There are some intersections in every state that tend to see more accidents than others. Having a car accident at one intersection in Wisconsin may not be a surprise to locals. One such intersection in the town of Brussels has been a topic of conversation with the Door County Highway Safety Commission.
It has been said that an engineer from the Wisconsin Department of Safety is scheduled to attend a meeting regarding this dangerous intersection. No one has been able to agree on how to fix the fact that the intersection has no separate turn lanes. While people are trying to come up with a solution, the number of crashes at the intersection continues to increase since the intersection was opened in 2008.
According to local authorities, the state of Wisconsin does not want to consider fixing the problem until there has been at least 12 fatalities directly attributed to the intersection. The only "fix" the state was willing to do up until consisted of raising the signs in an attempt to improve visibility. For some, this is unacceptable.
It is true that the drivers involved in a car accident at this intersection could be held responsible for their actions. However, a case may be made that the state is also liable not for action, but for inaction that arguably constituted negligence. In order to prevail in a civil case resulting from an accident, the injured party, or the family of someone that died, has the burden of showing that the party or parties deemed responsible were negligent and that negligence either caused or contributed to the injuries or death of another. It may be argued that the state has a duty of reasonable care to maintain its roads for the safety and benefit of motorists in Wisconsin.
Source: greenbaypressgazette.com, "Accident-prone intersection to be discussed," Peter J. Devlin, April 2, 2013