Just to the Southwest of Houston, Texas, sits Sugar Land, a bustling community with a booming economy and growing population. Recently, the residents of Sugar Land voted on a massive bond measure worth $350 million to improve their infrastructure. With such a bustling and adorably named city, infrastructure is crucial to ensuring that the citizens are taken care of, safe, and able to continue their growth.
You should never be facing injuries from poor city management and neglected infrastructure, but if you find yourself in this tragic position, don’t hesitate to contact an experienced attorney to explore your legal options. As a citizen, you have a right to a safe city. Contact the Karam Law Office for skilled legal counsel.
The Hidden Dangers of Poor Infrastructure
Poor infrastructure can leave cities looking like a dystopian novel and lead to decreased economic growth, injuries, and quality of life for its citizens. By impacting the economy and the safety of its citizens, poor infrastructure can lead to an increase in personal injuries, car accidents, and a loss of financial opportunities.
Slip and Falls
Poor infrastructure begins with a crack in the sidewalk. The lack of maintenance can lead to the risk of slip and fall accidents that citizens face every day. Things like:
- Cracked sidewalks
- Uneven pavement
- Broken stairs
- Inadequate lighting
- Defective Drainage systems
Damaged or poorly maintained public spaces are one of the first signs of poor or failing infrastructure.
Car Accidents
Poorly maintained infrastructure can have devastating consequences, leading to serious car accidents. With one in five miles of highway in poor condition, the state of our roads is a significant safety concern. Thousands of accidents occur annually due to inadequate road conditions. Governments bear the responsibility for ensuring the safety of their roadways. Dangerous conditions like potholes, inadequate signage, and insufficient road markings pose significant risks to drivers and passengers every day.
Bike Safety
We don’t often think about how infrastructure, or lack thereof, can affect bicyclists. They are some of the most vulnerable people on the road and are often the most injured. Poor infrastructure can have the most impact on bicyclists and their safety in the city.
How poor infrastructure affects bike safety:
- No designated bike lane, which forces them to share the road with impatient drivers
- Poorly maintained roads with potholes or uneven surfaces that can cause them to lose control
- Intersections without designated bike spaces
- Parking lanes that are in bike lanes causing a door zone danger
Reducing the collisions that bicyclists have with vehicles starts with adequately organized and planned infrastructure.
Protecting Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Drivers
Poor infrastructure can take citizens who are proud of their community and turn them into victims of a catastrophic injury. A catastrophic injury is a severe injury that significantly impacts a person’s life that can lead to long-term disability. Catastrophic injuries tend to need extensive medical treatment for the physical and emotional trauma that the victim suffers.
Common causes of catastrophic injuries are directly related to poor infrastructure such as:
- Car Accidents
- Bus Accidents
- Construction Accidents
- Bicycle Accidents
- Railroad Accidents
- Slip and Fall Accidents
- Pedestrian Accidents
A sudden impact or fall can have devastating, life-long consequences. If you are injured due to a city’s lack of infrastructure, you have the right to hold them accountable for their failure to care for their city’s safety.
Sugar Land's Infrastructure Bond: A Positive Step Forward
Sugar Land, Texas, recognizes that with its booming community, it needs to invest in remodeling and updating its outdated infrastructure. Recently, the citizens passed a $350 million bond measure with sweeping approval and support. This new bond measure will impact the community for years to come.
The key points of this measure include:
- Prop A was $144.5 million dedicated to public safety measures
- $63.2 million for new police headquarters
- $17.375 renovate and replace fire stations
- $17.325 replacing fire and EMS vehicles
- Prop B was $118 million dedicated to road infrastructure
- Prop C was $30 million for drainage infrastructure
- Prop D $40.5 million for new maintenance facilities and public service buildings
- Prop E provides $12 million for a new animal shelter
Cities should invest in their communities and their citizens whenever they can. If you haven’t been to Sugar Land, Texas, please pardon our dust for a while as we continue to grow.
What the Bond Means for Sugar Land Residents
This growth will ensure that the residents and visitors of Sugar Land will have a safe and updated community to enjoy their success. These new infrastructure investments will provide safe roads for drivers and bicyclists to travel throughout the city. These improvements not only impact the quality of life for the citizens and keep them safer but also impact their financial wellbeing. Property values of cities with updated infrastructure show increases of up to 30% from cities whose infrastructure still suffers from the lack of repairs.
Karam Law Office: Here to Help Sugar Land Injury Victims
If you are injured on the city’s property, you have the ability to hold them accountable due to their liability of the premises. A landowner’s duty of care is to ensure that anyone legally on their property is reasonably safe. A claim for damages, injuries, and compensation under premises liability law requires intricate knowledge of property law. With the zealous legal representation, The Karam Law Office can help you and your family get the compensation you deserve if you’ve suffered due to someone else’s negligence. Contact us today to explore your legal options. Karam Law is here when you need us most.
