For some, enjoying a calm, peaceful walk can be a nice way of relaxing after a hard day at work. For others, it is their only mode of transportation. Frisco’s streets have many pieces of safety equipment and traffic laws designed to make pedestrians safer. Still, many people are injured in collisions with cars every day. Even if a person is walking across the street while not in a crosswalk, the driver may still be held responsible for the injury.
Drivers’ Rights Versus Pedestrians’ Rights
All drivers learn in driver’s school they must yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. But rarely is the situation that simple. True, if a person is struck while utilizing a crosswalk, it is most likely the driver’s fault. What if fog is obscuring the road, not giving the driver enough time to come to a stop? Or what if the pedestrian crosses in front of a green light? These questions complicate what might be an otherwise simple case. At its core, all pedestrian accident cases are examined under the theory of negligence. This means that the driver must be found to have violated a rule of the road or, alternatively, to have behaved in a careless way to be found at fault. One of the legal concepts that help plaintiffs is called negligence per se. In short, the law states that if a person is violating a law when they are involved in an accident, that accident is assumed to be their fault. Examples of commonly violated laws in Frisco that can lead to the need for a capable pedestrian accident lawyer include:
- Failing to yield at a crosswalk
- Speeding
- Ignoring stop signs
- Violating no turn-on red laws
- Making illegal turns
