Common Leesburg Pedestrian Accidents
The common types of pedestrian accidents are pedestrians getting hit by cars, pedestrians getting hit by motorcycles, pedestrians getting hit by bicycles, or pedestrians suffering injuries of their own doing. Examples of this include failure to see a hole in the roadway or finding an unexpected situation on the sidewalk or roadway that causes them to fall with or without notice. There are a lot of different types of accidents, but these are the most common a Leesburg pedestrian accident lawyer comes across.
Children’s Involvement
It is quite common for children to be involved in pedestrian accidents. The reason for this is pretty simple. Children do not often understand the rules of the road and they can be quite careless or carefree in their actions. Everyone has seen the tragic infomercials about children straying into the roadway and the driver not paying attention and striking a child, unfortunately, it happens.
It happens to Leesburg as well at intersections where children are more frequently at play, such as near parks, trails, and bike paths. While children are expected to follow the rules of the road and parents are expected to supervise, it is not always the case. Therefore it is not uncommon for a situation to arise where parents are failing to supervise their children and therefore the children are put in a dangerous situation.
Case Procedure Differences
Generally, the expectation for a child in what their duty of care, or their duty of caution, is slightly lesser than adults. Additionally, for a minor injured in a pedestrian accident, there are certain procedural issues at play, but it is always a tragic case.
Generally, children that are injured in pedestrian accidents are injured quite severely due to their size and inability to properly defend themselves to avoid serious injuries.
Teens & Pre-Teens
Teens and pre-teens is an especially vulnerable class of individuals. This is due to their proclivity for distractions, whether it is playing Pokémon Go, playing on their iPhones, or listening to music. Additionally, they are at risk because they know enough to be on their own but not enough to necessarily understand the risks of some of their behaviors.
Elderly Persons
Elderly persons are certainly at risk. Drivers and cyclists may overestimate or underestimate the speed at which an elderly person is moving and that their reaction time might be slightly slower.
As we age, we are not as nimble as we used to be and it means they are at greater risk for an accident.
General Risk Factors
In my experience, the Town of Leesburg actually is fairly dangerous for pedestrians. There any many intersections in which cars travel at quite a high speed and while they are supposed to yield to pedestrians, pedestrians certainly have to be very cautious at the intersections.
The reason for this is because many of the roads that lead into Leesburg are 25, 35, or even 45 miles an hour higher a short distance from the town limits or the city’s downtown area before their speed is required to drop drastically.
Drivers in downtown Leesburg can often be distracted as well while they are looking for the address of their destination, whether it be a restaurant, an office, or the courthouse. There are a lot of reasons why drivers may be looking elsewhere other watching for a pedestrian.
Pedestrians also make assumptions that drivers are going to stop for them if the driver sees them. Many of the old roads in Leesburg are laid out in a way that is actually difficult for drivers to see that pedestrians are going to cross an intersection.
