What Legal Protections Are Available for Pedestrians Injured in Crosswalk Car Accidents?

What Can Happen When a Vehicle Strikes a Pedestrian?

It’s a dangerous world. Merely strolling down the sidewalk can be hazardous, but you’re entitled to compensation if you’re injured by a negligent driver while you’re walking in Southern California. A Ventura pedestrian accident attorney can help you recover that compensation.

If you live or work in Ventura or anywhere else in Southern California, you know how perilous crossing the street can be. Even if you’re compliant with the law, using the crosswalks and obeying the traffic signals, you could be injured by a driver who isn’t compliant.

In 2023, more than one thousand pedestrians were killed in California. How can you avoid being killed or injured as a pedestrian? If a driver injures you in a crosswalk, for example, how can you be compensated? When will you need to contact a Ventura pedestrian accident lawyer?

What is the Law Regarding Pedestrians and Crosswalks?

Under the California Vehicle Code, drivers must yield to pedestrians who are crossing a street in either a marked or unmarked crosswalk. In both marked and unmarked crosswalks, a pedestrian has the right of way.

Of course, pedestrians don’t expect to be injured, so they typically wear no safety equipment. Pedestrians injured by negligent drivers may suffer spinal cord injuries, back and neck injuries, traumatic brain injuries, broken bones, severe bruises, and other serious injuries.

Who Has Liability for Pedestrian Accidents?

A motorist may be assigned liability for a pedestrian accident if that motorist was texting, distracted, intoxicated, speeding, or driving recklessly or negligently in a way that directly caused a pedestrian to sustain injuries.

However, if you become injured because you walked into the street without looking – you may have been distracted by your phone or you may have been intoxicated, for example – you are the negligent party, and you will not have grounds for bringing a personal injury claim.

If You Are Injured by a Negligent Driver, What Are Your Rights?

In California, a pedestrian who is injured by a reckless or negligent driver is entitled by law to recover compensation for current and future medical bills, lost earnings and projected future lost earnings, personal pain, suffering, and related damages and losses.

However, if a reckless or negligent driver injures you, that driver may insist that you were the negligent party. If a vehicle strikes you while you’re crossing a street, no attorney will be there to advise you, so you must take these steps to protect yourself:

1. Summon medical attention and the police. These are the immediate priorities.
2. Do not leave the accident scene until the police say you can go.
3. Take plenty of photos. Try to get the names of any witnesses and a way to contact them.
4. Make no statement to an insurance company until you’ve consulted a lawyer.

How Will Your Attorney Handle Your Personal Injury Claim?

Immediately after you’ve been examined, treated, and released by a medical provider, arrange to meet with a Ventura pedestrian accident attorney to discuss your rights and options, and particularly your right to recover compensation.

After a pedestrian accident, to recover compensation, you will need evidence that the driver’s negligence or recklessness directly caused the accident and injury. Your attorney will examine the police report, the medical records, and any photos, video, or witness statements.

Your attorney will then negotiate out-of-court with the driver’s auto insurance company for the settlement amount you need. Privately negotiated settlements are the way most pedestrian injury claims are resolved in California.

Will Your Case Go to Trial?

However, if liability for the accident is disputed, or if the driver’s auto insurance company does not offer an acceptable settlement, your Ventura pedestrian accident lawyer will take your claim to trial.

If the case goes to trial, your attorney will explain to the jury how (and how extensively) you were injured, why the driver should be held liable, and how much compensation you should recover. If the jurors find in your favor, they will order the payment of your compensation.

How Can You Prove Negligence?

As you probably know, the determination of liability is the key issue in a personal injury case. For your personal injury claim to prevail in a pedestrian accident trial, your attorney must offer evidence which shows that the motorist (or “defendant”):

1. owed you a “duty of care”
2. breached that duty by operating a vehicle negligently or recklessly
3. directly caused your injury with that recklessness or negligence
4. should compensate you for medical costs, lost wages, and other damages

What Else Should You Know?

After a pedestrian accident, don’t simply presume that you’ll be fine. A hard-to-detect or latent injury could emerge days or weeks later as a critical medical condition.

For both legal and medical reasons, you’ll need to obtain a medical examination immediately – and if possible, within twenty-four hours – if you are involved in a pedestrian accident and you are not treated at the crash scene or taken to an emergency room.

How Soon Should You Act?

In California, the time limit for filing a personal injury claim based on a pedestrian accident – with very few exceptions – is two years from the date of the accident, but you must not wait two years to discuss your case with a Ventura personal injury attorney.

Over time, evidence can deteriorate or disappear, and witnesses forget details. Acting immediately puts you in the best possible position to succeed with a personal injury claim and recover the compensation you will need.

Who Should Handle Your Pedestrian Accident Claim?

If a driver injures you through recklessness or negligence, and if you and your Ventura personal injury attorney can prove it, the law in California will be on your side.

But with thousands of attorneys in Southern California, how can you pick the right attorney to handle your pedestrian accident claim? Attorney Troy Skinner will make your case his priority. He knows how to resolve the most complicated personal injury cases.

If you are injured by a negligent driver while you’re crossing the street in Ventura County or anywhere else in Southern California – now or in the future – learn more about your rights, or begin the legal process immediately, and call Skinner Law Corp at 310-356-0074.