Articles Posted in Pedestrian Accident

Anytime you are a pedestrian who was injured in a vehicle accident (or you have a loved one who was killed in a pedestrian collision,) it is definitely a painful, stressful, and difficult time. That stress inevitably goes even higher if the driver who hit you or your loved one fled the scene of the accident without stopping. While being hurt by a hit-and-run driver may make your injury lawsuit case more challenging, your case is far from impossible. A skilled San Mateo pedestrian accident attorney can help you get the most out of your case, even if it involved a hit-and-run driver.

In Redwood City, a recent one of these hit-and-run accidents proved to be fatal. According to the Palo Alto Daily Post, a male pedestrian was struck by a white cargo van in the 1600 block of El Camino Real. The driver of the van fled the scene. The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.

Fortunately, in this case, law enforcement officers were able to track down the hit-and-run driver. Police used surveillance video footage from a nearby business, along with eyewitness descriptions of the van, to track down the vehicle and the driver in San Bruno. Police booked the 69-year-old driver on charges of felony hit-and-run and vehicular homicide, according to FOX 2.

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Statistics from the state’s Office of Traffic Safety show that pedestrian injuries – and deaths – are a serious problem that is getting worse. Almost 7,500 pedestrians died on California streets and highways in period 2009-2018, with nearly 900 of those happening in 2018 alone. That 2018 figure represented a 26% surge from just four years earlier. Pedestrian accidents occur for many reasons, and several of those involve negligent action or inaction by the driver(s) or others. If you’ve been hurt in a pedestrian accident, you may be entitled to substantial compensation, so contact a knowledgeable San Mateo pedestrian accident attorney right away.

In addition to the 893 dead, pedestrian accidents also injured 14,000 more in California in 2018. Many pedestrian accidents happen due to errors made by drivers. One of the more common errors is the driver’s decision to drink and drive. Federal statistics show that, in pedestrian accidents nationwide, roughly 15% involved a driver who had a blood-alcohol content at or above .08.

That was suspected to be the case in Anaheim recently. A suspected drunk driver jumped the curb an hit a 35-weeks-pregnant woman as she walked along the sidewalk, according to the Los Angeles Times. The accident killed the woman at the scene and left her baby, whom medical caregivers delivered, in critical condition.

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Most of the time, your personal injury lawsuit will assert that the defendant was “negligent” As the term implies, the defendant’s liability comes from having neglectfully done something they shouldn’t have, or neglectfully failing to do something they should have. Sometimes, though, a defendant’s misconduct is more nefarious. They may do something so bad that the law considers it to be “despicable.” When that happens, the proof you give the court may entitle you to an even greater sum of damages. To make sure you’re getting everything you deserve from your injury case, be sure you’ve obtained representation from an experienced San Mateo injury attorney.

A terrible pedestrian accident case from Southern California, reported by KTLA, is an example. Y.C., a graduate student at Pepperdine University, intended to shop with her mother at a supermarket, but they never made it to the store. As they crossed in a Calabasas crosswalk, a truck crashed into them. The vehicle ran over Y.C.’s leg and the mother’s body. While Y.C. suffered serious harm, the mother’s injuries were fatal.

What happened next was where the case became unusual. The driver of the pickup stopped, exited the vehicle, drug the mother’s body toward the curb, got back into her truck, drove a short distance, parked along an adjacent road, then returned on foot. When the California Highway Patrol arrived, the driver told the officers that she simply encountered the fallen women as she drove to the supermarket, and was not involved in the accident, according to the report.

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Recently, the family of a 62-year-old man killed in a San Mateo County crash recovered a judgment of $9.5 million against a driver and the state Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Rather than relying solely on the past history of injuries at the exact intersection where their relative died, they used proof of a similar death at a similar intersection to persuade the jury that Caltrans should have known about the dangerousness of the intersection. The success of this technique, affirmed by the Court of Appeal, demonstrates that there may be more than one way to achieve a successful outcome in your intersection accident case against a governmental entity. Be sure to retain an experienced San Mateo pedestrian accident attorney who can help you explore all your options.

A 62-year-old bicyclist, C.C., was crossing El Camino Real in Atherton on foot when a southbound passenger sedan struck him. C.C. was walking with his bike inside a crosswalk at the time of the accident. The driver never saw C.C. and never hit his brakes. In fact, he was going an estimated 42 mph when he slammed into C.C. and thought a tree branch had fallen on his car. The collision was violent enough that it threw C.C. more than 50 feet and his bicycle more than 70 feet. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The bicyclist’s wife and daughters sued the driver and Caltrans. The crosswalk where C.C. died was unreasonably unsafe, the department should have known it, but did nothing address the dangerous condition, they argued. A jury agreed. After a two-week trial, the jury found the driver 10% at fault and Caltrans 90% responsible. The jury assessed the total damages to be $9.5 million.

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