Pedestrian Accident Laws and Lawyers

This post is for safeguarding the rights of pedestrians, knowing what are their rights and when it is necessary to contact a pedestrian accident lawyer. If you get ill fated and get yourself in a pedestrian accident in big and crowded cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia or San Francisco, there will be requirement of contacting a lawyer or an attorney who has an experience in pedestrian accident cases. These big cities specially have more pedestrian related accidents because of the number of people live there per square mile. In New York there are 26,403.8 people live in one square mile area alone. After NY, San Francisco is second with 16,632.4 people living per square mile, then is Chicago with 12,752.2 and on the forth place is Philadelphia with 11,232.8 people in on mile square.

With so many people in just one square mile area is too much and that is why these cities provide conditions to make pedestrian accidents happen at a high rate. Most of these accidents include injuries and a lawyer of pedestrian accidents can speed up the process of compensation for your damages. In many cases it’s not the vehicle driver who is at fault, there are dangerous and flawed intersections, which create the circumstances for having these accidents more frequently. In this case of flawed intersections, city or the state is responsible to make the compensations.

Let’s have a look at the some statistics related to pedestrian accidents:

If you are wondering how much pedestrian accidents have their share in over all traffic related accidents, its 1 every 10 accidents means they have 10% share in all vehicle accidents happen in United states. Pedestrian accidents have a share of fatality rates of 11% in all traffic related accidents. These accidents have a 7% of mortality rate in 70,000 deaths caused by pedestrian accidents each year indicated by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The data released by them indicates that the adults are at the bottom of the causality rate and children are at the top. The pedestrian accident lawyer or attorney is always helpful to be contacted at the earliest especially when it involves children who are normally not liable to give better observations and considered to make road errors while crossing intersections.

Pedestrian accidents at Unsafe Intersections:

Intersections account for a major proportion of the collisions which resulted in injuries and mostly these collisions include pedestrians too. There are a high number of unsafe intersections in big cities we discussed like NY and San Francisco, Los Angelis and Philadelphia. The factors which make an intersection unsafe are but not limited to:

-Improper design of the intersection
-Absence of traffic signs or signals
-Absence of merging lanes
-Short period of interval between pedestrian don’t walk sign
-Lacking of marked turning lane

The above factors in conjunction with other factors make intersections very dangerous for pedestrians.

Reasons for Pedestrian Accidents:

To help out in finding the reasons of these accidents for pedestrian accident lawyers, here is the list which includes some of the reasons:

-DUI or DWI
-Driver not taking traffic and weather conditions
-Not following traffic rules
-Not observing traffic signals
-Not attentive drives, talking on mobile phones or talking to companions
-Speeding vehicles
-Vehicle drivers not giving pedestrians their right of way

Consequences of a Pedestrian Accident:

In big crowded cities of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the pedestrian accidents may include under mentioned injuries or even death:

-To least these accidents give you mental stress and anxiety
-Can be temporarily incapacitated -
-May include head injuries
-Disfiguring face or body
-Fractured bones
-Even permanent disability

While we have seen how devastating a pedestrian accident can be, there is a need to put a typical process which pedestrian accident lawyers follow. This will show you how much work it is required to be done by a pedestrian accident lawyer in order to get the claims settled by them for their clients:

Investigation and initial paper work:

If your accident lawyer deems it necessary, he is going to hire an investigator to establish the cause of the accident and find out all aspects of having this accident to occur. The investigator will also record statements by witnesses and will make report to your lawyer or attorney. Your accident lawyer or attorney may also hire an expert so that the extent of error by the defaulter can be ascertained. Your pedestrian accident lawyer will make a list of all the necessary documents he require and gather them up through the expertise he hired or will do himself, will also file all reports and the bills of all this expenditure which will determine your final claim. The lawyer or attorney will make sure that all the required forms have been filled by the witnesses of the case and the doctors involved.

Medical treatment monitoring by your lawyer:

It is important for your lawyer or attorney to make sure that what treatment you get and from whom. If you do not have a medical insurance your lawyer will help you in arranging a health provider who can give you treatment and will only ask for money after you get the compensation. The narrative report is what your pedestrian injury lawyer was looking for; he will get it from the doctor who attended you.

Keeping up with communications by your lawyer:

After going through a pedestrian or any kind of accident, it is hard for a person to keep himself focused and pay attention to the frequent communication required by the concerned authorities and you. If you have secured an accident lawyer or an attorney you need not to worry because he will take care of all that. Your lawyer is responsible for making all the required communication on your behalf and keep you abreast of all what is happening through a secure communication line i.e. email, fax or phone and sending you required forms and court documents through registered mail. If you have a case against the state or the city government, it is more than necessary to have an in time correspondence including the insurance company.

Representation by your lawyer in Negotiating and litigation processes:

There will be instances where you will require making negotiations with outer agencies like insurance companies, your lawyer is going to be representing you and will handle it more professionally to get the most of the situation. This process includes a claim putting up in front of the insurance company and negotiation over that, if this process is unsuccessful, your pedestrian accident injury lawyer will start a litigation process. The unsettled claim will make your lawyer act as your litigation attorney and make your case ready for the arbitration, mediation or a proper trail.

If by hard luck you get injured in a pedestrian traffic accident, getting over this accident definitely requires pursuing your claim and deserved settlement through a personal injury lawyer or attorney who has experience in pedestrian related accidents normally called as pedestrian accident lawyers or pedestrian injury lawyers.

To your safety

Tonja