A Discussion Of Several Personal Injury Cases Where A Motor Vehicle Improperly Went Into A Crosswalk And Badly Harmed A Pedestrian
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-07-07 19:26:22 | Word Count: 768
So you make sure that you cross a street at a marked crosswalk. If perhaps there were an assurance that drivers would keep to the rules and grant pedestrians in a crosswalk the right of way. It is not uncommon for attorneys who help victims of motor vehicle accidents to be approached by pedestrians who were hit by a motor vehicle as they were crossing the street in a marked crosswalk. If a vehicular accident involves a pedestrian the injuries are regularly significant and have disastrous long-term effects. Look at the following cases.
Case 1: This documented case involved the driver of a bus which hit a pedestrian. The pedestrian was in a crosswalk at the time of the accident. The driver failed to stop subsequent to striking the pedestrian. As the bus kept going it ran over the pedestrian. The pedestrian a fifty year old woman, who was going to the store to buy presents for her grandchildren. The force of the impact and the weight of the bus running her over resulted in her sustaining fractures to her rib, fractures to her pelvis, and a fracture to her spine. The victim will have to undergo hip replacement surgery due to her injuries. The law firm that handled this matter reported that they procured a settlement of $1,250,000 for the victim.
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Case 2: This case involved the driver of a rental car who was speeding while in a high traffic region of a large urban city. There were many pedestrians in the region. He went through a red light and hit a van. This forced the van into a crosswalk which was being crossed by a pedestrian. The pedestrian, a twenty five year old man, sustained a spinal cord fracture injury that left him with total paralysis from the chest down.
The law firm that helped the pedestrian initiated legal actions against both the driver and the company that rented the car to the driver. The lawsuit went to trial with a judge upholding $20.3 million of the more substantial amount awarded by the jury. This included $10 million for future pain and suffering. The rest was for the expense of medical care, past and future loss of earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
Case 3: This lawsuit report involved the driver of a school bus making a left hand turn at an intersection. The bus ran over and pinned the pedestrian’s foot. At the time of the accident the pedestrian, a female, aged fifty four, was in a designated crosswalk walking over to the other side of the intersection. The driver of the bus was ignorant of what had transpired. It took the efforts of witnesses getting the driver’s attention and getting the driver to go into reverse so that the wheel of the bus would release the pedestrian’s foot. The pedestrian sustained various major injuries to her foot and leg. The pedestrian wound up needing various surgeries to both her foot and her leg. Eventually, though, she lost the leg to a below the knee amputation following which she experienced persistent phantom pain. The report of this lawsuit by the law firm that handled it indicated that they took the case to trial and got a jury award in the amount of $5.9 Million for the pedestrian.
The lawsuit above demonstrate that many cases occur in places with heavy pedestrian traffic. The vehicles can be cars, buses, even trucks. The victims can be young, middle aged or elderly. They can be male and they can be female.
The cases, though, all appear to share two basic things. First, crosswalks are no guarantee of safety. Drivers are easily distracted. In the first lawsuit previously mentioned the driver failed to even realize she had caused an accident and had run over a person. In the second claim the driver was speeding and went right through a red light. In the third case bystanders had to get the driver to back up so that as to release the pedestrian’s foot pinned under the vehicle. Victims of pedestrian injuries of the type illustrated in these cases should seek out the assistance of a highly skilled and experienced motor vehicle accident lawyer.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting catastrophic injury cases. To learn more about pedestrian accident and fatal car accident matters visit the websites
