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HIRING THE RIGHT PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENT ATTORNEY IS ESSENTIAL.
PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENT LAWYERS
Injured By a Negligent Driver While Walking?
You may be entitled to significant compensation.
Pedestrians who survive crashes with cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, or other vehicles typically sustain significant injuries. Some victims need months or years of intense medical care before recovering, and many more pedestrian crash victims can be left with a permanent disability.
Pedestrians do not have any protection when an automobile crashes into them. Motorists have seatbelts and airbags; riders and bicyclists usually have helmets and other protective equipment, but pedestrians do not have anything that can reduce the force of an impact.
Pedestrians may sustain trauma in an initial collision with the car or may be thrown to the ground or onto a nearby object. Head and Brain Injury: Car crashes frequently result in a high-force impact on the pedestrian’s head. This may cause fractured skulls, facial disfigurement, and severe brain injuries. Victims can become unconscious and may even go into a coma, depending on the severity of their injuries.
Upon awakening, they may exhibit signs of physical damage, behavior problems, and cognitive deficits. Rehabilitation can be a lengthy process, and many victims of brain injuries may never recover full function. They may need 24-hour residential care for the rest of their lives.
Spinal Cord Injury — Spinal cord injuries may interrupt the neurological messages coming from the brain, leading to a loss of function of the body parts beneath the damage. Victims will require immediate immobilization and transport by healthcare professionals and likely will spend long periods in a hospital. Even with the best treatment available, victims may be left with paralysis and will never walk again. Internal bleeding or other internal injuries — Not all injuries are visible on the outside. Collisions may damage internal organs or tear a blood vessel.
Without adequate blood flow, oxygen circulation may become dangerously reduced. Internal injuries usually require emergency surgery and long stays — if doctors spot them in time. Some organs may never recover the capacity to function. Crushing injuries and amputations — Sustained, intense forces may break or crush bones in ways that are hard, if not impossible, to reconstruct. Severe soft-tissue injuries may similarly be irreversible and lead to limb loss.
The rehab process, to say nothing of ongoing care needed for artificial limbs and other concerns, can take help from specialists. Unfortunately, severe injuries such as these frequently alter a crash victim’s ability to get back on with life. Many have to either quit work or drastically reduce their workload.
In the worst circumstances, pedestrian crash victims are unable to live with their injuries. In 2018, over 6,000 pedestrians died as a result of motor vehicle crashes. In addition to the tremendous grief that these individuals experienced prior to passing, loved ones lost their partners, parents, siblings, or children.
Grief is never easy, and in these cases, the deceased person might have even been the provider of a household, leaving the survivors struggling financially. In most states, the law gives some immediate family members and dependents the right to bring a legal wrongful death lawsuit. No amount of compensation can ever bring your loved one back into your family. However, compensation may help your family to continue in a better financial situation so that you can focus on emotional healing.
You might think drivers may be automatically responsible if they strike pedestrians. That is not true, as the law requires that each injured person must prove responsibility before receiving compensation. An injury victim needs to prove the driver was at fault, showing negligence.
Distracted driving — A driver texting or paying no attention to the road in front of them might miss the pedestrian and fail to stop in time to avoid the crash. Drunk driving – Alcohol significantly affects the driving skills of the driver, causing them to have slower reaction times, blurred vision, or reduced vehicle control.
Speak to a Pedestrian Injury Lawyer
All these things can cause a drunk driver to strike and kill a pedestrian. Traffic violations: A driver driving too fast might not be slow enough for the pedestrian to cross safely. Drivers not following traffic signals or properly yielding in a crosswalk may also run over pedestrians. Assault–In some cases, the driver can literally strike the pedestrian intentionally, either because of rage or other criminal motivations.
A criminal lawsuit would not assist a severely injured pedestrian in fully recovering damages. Instead, a pedestrian should pursue compensation by filing a lawsuit in civil court.
These are just some of the myriad acts of negligence or wrongdoing that can cause a motorist to strike and kill a pedestrian. Drivers are also not the only potential parties to liability. For instance, the car manufacturer could have sold the vehicle with brakes that were designed or assembled incorrectly. When a motorist, unaware, attempts to slow down or stop for a pedestrian, and the brakes fail, the motorist can strike the pedestrian at no fault of his own.
It is not sufficient to merely blame a driver or another party for being distracted or negligent. The law requires proof to sustain liability claims. Sometimes, convictions may be helpful in showing negligence, whether officers arrested drunk drivers or ticketed drivers for running a red light. Most cases, though, are not that straightforward.
Our investigators strive to establish responsibility and collect the evidence needed to support our client’s claims. We then use this evidence during our settlement negotiations, as well as in jury trials, if needed.
Statistics Regarding Pedestrian Accidents in The United States
A pedestrian is killed in a traffic crash every 111 minutes. That indicates that over 4000 pedestrians are killed annually in the United States. Traffic safety is an inter-play between drivers and pedestrians, acting responsibly and obeying traffic rules. Sadly, it is human nature to work against rules sometimes, which can lead to devastating outcomes.
Accidents between pedestrians and cars happen for different reasons in various situations. Consider the following circumstances:
• Crossing, no signal or crosswalk causes 22.3 percent of accidents
• Intersection with a signal causes 21.7 percent of accidents
• Crossing against the motion causes 9.9 percent of accidents
• Other actions in the roadway causes 9.8 percent of accidents
• Emerging from a parked vehicle causes 6 percent of accidents
• Crossing, no signal, marked crosswalk causes 5.7 percent of accidents
• Going off/on a stopped school bus causes 0.2 percent of accidents
Traffic Safety Facts Regarding Pedestrians
• 71 percent of all accidents involving pedestrians occur in urban areas
• 64 percent of all accidents happen at night
• 68 percent of all pedestrians that are killed are male
• 23 percent of the children killed in traffic are pedestrians
• 17 percent of pedestrians killed are elderly citizens
• 48 percent of pedestrian accidents take place over the weekend
• 47 percent of all fatal crashes involve alcohol
• 31 percent involve intoxicated pedestrians
• 17 percent involve drunk drivers
Pedestrians’ Rights and Duties
Even when there is a clear case of liability, it is still your responsibility to prove the magnitude of your damages. You cannot just say that you suffered $2 million worth of losses–you have to show proof of those losses. Fortunately, our lawyers are very adept at providing proof when a client’s large losses reach millions of dollars. Our attorneys know the last thing you want to do following a catastrophic injury is have one more issue on your plate.
Call an experienced litigator who handles pedestrian crash claims on a regular basis to get assistance: we keep the legal process as stress-free as possible for our clients. Do not wait, as you could risk losing your rights to collect damages if you wait too long and let the statute of limitations run out.
The pedestrian injury lawyers in our network are committed to seeking full and fair compensation for pain and suffering, current and future medical expenses, lost wages and lost future earning capacity, and permanent impairment to every client in every case. We also know how to successfully seek wrongful death damages for families of pedestrian crash victims who are deceased. Our experienced legal team has obtained substantial settlements and awards for our clients. Many factors have allowed us to consistently represent clients who are severely injured and to achieve the compensation they really deserve.
Dynamic Negotiators: Reaching a settlement that properly covers our client’s losses avoids having to take a case to trial. Jury trials take a tremendous amount of preparation and resources, and successful settlements resolve claims without adding the time, energy, and expense of litigation. Our attorneys are skilled at using the investigative and discovery processes to collect evidence and bolster our case during settlement negotiations. Skilled litigators — Sometimes, the opposing party will refuse to accept a settlement that will fully pay for the tremendous costs it has caused our clients.
When needed, our attorneys are confident, experienced litigators that will never shy away from protecting the interests of our clients in court. We know what is needed to convince jurors of our client’s rights to full compensation, and we know how to make these cases compelling in the trial. We are prepared to pursue any course of action that the case requires.
A Reputation for Success: Our litigation attorneys are nationally recognized for their aggressive, successful, results-oriented approach to injured plaintiffs. When opposing attorneys see our lawyers, they know that we are not going to back down. They know that we will fight, whether it is at the table or in court. This reputation benefits our clients in every single case, as it helps us get them the result they deserve.