Examples Of Significant Recoveries Accomplished In Claims Where An Individual Was Badly Harmed By A Car While Crossing A Crosswalk
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-09-15 22:41:32 | Word Count: 795
Crosswalks should offer a safe area for pedestrians. They are meant to give pedestrians a clear right of way. They are supposed to signal to drivers an area of the road where they ought to exercise care. They are usually plainly designated. They are often controlled by traffic signs or light signals. Yet they fall short of guaranteeing pedestrians a safe place to cross a street. Claims concerning pedestrians harmed in a motor vehicle accident while in a crosswalk are among those taken on by any attorney who handles motor vehicle accident lawsuits. These matters often entail dreadful injuries that can leave the pedestrian with long-term impairments or possibly kill the pedestrian. Below we explore documented cases concerning pedestrian injuries.
Case 1: This reported lawsuit involved the driver of a bus which hit a pedestrian. The pedestrian was in a crosswalk at the time of the accident. The driver did not halt subsequent to hitting the pedestrian. When the bus continued it ran over the pedestrian. The pedestrian was a female, fifty years old, 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 caused the pedestrian to suffer fractures to her rib, fractures to her pelvis, and a fracture to her spine. The victim will require hip replacement surgery due to her injuries. The law firm that represented the victim indicated that they obtained a $1.25 million settlement for her.
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Case 2: A driver was speeding in a heavily trafficked area of a large metropolitan city. There were a large number of pedestrians in the vicinity. The driver was operating a rental car. He ran a red light and slammed into 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 complete 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. Unable to reach a settlement, the law firm took the case to trial. The jury verdict was partially upheld to the sum of $20,300,000 by the trial judge. This included $10 million for future pain and suffering. The remainder was for the cost of medical care, past and future loss of earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
Case 3: This lawsuit report concerned the driver of a school bus making a left hand turn at an intersection. In the course of making the turn the bus ran over a pedestrian’s foot. The pedestrian was a 54 year old female who was walking across an intersection in a designated crosswalk. The driver of the bus was oblivious to what had happened. 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 multiple considerable injuries to her foot and leg. The pedestrian ended up needing various surgeries to both her foot and her leg. Ultimately, though, she lost the leg to a below the knee amputation after which she experienced continual phantom pain. The report of this matter by the law firm that handled it indicated that they took the case to trial and obtained a jury verdict in the amount of $5.9 Million for the pedestrian.
By comparing and contrasting these claim we find first that each case is unique. Extrapolating from the claim it is apparent that a case can involve a car, a bus, a truck, or even a motorcycle. The plaintiffs, even when we consider cases involving only pedestrians, can be male or female and can be any age.
The cases, however, do normally share specific things in common. The injuries are often considerable and leave the victims with irreversible problems. Crosswalks are no guarantee of safety for a pedestrian. Drivers can be distracted even in clearly marked crosswalks. And some drivers simply fail to obey the rules such as the speeding driver who ran a red light in the second claim. Each of the case involved significant injuries and with the help of an experienced attorney on their side each of these plaintiffs achieved a significant recovery for their injuries.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting pedestrian accident cases. To learn more about pedestrian accident and fatal car accident matters visit the websites
