Fort Wayne Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

These days, cars are equipped with numerous safety features designed to keep drivers and passengers safe. Unfortunately, none of those will protect a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. People who are hit by cars while walking are substantially more likely to suffer serious injury or death.

Accidents involving pedestrians are substantially more common in urban areas. Since Fort Wayne is the second-largest city in Indiana, cars pose a real threat to its citizens on a daily basis. Fortunately, if you or a loved one finds themself the victim of someone else’s negligent driving, you have legal rights and can seek to recover substantial compensation for your losses.

Wruck Paupore’s experienced legal team takes pride in our ability to help clients struggling with serious injuries get the compensation they deserve. To get a free case assessment and get on the road to recovery, call our Fort Wayne pedestrian accident attorneys today at (219) 322-1166.

Common Causes of Pedestrian Accidents in Fort Wayne

In urban areas like downtown Fort Wayne, car traffic moves close to foot traffic. Even the slightest mistake behind the wheel can put pedestrians in danger. Below are some of the most frequent situations that our Fort Wayne pedestrian accident lawyers find lead to vehicular collisions with pedestrians.

Distracted Driving

These days, almost everyone has a smartphone. It can be difficult to keep one’s eyes on the road, but under Indiana law, typing text messages and scrolling through emails is against the law while behind the wheel. This includes when the vehicle is stopped at an intersection. One of the most common ways drivers hit pedestrians occurs when the driver takes their foot off the brake and accelerates forward through a red light, mistakenly assuming that the light has turned green while still looking down at their screen.

Failure to Yield

Any driver operating on public roads must at all times be aware of who has the right of way. The “right of way” refers to who has priority to take a particular path. For instance, if a driver is making a right turn on a green light, but the pedestrian crossing ahead has a walk light, the pedestrian has the right of way. If the driver wrongly assumes that they have the right of way, they could negligently accelerate into the turn, colliding with the pedestrian who was rightfully crossing the street.

Speeding

Fort Wayne has a legal speed limit for every public road (and many private access roads). These speed limits are not arbitrary. They are determined by professional traffic engineers to provide a driver with ample time to avoid a dangerous situation. Drivers who exceed the speed limit give themselves shorter reaction times and are likely to be at least partially liable for hitting a pedestrian, even if the pedestrian is crossing the street in the wrong place.

Drunk Driving

Drugs and alcohol also impact a driver’s reaction time, not to mention their motor skills and ability to stay awake behind the wheel. If the driver involved in a pedestrian accident in Indiana was intoxicated at the time, there is a high probability they will be liable for paying compensatory damages, not to mention possible punitive damages, which are only available in situations where the defendant’s reckless behavior warrants punishment. Our Fort Wayne pedestrian accident lawyers can help you identify if your situation calls for punitive damages.

Liability for Fort Wayne Pedestrian Accidents

You may be able to recover compensation for pedestrian accident damages through a lawsuit. This is contingent on you showing that the defendant’s negligence caused the accident. Typically, if your situation matches any of the common examples of pedestrian accidents listed above, you have a good chance to prove that the driver was at fault. This is because each of those examples involves some traffic regulation violation. A driver who breaks the rules of the road is liable for the accident, provided that their violation actually caused the accident as opposed to someone else’s negligence.

Liability may not always be so clear in every case, however. For instance, if more than one car was involved in the collision that caused the pedestrian injury, either one (or potentially all) of the drivers could be at fault for causing the accident. If the collision occurred because of poorly maintained features or unclear signage on the road, liability could lie with the person responsible for making that area safe. This could be a public road, where a government body would be responsible. However, improperly maintained driveways or access roads in a shopping center could create liability for their private owners or managers.

Every case is different and it’s critically important that you obtain advice from an experienced pedestrian accident lawyer as soon as possible after the incident.

Fort Wayne's Comparative Negligence Rules for Pedestrian Accidents

In some situations, the injured pedestrian may share some of the blame for causing the accident. But Indiana law ensures that the injury victim can still seek at least a portion of their damages. The State of Indiana uses the popular “51% fault” modified comparative negligence system.

This means that a pedestrian may still file a lawsuit against the party responsible for causing the accident even if their own negligent actions contributed to it. The consequence in these situations is that the court may reduce the damage award proportionally to the plaintiff’s level of fault. However, if the plaintiff’s negligence is greater than 50% at fault for causing the accident, they cannot recover anything.

For instance, let’s say that a driver was out late at night and performed a rolling stop at a stop sign, where a jogger wearing all black rightfully believed that they had time to cross. The driver did not see the jogger crossing and ran into them past the stop sign. The jogger sues the driver for the harms they suffered due to their injuries, claiming $200,000.

A court may determine that the driver was liable for failing to stop at the stop sign and hitting the jogger. However, the court could also find that the pedestrian shared 25% of the fault for their failure to wear reflective gear while running at night. Thus, the pedestrian would only recover $150,000, or the remaining 75% of the damages attributed to the driver’s negligence.

Our Fort Wayne Pedestrian Accident Lawyers Can Help You Get Compensarted

To get a free initial case evaluation, call the seasoned Fort Wayne pedestrian accident attorneys at Wruck Paupore Injury Lawyers. You can reach us at any time at (219) 322-1166. The call and your case evaluation is completely free.