When you’ve in El Dorado, you likely will want to walk around our historic downtown to see what our city has to offer. Even though this picturesque walk can be beautiful and exciting, sometimes accidents can happen to put you at risk for injury. When a driver or another motorist isn’t careful or paying attention, they could cause an accident with you on the street.
If you were following the rules, the driver at fault for your collision should be held responsible for their accidents. An El Dorado pedestrian accident lawyer from McMath Woods P.A. can help you get justice for what you’ve gone through. We’ll work to prove the other party was at fault for what happened so that you can get the compensation that you deserve.
Arkansas Pedestrian Laws
Walking through town shouldn’t be dangerous. In order to stay as safe as possible, it’s important to follow pedestrian laws in our state. While following the law doesn’t guarantee that you won’t be harmed while crossing the street, it does ensure that you’re not the one who would be at fault for the accident.
Here are the rules that Arkansas pedestrians and motorists need to follow when a person is crossing the street so that everyone can be as safe as possible:
- In crosswalks where there isn’t a traffic light, vehicles must yield to a pedestrian whether the crosswalk is a marked or unmarked.
- If a motorist is stopped to allow a person to cross in a crosswalk, the drivers behind them cannot go around the stopped car.
- When there isn’t a traffic light or a crosswalk, pedestrians crossing the street must yield to vehicles.
- If a pedestrian is crossing the road when there is an overhead walkway, then they must yield to traffic.
- When there are traffic lights, the walkers must follow the traffic signals and use the marked crosswalks.
- Drivers are still expected to practice care when approaching an intersection and crosswalks even if they don’t see a walker in the street.
When you’ve followed all of the rules and still gotten into a collision while crossing the road, you’ll need the help an El Dorado, AR pedestrian accident lawyer. We’ll be able to figure out exactly what happened to cause your accident and hold the responsible party accountable for what they’ve done to you.
Let’s take a look at the different circumstances that cause collisions between pedestrians and vehicles in our city.
What Causes Collisions with Pedestrians in El Dorado?
Crashes between motorists and pedestrians can cause some of the most serious injuries because a pedestrian does not have any way to protect themselves against a vehicle that is moving toward them. Many of these accidents can prove to be fatal for pedestrians. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Arkansas had 493 traffic fatalities in 2017, and 42 of those deaths were pedestrians.
In order to better avoid these potentially deadly collisions from happening, you should know the different causes of them. Or if you’ve been in a pedestrian accident in El Dorado and need to know what caused it so that your lawyer can help you with your claim, you’ll likely be looking into one of these scenarios:
- Distracted drivers. When a driver isn’t paying attention to the road, they can easily blow through an intersection or crosswalk. They might not be able to slow down or brake in time when they are paying attention to their phone or not looking at the road ahead of them. This could cause them to run into a person trying to cross the road who would have been safe had the driver been vigilant.
- Drunk drivers. Similar to distracted drivers, drunk drivers aren’t paying attention to the road ahead of them, which can make them ignore pedestrians crossing the street. They make poor decisions and have slowed reaction times which leads to them causing collisions with people in the road.
- Part malfunction. Sometimes car parts fail even though a driver is being careful. If a tire blows, or brakes malfunction, a driver could have trouble stopping for a pedestrian, which could lead to an accident.
- Trouble seeing. Poor visibility on the road can lead a driver to not see a pedestrian in a crosswalk or otherwise. If it’s foggy, poorly-lit, or just hard to see, a driver might not be able to see a walker who is waiting to cross, or who is being told to cross the street, and could cause a collision.
- Unsafe premises. If a pedestrian is walking on a premises, and they slip and fall, this could force them out into the road and cause an accident. Even though we usually think about unsafe premises being inside a building, sometimes the property outside of a building owned by someone can be unsafe and cause people to fall into the road. Or if they have to walk around an obstruction, they could be in the street which is unsafe and could cause an accident.
No matter what caused your accident, if you weren’t the one who was responsible, then you could use the help of one of our El Dorado pedestrian accident lawyers. We’ll help you get justice for what you’ve experienced.
One of Our El Dorado, AR Pedestrian Accident Lawyers Will Represent You
When you’ve been struck by a vehicle while trying to cross the street, you likely suffered from injuries and other damages. You could even be struggling to heal from permanent injuries that changed your way of life. This might leave you feeling vulnerable and unsure if you want to take legal action.
You deserve to have justice and get compensation for everything you’ve been through. An El Dorado, AR pedestrian accident lawyer will represent you so that you can recover what you deserve. We’ll investigate what happened and calculate what you’re owed so that you won’t settle. Reach out to our office today so we can get started on your claim right away.
