Pedestrians Walking Across Virginia’s Roads Often Suffer Serious Injuries

As a personal injury attorney, one of the most important kinds of cases that I work on involves pedestrians being hit by cars, trucks or buses.

In the recent months, I handled a case where a man at work was just doing his job and was right in the middle of the crosswalk when he was run into by a car.

The driver claimed to not even see him. The driver was taking a left turn onto another street and had to pass through the crosswalk to make her turn. This is actually a common situation in urban areas.

The driver has an obligation to look out for pedestrians as he or she makes a turn. If there are pedestrians in a crosswalk then the driver has to yield to them. Unfortunately, many drivers fail to keep a proper lookout and are distracted by their cell phones or texting and don’t really look around carefully when taking a left turn onto a busy city street that may have pedestrians.

The pedestrian suffered two fractures and required wrist and shoulder surgery. As a result, the worker suffered a very serious injury that caused missed time and greatly changed their quality of life. The insurance defense lawyers had the audacity to try to claim that my client was at fault for not seeing the car or proceeding even though the car was coming into the intersection.

Although I don’t think this defense would work at trial it just shows how hard insurance companies and their lawyers will fight against even valid cases with serious injuries. It shows why you need an experienced personal injury lawyer who knows what the law is and knows how to develop the facts and find the witnesses to prove as we must that the at-fault party really was negligent and that our client was free from any contributing fault.

Pedestrian cases can be difficult. You have rights if you are in a crosswalk but it can be difficult to make a claim if you are crossing the road in a place you should not be. Many of the highways of Hampton Roads are pedestrian-unfriendly. If there is no sidewalk, you may be forced to walk on the side of the road. On occasions, walkers are hit on sidewalks.

These are the issues I deal with on a day-to-day basis. Pedestrian cases though are particularly scary because of the vulnerability of the human body when hit by a car. Read more about the rights of pedestrians in Virginia on our website. If you are a pedestrian who has been injured, we want to hear from you. Call us today at (757) 333-3333.