Pedestrian Accidents

A pedestrian, bicyclist, skateboarder, or non-motorized scooter rider who has been hit by a vehicle should contact a personal injury attorney. Alabama’s statute of limitations for a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the date of the injury. If the accident occurred while the pedestrian was engaged in work-related duties, the person should speak to a car accident attorney and a worker’s comp attorney. This is true even if the accident did not occur at the workplace. The statute of limitations for a worker’s comp claim is two years from the date of the injury or two years from the date of the last compensation payment. 

The pedestrian should speak to a personal injury attorney before talking to an insurance adjuster from their healthcare provider or their homeowner’s insurance company. They should also talk to a personal injury attorney before considering talking with the driver who hit them. 

It is OK to communicate with the driver to get the driver’s insurance information and information about their vehicle, such as the make, model, and year of the vehicle. When the pedestrian consults a personal injury attorney, they should bring medical records related to the accident. The pedestrian and truck accident attorney should review these to determine how the accident happened. 

Alabama follows the pure contributory negligence rule. An individual who is partially or wholly at fault for an accident, even by as little as 1 percent, cannot claim damages from the other party. If the driver was wholly at fault, the pedestrian can request compensation from the driver’s insurer.

The first steps a pedestrian who has been hit by a car should take are: 

1. Call 911 and ensure a law enforcement officer creates a report for the accident. 
2. Seek medical care and follow the advice of healthcare professionals.
3. Avoid taking any actions that would worsen the injuries. Pedestrian Accidents can result in Traumatic brain injuries and other serious conditions that may be permanent. This includes taking work that would complicate recovery. The pedestrian may need to request modifications of their duties at work to heal. 
4. Refrain from posting about the accident and their work and leisure activities following the accident on social media.
5. Gather the police report and medical bills and documents that relate to their damages. Put these in chronological order. Provide these documents to their personal injury attorney.

When a pedestrian is hit by a driver, a prosecutor may file charges in criminal court against the driver. The pedestrian should press charges, or insist upon the criminal case moving forward, unless their personal injury attorney advises against this. If the driver is convicted of a criminal offense, this may make it easier for the pedestrian to prove guilt in a civil case. The pedestrian can request that the driver’s conviction be evidence in a civil lawsuit. 

A personal injury attorney can help a pedestrian determine the value of a civil lawsuit. They can also estimate the pedestrian’s percentage of fault, or likelihood of winning the case. The attorney can then begin to negotiate a settlement for the pedestrian. 

A settlement may be for the total sum of multiple kinds of damage: medical bills, lost wages, loss of consortium, pain and suffering, property damage to the bicycle or skateboard that the pedestrian was riding, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees. An attorney can represent the pedestrian or their surviving family members in court. They can also act as a consultant so the pedestrian or surviving family members can represent themselves. 

A pedestrian who is mobile after an accident should talk to their personal injury attorney about how to avoid future accidents with drivers. The pedestrian should also read the laws related to pedestrians, which can be found in Section 32-5A of the Code of Alabama. 

For example, a pedestrian should not leave a curb suddenly to walk or run into the path of an oncoming vehicle. If the pedestrian gets into another accident soon after the first one, this will increase the chance that a judge or jury would see them as at fault for the first accident. Being at fault in a second accident could also influence how the court views the pedestrian’s veracity, or inclination to tell the truth.