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Every day thousands of people are injured or killed who are using their phones while crossing the street. Many of the accidents happen because the police are not consistent in their enforcement of the law, leaving it up to each officer to decide if a phone is a distraction. How would you react if you were walking down a street and a car with an oncoming driver pulled out in front of you? Most people would immediately swerve out of the way to avoid the collision, but the law is clear: if a driver pulls out in front of you, you have the right of way over the vehicle.
Do Pedestrians Always Have The Right Of Way?
The laws of the road are often obscure and confusing. Many small issues that seem insignificant can have huge consequences if they occur on the street. Some people seem to think that the law doesn’t apply to them, while others believe that others should always give way to them.
The intersection of a major street and a sidewalk is a common intersection in many cities. In many communities, drivers tend to look to the right before they turn since a car coming down a street behind them is likely to have a clear path to take, while a pedestrian may have to cross the street. On the road, it’s easy to see why many drivers disagree with the notion that pedestrians always have the right of way over cars. Take the example of an elderly man in a wheelchair who has the right of way when crossing the road. Knowing this, many drivers will wait until he’s roughly halfway across the road before moving over in an attempt to avoid him. This, of course, is against the law.
The question of pedestrian right of way over vehicles was recently addressed in a very unusual way: a pedestrian in India was injured after a driver ignored a red light and struck the pedestrian who was crossing the street. The driver was arrested and charged with causing grievous injury under Section 304. After the accident, the victim’s family and legal team approached the magistrate and requested an order declaring that the victim was the lawful possessor of the road and therefore had the right of way over the vehicle. The magistrate ruled in favor of the victims and assessed a fine of Rs. 50,000 ($8000) against the driver. The driver’s lawyers appealed the decision, and the higher courts ruled in favor of the driver.
A group of people on a sidewalk or street at a busy intersection can often be in their own little world, oblivious to the traffic around them. It’s estimated that more than 20 percent of pedestrians are inattentive at some point, which can have disastrous consequences. The most common cause of accidents that involve pedestrians is inattention, which can be any number of factors ranging from being in a hurry to being preoccupied with a cell phone conversation. But inattention is not the only cause of accidents.
According to the DMV, it is your responsibility to know when you are, in fact, in a pedestrian’s right of way. This means that you are not allowed to ignore the presence of a pedestrian on the street completely, and you must stop and yield the right of way to pedestrians (and cyclists, too). We all know that pedestrians have the right of way over cars, but we often forget that they also have the right of way over other pedestrians. The force of an oncoming vehicle can be deadly; if you are in the lane of travel and another person walks out in front of your car, you should stop and wait until the person gets out of the way. If you get injured by a vehicle, check out this page for more information on what to do. The right of way for pedestrians is to walk on the left side of the street. Unfortunately, many drivers do not realize this and cross the street against the pedestrian’s will. We all know that jaywalking is illegal, but what about other types of pedestrian violations? For instance, if you are crossing against traffic lights, or you are not waiting at the crossing place or where you are supposed to wait for the light to turn, you are committing a pedestrian violation.
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