Biking or walking through a major city can be extremely risky. On average, every seven minutes, a pedestrian is injured in a traffic accident. Even if you are careful and you wear a helmet and other protective gear, you could still sustain severe injuries. As a victim of a pedestrian motor vehicle accident, it is important to know whether your actions could affect the amount of monetary damages awarded in your case.
Negligence: The Driver’s Liability
In most automobile accidents, negligence is the legal principle under which you would assert your cause of action. To establish negligence, a victim (the plaintiff) must prove four elements.
1) The driver owed a duty of care – all drivers have a duty to drive safely on the road, keep a proper look out, maintain a reasonable speed, maintain a safe distance, and obey all traffic laws.
2) The driver breached that duty of care – the driver can breach his or her duty of care by failing to drive carefully or by failing to obey traffic laws. This includes, but are not limited to, failing to stop at a stop sign, failing to yield the right of way, or failure to stop …show more content…
As a result, you sustain a broken leg and $3,000.00 in medical expenses. 1) The driver owed you a duty of care to yield the right of way at the crosswalk; 2) The driver breached that duty when he failed to stop; 3) The driver’s failure to stop caused you (the plaintiff) to break your leg; 4) and you sustained $3,000.00 in medical expenses as a result of the driver’s negligence conduct. All drivers are legally obligated to exercise a duty of care while driving his/her vehicle. Typically, the major disagreement between the defendant and the plaintiff is whether the defendant breached a duty of care and/or the amount of damages the plaintiff is entitled to get as a result of the