Getting into a Pedestrian Accident While Jaywalking
Posted May 6th, 2015 by Anthony Carbone, PC.
Categories: Personal Injury.
It’s finally beautiful outside. You decide instead of driving to the store, you’re going to take a walk and get some exercise. You get to an intersection. Although the sign says “Don’t Walk” there are no cars coming in either direction so you decide to cross. Just as you’re halfway across the intersection, a car comes speeding through the intersection and hits you. Now what?
We’ve all done this scenario before. No matter what the sign says, if the roadway is clear you’re going to cross. But by jaywalking, you’re putting your life at risk. And it may be hard to get compensation after your pedestrian accident. Why? Because the courts may find that you’re as negligent as the driver in the scenario above. According to personal injury law, you have a case when another party was acting negligent or careless way, causing your injury. But in the case above, the driver might claim that you are responsible for the accident because you were jaywalking. However, this doesn’t mean you will not be compensated for your injuries.
When deciding who’s to blame for an accident, the courts use a theory called comparative fault. This means there are certain degrees used to assign blame. So using this theory to the above scenario, a small percentage of the fault could be assigned to you since you were jaywalking. However, the majority of the blame could go to the driver, who had been speeding and didn’t have control of the car at the time of the accident. And since you are partially to blame for the accident, you will get a smaller settlement than if the driver was 100 percent to blame.
If you get into a pedestrian accident in New Jersey, you’re going to need an experienced personal injury attorney to help you get the compensation you deserve. Don’t wait much longer, contact the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone today for a free consultation.
