Woman Seriously Injured While Crossing Busy Street in Jacksonville, Florida at Night
A woman was seriously injured after she was hit by a car crossing a busy street at night on the south side of Jacksonville, Florida according to a news article. It was not clear why or under what circumstances the woman crossed the road at a point where there was no crosswalk.
When a pedestrian is hit by a car or other vehicle in the road while crossing where there is no crosswalk, the initial assumption may be that the pedestrian is at fault and the driver of the vehicle does not share any of the blame. However, traffic accidents involving pedestrians are often very serious and need to be investigated further during the course of a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. Even where a person crosses a busy road where there is no stop sign, traffic signal or crosswalk, drivers of vehicles are still required to look out for pedestrians and yield to them. Even where the pedestrian should not have been in the road, if the vehicle driver did or should have seen the pedestrian, that driver must take steps to avoid the pedestrian. If the driver fails to do that, he/she will be negligent and liable for some or all of the injuries caused to the pedestrian by the crash.
Many of these vehicle vs. pedestrian accidents are not black and white in terms of fault and liability. The pedestrian may be partially at fault for crossing the road improperly, but the vehicle driver may also be at fault for failing to avoid an avoidable crash, speeding or violating some other traffic law. In those cases, the injuries and resulting damages are often significant, and the driver's insurance company will be on the hook for some, most or all of those damages.
