Orange County Pedestrian Accident Attorney

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Walking around beautiful Orange County is a popular way to get exercise, commute to work, and visit local spots. Every day, thousands of people walk throughout Irvine or around the OC alone, with dogs, or with friends. Unfortunately, the county isn’t always safe for pedestrians. You could be walking one minute and the victim of a harmful collision the next. If you or a loved one has suffered injuries in an Orange County pedestrian accident, speak to an Orange County personal injury lawyer for legal counsel. You could be eligible for significant recovery.

How Our Attorneys Can Help You

Retaining our pedestrian accident attorneys will help you retain your peace of mind while you recover from your injury. Pedestrian accident cases are complex, but our attorneys have developed a deep, foundational knowledge of them in their years of experience.

After hiring our attorneys, you can count on us to:

fully investigate your case and diligently track down the witnesses, evidence, and experts necessary to prove your case.
Navigate the discovery process to make sure the defendants and their insurance companies turn over all of the evidence you are properly owed.
protect and push your case forward through motions practice
If necessary, take your case through trial when the insurance company and other responsible parties refuse to pay you what you are owed.

All of that is just what they do as your advocates, but remember: our attorneys will be there for you to act as your trusted counsel.

Orange County Pedestrian Accident Statistics

Pedestrian safety remains a critical concern in Orange County. In 2022, there were 883 reported incidents involving pedestrians who were either injured or killed in motor vehicle collisions. Alarmingly, 66 of these victims were children under the age of 15, and 136 were adults aged 65 and older.

Collisions between vehicles and pedestrians often result in fatalities. We believe that even a single pedestrian death is one too many. Our goal is to support victims of pedestrian accidents and raise awareness about this pressing issue in Southern California, striving for meaningful change to enhance safety for all.

How An Orange County Pedestrian Accident Attorney Can Help

If you believe the driver who struck you was behaving negligently, recklessly, or against the law at the time of the collision, you may be able to bring a personal injury claim against the individual. A PI claim typically results in better compensation than just an insurance claim. Even if you’ve been the victim of a hit-and-run and can’t find the driver, our team may still be able to help you negotiate a settlement with your insurance company. Get in touch to learn your legal rights and opportunities.

Common Pedestrian Accident Injuries

Pedestrian accidents can cause a wide range of injuries, often resulting in severe consequences. Some of the most common injuries include:

Traumatic Brain Injuries: Ranging from concussions to severe brain trauma, often requiring extensive treatment. Speak to a brain injury lawyer in Orange County today.
Fractures: Broken bones, especially in the legs, arms, or pelvis, are frequent in collisions.
Spinal Cord Injuries: Can lead to partial or full paralysis and long-term medical care. Our Orange County spinal cord injury attorneys are here to help.
Internal Injuries: Damage to internal organs that may require surgery and extensive recovery.
Lacerations and Contusions: Cuts, bruises, and abrasions can be serious and require medical attention.
Burn Injuries: Caused by contact with hot surfaces, exhaust systems, or vehicles, leading to serious damage and scarring. Let a burn injury lawyer in Orange County help you with your case.

These injuries often require significant medical care and can lead to long-term impacts on a victim’s life.

Risk Factors After Suffering A Brain Injury

A study from the California Journal of Emergency Medicine set out to define the risk factors for suffering an injury in a pedestrian accident. That study found that certain risk factors are significantly intertwined with pedestrian accidents and further found that certain groups of people–namely, young children, elderly people, and those who have fewer economic means–face a greater risk of suffering a pedestrian accident.

While no specific risk factor was outcome determinative, that study found the following factors to have high correlations with increased rates of pedestrian accidents. Those factors are discussed below.

Time of Day

The study found that national data indicates that most fatal pedestrian accidents occur between the hours of 6 pm and midnight. The study’s authors believe this discrepancy is explained by the following circumstances:

People who drive at night tend to operate their vehicles with impaired vision due to decreased daylight.
Pedestrian traffic tended to increase during that time period.
Drivers were more likely to have consumed alcohol in the evening.

Alcohol Consumption

Consumption of alcohol is highly correlated with pedestrian accidents. Nearly 40% of all pedestrian fatalities involved the pedestrian consuming alcohol, and 18% of those fatalities involved the driver consuming alcohol.

Urban Density

Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of pedestrian fatalities occur in urban areas. Further, 75% happened away from intersections.

The study hypothesizes that this is largely due to the higher rate of pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic generally. However, the study’s authors believe there are other compounding factors in urban areas

A greater number of drivers who fail to comply with traffic laws;
More pedestrians who fail to maintain their own safety awareness, and
Poor city planning contributes to these injuries.

Urban density can pose problems, but this does not mean that rural areas do not also pose unique, significant risks. Rural areas have fewer overall numbers of pedestrian accidents, but pedestrian accidents occurring in rural areas are significantly more likely to be severe or even fatal than their urban counterparts. This higher rate of severe injury and fatality can be attributed to:

Higher vehicle speeds on rural roads;
Lack proper pedestrian walkways; and
Greater distances from the site of the injury to the hospital.

Who is At Risk?

That same article also identified two common risk factors: age and social status. Each is explored in the passages below.

Children

Generally, children and older adults are the most vulnerable to being injured in a pedestrian accident. These age groups share increased risks of being injured in a pedestrian accident, but they face those increased risks for different reasons.

Children face increased risks of being injured in a pedestrian accident. The study hypothesizes that they face these risks for several reasons, including:

Children are, by nature, impulsive and lack the fully developed sensory and cognitive skills that their older counterparts have; and
Adults tend to overestimate a child’s ability to move out of the way of the speeding vehicle.

Children under sixteen years of age are the most likely to be struck by motor vehicles. Kids between ten and fifteen years old have the highest rate of non-fatal injuries. Tragically, pedestrian collisions are the second leading cause of injury-related death among children between the ages of five and fourteen years old.

The rates at which children tend to suffer specific types of injuries in pedestrian accidents differ from those of older adults, too. This discrepancy is thought to be due to the height of the vehicle’s impact relative to the child’s center of gravity. Children most commonly suffer the following types of injuries:

34.6% of pedestrian accidents result in children injuring their head and neck.
22.2% of pedestrian accidents involving children resulted in musculoskeletal injuries.

Older Adults

Older adults–particularly those sixty-five years and older–face increased risks of being severely injured or killed in a pedestrian accident. However, they face these risks for different reasons than children: older adults do not engage in the risky behaviors one might find in children.

The risk of death in pedestrian accidents is higher for older populations. In general, older adults experience longer hospitalizations, more complications, and higher mortality rates for type of injury. Older people face these risks for several reasons, chief among them their gradual loss of hearing, vision, reflexes, and flexibility that put them at greater risk.

In contrast to children, older adults tend to suffer more musculoskeletal injuries (41.4% of the time) than they do head and neck injuries (26.7%).

Social Status

No population is “safe” from pedestrian accidents. Still, these injuries do have a greater impact on people of lower socioeconomic standing–defined here to mean those who have less money, less social support, and limited education.

This increased negative impact is partially explained by the fact that those of fewer socioeconomic means are often the main income providers in their families. If someone is injured, there is a greater financial burden on an already economically strained situation. Ultimately, the increased risk faced by these populations is not entirely explained.

The Importance Of Evidence In An Orange County Pedestrian Accident Claim

When a pedestrian accident occurs, a police report can play a crucial role in determining fault and liability. Evidence collected at the scene, including witness statements, examination of stop signs and adherence to speed limits, and compliance with the California Vehicle Code, can significantly impact the outcome of a legal claim.

Our firm will work alongside you, advocating for your rights and building a strong case to secure fair compensation for the damages incurred. By guiding the injured parties through the legal intricacies, we can help alleviate the burden faced by the victims and their families, allowing them to focus on their recovery while seeking the justice they deserve.

Why Speak to an Orange County Accident Attorney?

After a pedestrian collision, you probably have significant injuries that landed you in the hospital. These include medical bills and lost wages resulting from missed work time. You might have suffered catastrophic or permanently disabling injuries, such as damage to your brain or spinal cord. Many pedestrian accidents result in major lacerations, traumatic injuries, loss of limb, brain damage, and paralysis. If this sounds like you, there is hope for the future. A good team of lawyers can fight for adequate compensation for these life-changing injuries.

Compensation You Can Recover After a Pedestrian Injury

After a pedestrian injury, you may be entitled to financial compensation. The legal term for that compensation is damages. Under California law, damages are awarded by the jury to an injured person and must be paid to the injured person by the person found responsible for his injuries under the law.

The general purpose of an award of damages is to put the injured person back in or as close to the position her or she would have been in if not for the injury. Most damages are awarded to compensate injured people for specific losses–not to punish the person who injured the pedestrian. Damages are very rarely awarded for the sole purpose of punishing a defendant. Each of California’s most commonly awarded compensatory damages are discussed below.

Medical Expenses

A successful pedestrian injury plaintiff will recover damages to compensate them for the reasonable value of the medical expenses they incurred due to their pedestrian accident. Damages awarded for medical expenses are awarded for both:

The medical expenses incurred in the past that were necessitated by the injury; and
The medical expenses that will be incurred in the future due to the injury.

To recover medical expenses, a brain injury plaintiff does need to prove:

That they actually incurred medical expenses;
How much money did they spend on the medical expenses they incurred?
That the price they paid for those services was the reasonable value of those services; and
That the expenditures they made were reasonably necessary due to the injury.

One of the best things you can do when you or a loved one has suffered a brain injury is to create a method to store and track your medical expenditures. This will ensure that the evidence of your medical expenses is preserved for trial.

Damages Awards for Pain & Suffering

California law also allows injured pedestrians to recover damages for the pain and suffering they endured as a result of their injuries. Though difficult to quantify, these damages are still compensatory in nature, and the ultimate decision as to whether to award these damages and how much to award in them is a decision for the members of the jury.

Hedonic Damages

Hedonic damages are part of the pain and suffering damages awarded under California law. These damages are awarded as compensation for the injured person’s inability to enjoy life due to their injury.

Here is how hedonic damages are different from pain and suffering damages:

Pain and suffering damages are awarded for the physical sensation of pain and suffering that the injured person was forced to endure as a result of his or her injury.
Hedonic damages are different in that they are awarded to compensate the injured person for their lost ability to enjoy activities they were capable of performing before suffering their injury and cannot do since then.

Lost Wages

California law also makes sure injured people are compensated for the wages they lose due to their injuries. These damages are awarded to injured pedestrians for the wages they lost:

while they were unable to work because of the injury; and
the wages they will lose in the future due to the injury.

Lost Earning Capacity

Damages awarded for lost earning capacity are damages awarded to compensate injured pedestrians for their diminished capacity to earn a living. Like all damages, these damages must be proved before they will be awarded by a jury. That proof will often come in the form of testimony from the injured pedestrian’s treating physicians and an expert economist to explain how the injury hampers the pedestrian’s ability to earn a living.

Pedestrian Accident Laws in California

Most pedestrian accident lawsuits are brought under a theory of negligence. In a pedestrian accident case, a negligence suit is a case alleging:

The motorist who injured the pedestrian owed the pedestrian a duty of care.
The motorist breached that duty of care by driving carelessly or imprudently.
The motorist’s careless or imprudent behavior while driving was the cause of the injury; and
The injury suffered by the pedestrian is compensable under California law.

But what does it mean to owe a duty of care to someone, and moreover, how does someone breach that duty of care? These concepts will be explained below.

Duty of Care

At bottom, the duty of care is a legal obligation that falls upon every person when he or she is engaged in any activity that could pose a foreseeable risk to another person’s body or property. That duty is owed to any person who could foreseeably be harmed by that activity.

Where pedestrian accidents are concerned, the duty of care falls on drivers, and they owe that duty both to other drivers and to pedestrians. Drivers are specifically under a duty to operate their vehicles as a reasonable and prudent person would do under the same or similar circumstances.

At a minimum, this duty obligates drivers to pay attention to the road while driving. Otherwise, the driver could face legal and financial responsibility for the foreseeable harms caused by their negligent driving.

Breaching the Duty of Care

The definition of this duty of care may seem vague, but breaching it is not. Motorists breach the duty of care by doing things such as:

driving while intoxicated;
texting while driving;
failing to properly secure a load hitched to the vehicle; or
driving inattentively by doing things such as eating while driving.

Negligence Per Se

Traffic statutes can also be used to bring a lawsuit on behalf of an injured pedestrian. If a driver injures a pedestrian while violating a California state statute, then the law presumes that the driver was negligent. That presumption of negligence means that a knowledgeable attorney can prove both that (1) the driver owed a duty of care to the pedestrian and (2) the driver breached that duty of care by failing to follow the statute.

Who is Responsible for Pedestrian Accidents?

As you might have guessed, negligent motorists and their insurance companies are commonly found to be the financially liable parties for pedestrian accidents. However, that financial liability can be spread amongst the various parties whose negligence caused or significantly contributed to the pedestrian’s injury. Common defendants in pedestrian accident cases include:

Motorists;
Other pedestrians
The local government is responsible for the injuries caused or contributed to by poorly maintained roadways.

There is no formalized list of responsible parties in a pedestrian accident. Finding the parties who are responsible for the injury is a responsibility that falls on the attorney after you hire him or her. This is just one reason that it is crucial to contact a knowledgeable pedestrian accident attorney as soon as possible.

Contact An Orange County Pedestrian Accident Attorney – Free Consultations!

Recovering from a pedestrian accident first takes determining the defendant(s), or the party allegedly responsible for the incident. This could be the driver of the vehicle, an employer of someone driving the vehicle, vehicle and equipment manufacturers, and/or the Orange County government. Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP can investigate your accident, help you learn who is responsible, and hold this party liable for your damages. Contact us today to start with a complimentary consultation.