Pedestrians and Vehicles: Injuries They Can Sustain and Cases
When a vehicle accidentally strikes a pedestrian – whether the
vehicle was moving at a high rate of speed or a low rate of speed –
hitting a pedestrian can result in numerous injuries including
life-threatening injuries.
Pedestrians could suffer injuries in their head, chest, stomach and
extremities. Of course, there are several mitigating factors that
affect how severe the injuries will be:
- Kind of vehicle
- Speed the vehicle is traveling at
- Age of pedestrian
- Where he/she is hit
Some possible injuries pedestrians can sustain include:
- Fractures (arms, legs and ribs)
- Head trauma
- Internal bleeding
- Internal injury (spleen, liver, etc.)
- Pelvic injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Death
The recovery process for pedestrians can be long and painful; the
medical costs associated to the accident can run into the tens of
thousands of dollars.
6 Cases Of Driver
Negligence
The first thing that must be established is the person driving the
vehicle must take the utmost care. Of course, the exception is that
he/she operates the vehicle with care to avoid injuring anyone.
There are several factors that can lead to an accident that involves a
pedestrian:
1 – The driver is being inattentive (for whatever reason) or is
distracted. This is considered negligent behavior. The distractions are
using an electronic device like cell phone or GPS, etc. It can also be
the result of the radio or other persons in the car.
2 – Speeding is another kind of negligence. Pedestrians hit by a
speeding vehicle can suffer very serious injuries – even death.
3 – Pedestrians crossing the road must be extremely careful of
vehicles. After all, some drivers will fail to yield to crosswalks
especially if they are making a turn. There are other issues that can
result in crosswalk accidents.
4 – Should a driver ignore signs or travel signals, they are negligent
in the accident. If the driver does not use a turn signal, it could
make it harder for pedestrians to know their intentions.
5 – When weather or traffic conditions dictate slower driving and a
driver does not slow down, he/she could be negligent in the event of an
accident with a pedestrian.
6 – A driver found to be under the influence of either alcohol or drugs
is also negligent.
Duty required for
pedestrian side
It is hard to determine which party was responsible first,
especially in the shared road situation. A pedestrian should always
take a reasonable care for oneself, in any time of the day. If any of
the people walking involves a minor, there should be safe side adult
who will watch for them to use cross walk and/or sidewalk all the time.
Danger and risky situation should be avoided using reasonable
anticipation and any consequences coming out of reckless actions should
be aware. There are times when negligence would be assessed
against a pedestrian when the situation turned out to be the case of
one’s own fault in the first place. The followings are examples of such
cases:
- Ignoring and failing to use designated, marked crosswalks, therefore interrupt the traffic flow and putting moving vehicles in more dangerous situation via sudden stop or wiggling.
In any cases, negligence by either party (driver or pedestrian) will
cause bodily damages and injuries, along with property defect to the
vehicle itself, along with license revocation. Both parties should use their reasonable thinking and
cautions, protecting each other and avoid any foreseeable risks. Still,
if there is an established lawsuit case, then the plaintiff (injured
party) should prove the other party has faulty causes that lead into an
accident and injury involving the plaintiff. And the court will look
and consider many factors involving an accident, weighing the
negligence elements from both parties. If it was a vehicle operator who
was negligent, then he/she would have to pay the damage cost for
personal and property as a result.