When you are walking along the streets of San Francisco, you are facing the risk of having a pedestrian accident. Like any other city in the United States, San Francisco drivers can be aggressive and are not always watchful of those who cross the street.
Pedestrian accidents are no trivial matter – the repercussions can be serious, even fatal. If you or a loved one have been in a pedestrian accident, it is important to act now. The key to a successful case will be to understand how negligence factors into your unique case. With the help of a pedestrian accident attorney in San Francisco, you can begin to piece together the case that will give you the greatest compensation possible.
A common belief is that if a pedestrian is hit by a car, the car is automatically at fault. This is a dangerous assumption when going to trial. According to California negligence laws, pedestrians can be just as liable depending on the circumstances surrounding the accident. More specifically, comparative fault laws come into play depending on what you were doing and where you were at the time of the accident.
For instance, if you were illegally crossing the street at the time of the accident, the defense will argue that you were partially at fault for the accident. Other examples of can include disrupting traffic, darting in front of a vehicle without warning, not using the marked crosswalks, and ignoring the “walk” signal. We all have illegally crossed the street in one of these ways at one point in our lives. Nonetheless, any evidence conveying that you participated in this behavior at the time of the accident will prove negligence on your part and can subject you to reduced compensation.
Of course, there are defenses that can combat the defendant’s claims of negligence based on your unique case. If you were “jaywalking” at the time of the accident, you still have potential to receive full compensation based on your surroundings. For example, crossing the street is not considered jaywalking if there are not two stop lights at the end of each block. This means that there are certain circumstances where walking across the street is not illegal, and therefore strengthens your case of the driver’s negligence. With the aid of a pedestrian accident lawyer, you can create a case where you can avoid defense’s claims of negligence and get full compensation.
