Georgia is ranked number five on a list of the most dangerous states for pedestrians, with a 57.8 percent increase in pedestrian fatalities from 2019 to 2022. Georgia’s Department of Transportation (DOT) reports that 84 percent of these fatalities happen at nighttime, and 95 percent occur outside of a crosswalk.
Limiting your walks to daytime hours as much as possible and using crosswalks when available can help reduce your risk of being hit by a car. However, you could still be hit by a careless driver even if you do everything right.
Ride Safe Georgia has identified several common causes of pedestrian accidents in the state:
- Drivers break traffic laws or fail to understand them in the first place. Often, drivers ignore the law and drive too closely to pedestrians, increasing the risk of a collision. Or they may misunderstand or ignore rules about right-of-way in a crosswalk, causing them to strike a pedestrian who has the right-of-way. In particular, some drivers are ignorant of Georgia’s “Stop and Stay” law, which requires them to stop and remain stopped until a pedestrian is finished crossing the driver’s half of the road rather than simply yielding to the pedestrian.
- General reckless driving. Sometimes, the driver is speeding, running a red light, or distracted by a phone or other device, raising the risk of an accident – particularly with a pedestrian who may be hard to see.
- Pedestrians fail to yield outside of crosswalks. If you are not in a crosswalk, the law says you must yield to vehicles on the road. When you find yourself in a situation where there are no crosswalks nearby, always look carefully in both directions, then cross as quickly as possible. However, the driver must still yield to a pedestrian who is already in the roadway when the driver arrives.
- Lack of visibility. This ties in with the high percentage of nighttime pedestrian fatalities mentioned earlier. Even a driver who is otherwise obeying the law and paying attention can hit a pedestrian they don’t see. When walking, it’s a good idea to wear light-colored or reflective clothing so drivers can see you more easily.
Overall, the most common cause of pedestrian fatalities was failure to yield the right of way, followed by improper crossing of the roadway or crosswalk.
How Can a Kennesaw Pedestrian Accident Attorney Help After Your Accident?
Pedestrians are extremely vulnerable in collisions with cars. While the car’s occupants are usually unhurt or have only minor injuries, a pedestrian may suffer severe injuries, including broken bones, head and face injuries, back or spine injuries, internal injuries, and deep lacerations.
Your health insurance may not cover all the costs of your care, and while recovering, you might not be able to work. People who suffer pedestrian accidents often use all their paid time off and are forced to spend weeks or months taking unpaid time off while their bills still need to be paid.
Frequently, the injured pedestrian tries to get relief by making a claim with the driver’s insurance carrier. Unfortunately, this isn’t a simple undertaking – although the insurance company would like you to believe it is.
Once you file a claim, a claims adjuster will go to work looking for reasons to deny it. If they can’t find any, they may simply undervalue your claim, offering far less than it’s worth.
Either way, it’s very difficult to get the total amount you deserve from the insurance company on your own.
Your pedestrian accident attorney will work to ensure your rights are protected and you receive the compensation you’re entitled to by doing the following:
Correctly Calculating Your Damages
The majority of accident victims aren’t aware of all the damages they have or what their total claim is worth.
Often, we meet people who are just trying to get the insurance company to pay for their medical bills (which the insurer may be fighting them on). Once we start asking questions about the accident and the injured person’s situation, we frequently learn that they have far more damages than their medical bills.
They may also have thousands of dollars in lost income from missing work, pain and suffering, property damage (such as a phone or laptop they were carrying), or even a permanent disability or disfigurement. In these cases, we negotiate with the insurance company for the total value of the claim, not just the medical bills.
Gathering Evidence to Show the Driver Was At Fault
Fault is frequently disputed in pedestrian accident cases.
The driver may claim that the pedestrian was outside the crosswalk, didn’t have the right of way, or even darted out into the street. The victim might have a very different story.
If there aren’t any witnesses, the police may not have much evidence to go on, and the police report could be inconclusive, or the officer may be inclined to believe the driver.
Another problem in pedestrian accidents is that the person who just got hit by a car is often upset, in pain, or in shock. It can be very difficult to articulate what happened and answer questions accurately in these situations.
Meanwhile, the person who was driving is usually uninjured. As a result, the driver’s story might make more sense to the police because the driver is able to think more clearly at the time.
It’s important to understand that the police report contains the responding officer’s opinion of what happened and who was at fault, but again, in these situations, the officer may have very little information to go on. For this reason, we can challenge a police report in court if we can find evidence to support your explanation of what happened.
We will review the police report with you to determine if any of the information might be inaccurate. If so, we’ll make a note for our investigators, so it’s not a problem if you genuinely don’t remember some of the facts (but if you do notice a discrepancy, this could be helpful).
After reviewing the police report, we often assign our investigators to revisit the accident scene and canvas the area. They search for doorbell, security, or traffic cameras that might have captured the crash or the moments leading up to it, and additionally, they may talk to people who live and work in the area in case there are witnesses who weren’t interviewed at the scene.
We can also seek data from the vehicle driver’s event data recorder, or EDR (sometimes known as a “black box”). This device is found in nearly all domestic cars produced since 2013 and many earlier models as well.
It records a number of data points for an “event” (usually a collision or any significant impact on the car), including the vehicle’s speed, the direction it was moving, and the driver’s actions. This can help us determine if the driver was speeding, if they hit the brakes or swerved, etc.
Negotiating With the Insurance Company
Once we’ve collected as much evidence as possible and assembled a picture of what happened, we will begin negotiations with the insurance company. Our goal is to settle your claim without putting you through the stress of a lengthy and time-consuming court case.
In most situations, the insurance company wants that too. Often, the adjuster knows that they don’t have much evidence to prove their claims that you were at fault, and they aren’t likely to win at trial.
There are occasionally cases where the insurance company flatly refuses to agree on a reasonable settlement. Sometimes, the adjuster has a different interpretation of the evidence or believes they can win at trial for some reason. If this happens, we are prepared to argue your case in court, but most of the time, it isn’t necessary.
What if an Uninsured Driver Hit You?
Don’t give up – give us a call so we can explore your options. In many cases, we can find alternative routes to recovering compensation for the injured pedestrian, including:
- Uninsured motorist coverage. For a pedestrian accident? Yes, if you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage for your car, you can use it if you’re hit by an uninsured driver as a pedestrian.
- Suing the driver. If the driver who hits you is at fault and uninsured, you can seek your damages directly from them. Unfortunately, many uninsured drivers don’t have enough assets to cover the injured person’s damages. In some cases, it may not be possible to collect any judgment you receive, and we don’t advise clients to pursue a lawsuit in these situations.
- Suing a third party. Occasionally, we encounter a situation where a third party also contributed to the accident or the pedestrian’s injuries. For example, if the uninsured driver was intoxicated, it is sometimes possible to sue an establishment that overserved them prior to the crash. This is only an option if we can find evidence that the bar or restaurant served someone who was either underage or already intoxicated, with the knowledge that they would be driving soon.
Contact a Kennesaw Pedestrian Accident Law Firm Today
If you or a loved one have been injured in a pedestrian accident, please contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm for a free consultation. We’ll review your case, answer any questions you have, and explain your options for pursuing compensation.
The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm was founded by attorney Ali Awad, who quickly transformed it into one of the fastest-growing law firms in the country. Dedicated to helping injured people and their families, Mr. Awad and his team have recovered millions of dollars in damages for their clients.
In his spare time, Mr. Awad posts about legal issues for over a million followers on social media. If you need an expert pedestrian accident lawyer, call his team at (470) 323-8779 today.
