Whether you are the driver or the pedestrian, a car-pedestrian accident is something you want to avoid at all cost. Even at a low speed, a car striking a child or adult is likely to cause serious injuries, possibly even death.

Car-pedestrian collisions rarely occur outside the roadway. They are more frequent in parking lots, where cars and pedestrians comingle, or when pedestrians cross the roadway. Fault can be attributed to the pedestrian or to the car driver, or to both, depending on the circumstances.

Pedestrians

Pedestrians can be held liable for the accident in a number of cases, such as:

Ignoring Traffic Lights: Impatience is usually the reason why people can't wait until the "Walk" light turns on, or rush to cross the street when the "Don't Walk" light just came on. If there are no pedestrian lights, pedestrians should only cross when the traffic lights make their crossing safe.

Jaywalking: Whether justified by the absence of crosswalks or not, pedestrians crossing a road or street in a non-designated area should be extra careful and know that they have no priority over motor vehicles.

Children and Parents: Children have no sense of the danger caused by traffic, and are capable of suddenly darting into the street. Parents have the responsibility of keeping them under control at all times, and may put themselves in harm's way if they, in turn, rush into the roadway to rescue their child.

"No Pedestrian" Areas: Pedestrians are not supposed to walk on limited access speedways where traffic moves at high speed.

Drivers

Drivers should not conclude that pedestrians need to look out for themselves. There are many cases where a motor vehicle driver can be held partially or totally liable in an accident with a pedestrian. The most common are:

• Disregarding a crosswalk
• Disregarding traffic lights and stop signs
• Disregarding the speed limits, especially in urban areas and school or children's play zones
• Inattentive driving in a parking lot
• Driving under the influence.

If you have been hurt in a Wisconsin or Illinois car, truck or motorcycle accident, contact the attorneys of Hupy & Abraham, S.C. today at 800-800-5676 (toll-free) or 414-223-4800 (local) for a free evaluation of your case, or send us an e-mail with your questions. Hupy & Abraham has lawyer offices in Milwaukee, Madison, and Appleton in Wisconsin, and Gurnee and Bloomington in Illinois.