If you are dealing with serious injuries because a negligent driver hit you while you were walking, you should contact a Largo pedestrian accident lawyer from Distasio Law Firm to discuss your options for filing a lawsuit and receiving compensation or a settlement.
Holding someone else legally liable for an incident like this can be difficult to handle alone, and a Largo injury attorney’s guidance can prove essential to securing a favorable case result.
Unfortunately, it is far too common for Florida drivers not to respect the rights of pedestrians and act unsafely around them, sometimes leading to collisions that have devastating and even life-changing repercussions for the people involved.
How To Get Compensation After a Pedestrian Accident
Even low-speed collisions between multi-ton modern cars and unprotected pedestrians can cause long-lasting injuries that are expensive to treat and take months to fully heal—most commonly around the pelvis, legs, and torso.
Higher-speed wrecks very often have fatal consequences and those that do not may cause permanent and debilitating harm in the form of traumatic brain damage, paralysis, spine injury, severe organ trauma, or loss of limb.
In either scenario, it is possible to demand restitution from a negligent party for every economic and non-economic form of harm a pedestrian crash has caused and likely will cause, including:
- Past and future medical bills, plus related expenses for things like assistive medical equipment and medications
- Lost working ability and/or work income
- Personal property damage
- Physical pain and discomfort
- Emotional and psychological suffering
- Lost enjoyment of life
- Lost consortium
An experienced pedestrian accident lawyer like Scott Distasio can discuss what losses could be recoverable after a specific pedestrian accident in Largo during a private consultation.
Largo Pedestrian Accident Liability
Even though pedestrians are at far greater risk of being seriously injured in automobile collisions compared to anyone inside the vehicle that hit them, Florida courts do not automatically hold drivers who strike pedestrians liable for ensuing injuries and losses.
To obtain civil compensation for damages stemming from this kind of incident, an injured pedestrian would still need to prove the driver who hit them did so specifically because of their reckless or careless actions.
A pedestrian crash victim must also prove that the damages they are seeking financial recovery for stemmed directly and primarily from that incident.
Because drivers have a legal duty to act responsibly behind the wheel by following traffic laws and paying attention to their surroundings, any driver who strikes and injures a pedestrian because of a traffic violation or a lapse in concentration can be considered negligent along these lines and held liable for damages.
However, pedestrians can also be assigned percentages of fault for their own damages if they were negligent themselves—for example if they suddenly stepped into the road and gave an oncoming driver no time to slow down or stop.
In situations like this, Florida Statutes §768.81 allows courts to proportionately reduce the total compensation available to an injured pedestrian based on their share of total fault. Support from a skilled Largo pedestrian accident attorney can be key to overcoming accusations of “comparative fault” made by defendants trying to minimize their own financial liability for a crash.
A Largo Pedestrian Accident Attorney Can Help
Pedestrians who are hit by motor vehicles are more likely to suffer life-altering injuries than virtually anyone else involved in any other type of auto accident. Holding a negligent driver liable for causing an incident like this could make a world of difference in what your future prospects and overall quality of life look like moving forward.
After getting necessary medical care, speaking with a Largo pedestrian accident lawyer from Distasio Law Firm should be your top priority. Call today to schedule a meeting.
