Pedestrian accidents, contrary to popular belief, are very common and not just limited to big cities. Drivers usually pay more attention to other smaller vehicles like motorcycles, and this can cause fatal results when drivers drive at full or near full speed. This is especially true if pedestrians are walking outside of crosswalks or standing in areas where it’s hard to notice them while driving at a high speed.
This is why people who love walking more often should read about the subject and acknowledge the safety precautions needed to avoid pedestrian accidents to then protect themselves and their loved ones. If you’re looking for a good place to start, you have found it. Read on as we tell you everything you should know about pedestrian accidents.
What Causes Most Pedestrian Accidents?
Raising awareness of the main reasons that cause pedestrian accidents is one of the first steps in preventing them and decreasing their rate. The leading factor behind most car accidents, and especially pedestrian ones, is speed. This factor increases the rate of accidents in two inevitable ways.
For one, the impact speed is more fatal when driving at a speed higher than 25mph. At this speed, the death rate of victims involved is about 10%, while driving at a speed higher than 50mph increases this rate to 75%. The second factor is how quickly the driver can stop the vehicle before the collision while driving at a high speed. The distance it takes to stop a car entirely doubles when traveling at a speed higher than 30mph. A car travels the lengths of six cars before being able to stop if driving at 50mph. This is in addition to many other environmental factors that increase the distance needed to stop a vehicle, along with the thinking and reaction time of the driver. Other factors include the weight of the car and whether the driver was distracted or not.
The Vehicle Type
This might not be a very well-known fact but the type of vehicle causing the accidents has a lot to do with the severity of the resulting injuries. This includes the impact point and the number of vehicles involved in the accident. The majority of pedestrian accidents are caused due to the collision of one vehicle. Studies prove that about 92% of victims who were fatally injured in pedestrian accidents were involved in a single-vehicle accident. In terms of the impact point, most pedestrian accidents are caused by front impact collisions as opposed to side or rear impact crashes. Most pedestrian fatalities resulting from front-impact collisions are caused by vans, passenger vehicles, pickup trucks, and SUVs. Buses and larger trucks are more often involved in right-side or rear impact collisions. This, however, doesn’t eliminate the fact that buses and big trucks are also responsible for a significant number of front impact accidents.
Handling a Pedestrian Accident Claim
If you or one of your loved ones gets involved in a pedestrian accident, the first thing you need to do is seek medical assistance. Even if you don’t think your injuries are serious, you should still get an examination to make sure everything is alright. Sometimes, injuries take a couple of days to become noticeable and require medical attention. Car accident injuries are usually more serious than they may seem in the beginning or right after the incident.
After taking care of your injuries, you should hire a personal injury lawyer to handle the legal consequences and help you to gain compensation for the suffering you have gone through. In the state of Kentucky, you don’t even have to pay a fee to get a consultation for your personal injury claim. If you or anyone you know was injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, you can hire an attorney or often get a free consultation to discuss the pedestrian accident claim and grant you the deserved compensation for your hardships. As long as the accident and injuries are documented and reported, the at-fault driver can be held liable for all of your resulting damages. This means that going to a doctor and acquiring the medical evidence that proves your injuries is extremely important for your case.
Liability
Even noncommercial drivers owe a duty of rational care and maintaining road safety. Striking a pedestrian, even if they were walking outside of crosswalks, is considered negligence and lack of care. What this means is that drivers at-fault are always held liable for damages resulting from their failure to comply with their legal duties toward the road. When the evidence and documentation are assembled, injured individuals can file injury claims against the at-fault drivers and receive reasonable compensation for their losses and hardships.
Pedestrian accidents are accidents that involve a vehicle striking a pedestrian due to the negligence or lack of attention of the vehicle’s drivers. They are more common than most people think and involve many legal actions that support the victim’s situation and grant them their compensation. Injured victims are protected as long as they have enough awareness of the legal consequences that can help them recover physically and financially after such a tragic event.
