A pedestrian refers to a person traveling on foot. They are on their way from point a to point b and their mode of travel is walking. A person is most often considered a pedestrian while walking amongst other forms of travel like on a sidewalk or pavement.
A pedestrian accident can occur when a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle or debris. A pedestrian can also be involved in an accident caused by the environment around them such as tripping on uneven ground or falling over an obstacle.
A pedestrian accident lawyer can help someone figure out payment for their medical bills, identify who was at fault for the accident, and determine the monetary amount the accident caused. They can also pursue the parties responsible to receive a settlement for the pedestrian to cover their damages. If the responsible party is unwilling to work with the injured pedestrian on a solution the lawyer can also file a lawsuit to have a judge or jury force a judgment to pay for damages.
Damages and Accident Costs
After an accident, injured pedestrians will often seek medical attention. Depending on the severity of the incident, medical bills can be very expensive. It is the duty of the at fault party to cover these expenses. This payment is often paid out by the insurance company for the at fault party. Psychological medical issues can also occur after an accident and the long-term costs associated with them must also be taken into account.
Additional costs will result when considering any loss of earnings the injured party is losing out on. In situations where the injury affects their ability to perform a job they did before the accident, this loss of earnings can reflect the lifetime loss of earning specific to this lost ability. In the event that a death occurred because of the accident and there were family members who relied on the deceased for their well-being, the loss of earnings can be assumed to be that person’s lifetime earnings they will no longer be able to earn.
Fault and Negligence
In the event of an accident with a pedestrian fault and possible negligence must be ascertained.
Determining who is at fault, especially if fault falls on multiple parties, will help guide who must pay what share of the settlement or judgment. An investigation into the event will help yield an idea of what caused the accident and if it could have been avoided. This investigation will most likely use eye witness accounts, photographs taken at the scene, police reports, and physical evidence from the scene to make assumptions about what happened.
Once the evidence has been analyzed each party will present their understanding of who all was at fault and for what portion of the fault rested with them. For parties who are seen to bear part of the blame it must then be determined if their actions were caused by negligence or not.
Negligence can result from a wide variety of reasons. Basically, if it can be determined that the accident was caused because someone wasn’t paying attention, was disobeying traffic laws, or was not in the right capacity to be operating a vehicle there are grounds to assign negligence.
