After seeing the title of this article, I bet you think you know the answer to who wins when a truck strikes a pedestrian. Read the entire article to see if you are correct.
Approximately 5,000 pedestrians die in motor vehicle-related accidents every year and more than 78,000 pedestrians are injured when hit by a car or truck according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA). These figures do not include the thousands of injuries pedestrians suffer annually due to poor property maintenance, sidewalks, and construction sites, parking lots the list goes on.
This article will be discussing negligence; the failure to do or not to do something a reasonable person would do in the same or similar situation in order to protect others from foreseeable risks. Negligence is the legal tort that allows someone injured by someone else’s negligence to recover money in court. Negligence has four separate issues that must be proven in court:
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The defendant owed a legal duty to the plaintiff;
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The defendant failed to provide that legal duty through action or failure to act;
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The defendant cause the accident or injury to the plaintiff;
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The plaintiff suffered damages as a result.
Each case must be decided upon its particular facts and there may be more than one defendant in the case.
An example of multiple defendants would be if a truck driver (defendant one) struck a pedestrian (plaintiff) because the brakes failed (brake manufacturer [defendant two]) and mechanic or owner responsible for maintaining brakes (defendant three) and sidewalk property owner (defendant four) who failed to repair or replace damaged sidewalk all of which contributed to the plaintiff injury. Keep in mind the pedestrian can also contribute to the accident, such as texting and walking.
Any case with a vehicle and pedestrian will involve the laws of the road. The driver’s duty of care requires the driver to use reasonable care under the circumstances. Any failure to do so exposes the driver to a negligence claim. Some usual issues that contribute to the driver’s negligence: pre-occupied or inattentive driving, speeding, failure to yield to pedestrians in marked cross walks, failing to signal a turn, failure to obey signs or signals, driving under the influence and failure to drive according to weather or traffic conditions.
The pedestrian’s duty is to exercise reasonable care for his own safety and must be in proportion to the danger to be avoided, which might reasonably be expected. Some of the usual issues that contribute to the pedestrian’s negligence: darting in front of a vehicle, failure to use marked cross walks (jaywalking), ignoring the “walk” signal at an intersection, and entering a stream of traffic and disrupting the flow (purposefully walking into the flow of traffic expecting the vehicles to yield).
If you are involved in a pedestrian/vehicle accident call the police immediately. Offer any assistance to help the injured person, then work to reroute traffic to protect the pedestrian and the accident scene. DO NOT leave the scene of the accident before help arrives and law enforcement gives you permission to leave. Call your carrier as soon as possible to let them know what has happened. Take pictures with your phone of the accident scene and try to get as many people and car tags at the scene in your photos. Gather as many names and phone numbers as you can from the people there. DO NOT make any statements about the accident until your carrier gives you permission to speak about it and to whom you are allowed to speak.
You may think hitting a pedestrian with a truck seldom happens. But just think of all those people at the docks where you load and unload, people on the city streets where you deliver, people on the interstate who have been in an accident or had mechanical problems with their vehicle. They can cause you substantial problems if you fail to avoid them at all reasonable costs. Sometimes it is impossible to avoid hitting a pedestrian on the interstate just because they should not be there. But they can be there when you do not expect them, and that makes them liable for their actions and reduces your liability at the same time.
Your job as a professional truck driver is to be attentive and aware of your surroundings at all times, follow the law, and make sure all your actions are reasonable for the circumstances.