown that pedestrian injuries are the most common type of accident in parking lots. My next question is: Are your pedestrian crossing signs compliant with the law?
As you can see, my point is to say that if you don’t have a traffic sign management and assessment plan, or believe it won’t happen, all I can do is wish you luck. Remember that an effective plan could be the best insurance you can buy.
