Pedestrian Accident Lawyers in Delaware County: Crosswalks, Right of Way and Your Own Policy

Your own policy probably covers you

People struck on foot assume their auto insurance is irrelevant. It usually is not. Pennsylvania medical benefits coverage follows the insured person, so a household auto policy commonly pays your treatment even though you were walking. Underinsured motorist coverage on that same policy frequently becomes the largest source of recovery when the driver carries minimum limits.

And because you were not occupying a private passenger vehicle, the limited tort restriction generally does not bind you.

Bring every declarations page in the household. This is the single most valuable thing you can do early.

Right of way, and what it does not mean

Drivers must yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks and at intersections. Away from a crosswalk, pedestrians generally must yield to vehicles, but a driver still has a duty to exercise due care and to avoid a person they can see.

So being outside a crosswalk is not the end of a claim. It shifts comparative fault, and Pennsylvania only bars recovery above 50 percent. A driver who was speeding, distracted, or who had a clear line of sight for hundreds of feet, carries a substantial share regardless of where the person stepped.

What decides these cases

• Sight lines and lighting. How far away could the driver see, and what did the street lighting actually do at that hour.
• Speed. Survival and injury severity change dramatically with impact speed, and the physical evidence usually establishes it.
• Point of impact and throw distance, which a reconstruction expert reads to establish speed and direction.
• Video. Commercial premises, doorbell cameras and transit vehicles capture more of these than people expect, and most overwrite within weeks.

Hit and run, and the uninsured driver

A driver who leaves is not the end of the claim. Uninsured motorist coverage on a household policy is designed for exactly this, and it applies to pedestrians. Report to the police promptly, because these claims carry notice requirements and the police report is what makes them work.

Children and SEPTA

A child’s claim generally does not begin running until they turn eighteen, and Pennsylvania judges children’s conduct against what is reasonable for their age rather than an adult standard.

Where a transit vehicle is involved, the six month written notice requirement for government bodies applies, and it is far shorter than the two year limitation people have in mind.