Vehicular Negligence and Pedestrian Rights
Vehicular negligence arises in many forms. Its victims may be the operator or passenger of an automobile, motorcycle, truck, bicycle or moped. Essentially, the operator and passengers of any vehicle lawfully on the roadway are guaranteed the right to safe passage. When collisions occur, it is rare that someone was not at fault. As long as you are in no way to blame for the incident, if you have been injured, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and time lost from work.
Scene preservation through aggressive photographing is the best way to ensure that you will be able to tell your story convincingly when it counts the most—at the time of settlement or jury argument. When traffic lights are involved, a video of the light sequence should be undertaken promptly after the occurrence at the same time day on the same day of the week.
Many vehicular collisions occur simply because the operator of a vehicle indulged in a moment of inattention. The incident occurred almost before the operator was aware of what was happening. Accordingly, many incidents seem to take place in a flash of time. Reconstructing the incident oftentimes requires the retention of an accident reconstruction expert. Photographs of the scene and of the vehicles are less important to the accident reconstruction expert than is the actual hands-on measurement of the crush of the vehicles and of the important features of the roadway.
In the struggle between pedestrians and motor vehicles, the pedestrian is always going to end up injured. As long as the pedestrian began crossing the roadway when it appeared safe to do so, the pedestrian is likely to prevail. It always helps if the pedestrian initiated the crossing in a marked crosswalk and when the pedestrian light signaled the “walking person” light. Many times, there is no pedestrian signal, let alone a striped crosswalk. In these scenarios it is critical to investigate whether a “statutory crosswalk” exists, in which case proving that you followed the parental advice of “look both ways before you cross” is of greatest concern.
