Successfully recovering compensation in a pedestrian accident case requires proving the driver was negligent—that they breached their duty of care and caused your injuries. Understanding what evidence establishes driver negligence and how to gather it strengthens your claim and counters defense arguments.
Elements of Driver Negligence
To prove negligence, pedestrian plaintiffs must establish four elements: Duty—the driver owed a duty of reasonable care to pedestrians. Breach—the driver violated that duty through careless or reckless behavior. Causation—the breach directly caused the accident and injuries. Damages—the pedestrian suffered actual harm.
Drivers owe significant duties to pedestrians, including yielding at crosswalks, driving at safe speeds, remaining attentive, and exercising heightened care in areas where pedestrians are expected.
Common Forms of Driver Negligence
Traffic violations provide strong evidence of negligence. Speeding, running red lights or stop signs, failing to yield at crosswalks, and improper turning all constitute negligence per se in most jurisdictions—the violation itself proves breach of duty.
Distracted driving—texting, phone use, eating, or other inattention—is increasingly documented through phone records and witness testimony. Impaired driving from alcohol, drugs, or fatigue demonstrates clear negligence. Aggressive driving behaviors like road rage also support negligence claims.
Key Evidence for Proving Negligence
Police reports document officer observations, witness statements, citations issued, and preliminary fault determinations. While not conclusive, they provide important evidence. Request copies promptly.
Witness statements from people who observed the accident corroborate your account. Collect contact information at the scene. Witnesses may have seen driver behavior (phone use, speeding) that you could not observe.
Traffic and surveillance camera footage provides objective evidence of how the accident occurred. Cameras at intersections, businesses, and residences may have captured the collision. This evidence must be preserved quickly before being overwritten.
Physical and Electronic Evidence
Vehicle damage patterns and pedestrian injury locations help reconstruct the accident. Damage to the vehicle's front end at leg height indicates the pedestrian was upright when struck. Skid marks (or their absence) indicate whether the driver attempted to brake.
Modern vehicles contain event data recorders (EDRs) that capture speed, braking, and other data in the seconds before impact. This "black box" data provides precise evidence of driver behavior. Preservation letters prevent destruction of this evidence.
Accident Reconstruction Experts
In complex or disputed cases, accident reconstruction experts analyze physical evidence, apply physics principles, and testify about how the accident occurred. They can calculate vehicle speed from damage and injuries, determine points of impact, and assess whether the driver could have avoided the collision.
Expert testimony is particularly valuable when the driver disputes fault or claims the accident was unavoidable.
Overcoming Driver Defenses
Drivers commonly claim they could not see the pedestrian due to darkness, obstructions, or pedestrian dark clothing. However, drivers must drive at speeds allowing them to stop for hazards within their sight distance. Failure to see what should have been visible is itself negligence.
Claims of sudden pedestrian movement may be countered with evidence of pedestrian position before impact, driver inattention, or excessive speed preventing evasive action.
If you were injured in a pedestrian accident, work with an attorney to gather and preserve evidence establishing driver negligence before it disappears.