Each day, countless Wake Forest residents and visitors to our area walk to and from either out of necessity or for exercise. Sadly, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, as many as 2,000 pedestrians are struck by vehicles in our state every year. These crashes seriously injure between 200-300 and claim the lives of around 150-200.

Many of these injury-causing or fatal accidents occur because motorists either don’t recall or don’t adhere to their obligation to exercise a duty of care when traveling alongside those on foot. However, some collisions occur because those walking make missteps or don’t follow the rules when navigating our streets.

If you’re wondering what your rights and responsibilities as a pedestrian in Wake Forest, NC, are, we’ll share some of those below. Additionally, we’ll discuss what your legal options may be if you’re concerned that a motorist violated the duty of care they owed you.

Rights You Have When Walking in Our Area

According to Watch For Me NC, a federally-funded pedestrian safety initiative, a pedestrian has the right of way over a motorist when:

• Crossing a roadway on a green signal or a specially designated pedestrian one. Pedestrians also have the right to finish crossing safely if the signal turns yellow or red while they’re in the middle of the road.
• Utilizing a marked crosswalk and also an unmarked one (designated by imaginary lines extending from sidewalks across the street) when no traffic signal is present.
• Walking across the road in a mid-block crosswalk (per NC General Statute 20-173).

Your Responsibilities as a Pedestrian in North Carolina

You have a few different obligations you must uphold when walking out of necessity or for leisure here in the Tarheel State. Those obligations include:

• Utilizing the sidewalk whenever one is present (as opposed to walking in the roadway)
• Remaining as far left of traffic and traveling in the opposing direction if not sidewalk, but instead only a shoulder is present
• Wearing high-visibility clothing or otherwise making yourself more visible when it’s dark outside
• Making note of driveways, parking lots or garages, and alleyways as you approach them and being on the lookout for motorists potentially quickly and blindly exiting them
• Looking out for backing vehicles when traveling through a parking lot
• Being careful to look to both your right and left before attempting to cross the road, even when doing so at designated areas like the curb or a crosswalk
• Minding traffic signals, such as when a pedestrian crossing light instructs you that it’s not safe to proceed

Determining if a Motorist Violated The Duty of Care They Owed You

Typically, a motorist who hits you while you are walking and causes you injuries would be liable for violating their duty of care, which is their obligation to ensure your safety. However, the pure contributory negligence standard, which precludes those who are at fault for causing their own injuries from recovering compensation for their losses, applies in pedestrian accident cases like this. If you engaged in negligence, such as the following, that led to you getting hurt, you may not have a valid claim:

• Failing to yield to a motorist’s right of way
• Venturing off a sidewalk (because one’s engaging in horseplay) or by choice
• Darting out into the roadway and not checking for oncoming vehicles before doing so
• Crossing the roadway while impaired, such as by drugs or alcohol
• Making oneself hard to see at night because one is not wearing reflective clothing
• Allowing oneself to be distracted by their phone, music on headphones, etc. when crossing the roadway
• Engaging in jaywalking, which merely means to cross a roadway in some kind of prohibited way
• Walking on a roadway where foot traffic is strictly prohibited (like interstates)
• Purposely standing, laying, or otherwise congregating in the street, affecting the flow of traffic

Legal Options That May Be Available to You if You Were Hurt as a Pedestrian in NC

Like many other states, North Carolina requires our motorists to meet minimum auto insurance requirements that individuals they collide with can tap into to pay for their medical bills and other accident-related expenses if they’re hurt in a pedestrian accident and they’re not precluded from making a recovery per the pure contributory negligence standard described above.

In some cases, pedestrian injuries aren’t caused by another driver or just by them, but instead by other parties’ actions, like a government agency that came up with a dangerous roadway design. In cases like this, it may be possible to name those individuals as defendants in civil lawsuits. However, meeting certain noticing requirements may be necessary before moving forward with such legal action.

It’s best to speak with an attorney to better understand what legal options are available to you after being hurt or losing a loved one in a pedestrian accident. Here at Green Mistretta Law, PLLC, we offer free consultations to personal injury and wrongful death victims to discuss their rights. Contact us to explore your eligibility for compensation and to learn the best steps to secure it.to discuss whether you’re entitled to compensation and, if so, how to best secure it.