Driver Liability After Striking a Pedestrian in a Crosswalk

Attorney Answer

Before anything else: your wife should not give her account of this to anyone — not to an officer, not to the other side's insurer, not in writing — until she has spoken with a local criminal defense attorney. A collision that injures a pedestrian in a crosswalk can draw a criminal investigation at the same time as the civil claim, and the two feed each other. Anything she says in one can be used in the other. That is not a comment on what happened; it is how these matters are sequenced.

On the civil side, the law here is unfavorable to a driver and it is better to hear that now. Vehicle Code § 21950 requires a driver to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing within a marked crosswalk, or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, and requires a driver approaching a pedestrian in either kind of crosswalk to exercise all due care and to reduce speed. The statute does place duties on pedestrians too: subdivision (b) requires a pedestrian to use due care and bars them from suddenly leaving a curb into the path of a vehicle that is so close as to be an immediate hazard. But subdivision (d) closes the door a driver might hope to walk through: "Subdivision (b) does not relieve a driver of a vehicle from the duty of exercising due care for the safety of any pedestrian within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection."

Civil Code § 1714(a) is the underlying rule: "Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself." California applies that as pure comparative fault. If the pedestrian was also careless — stepping out abruptly, crossing against a signal — their recovery is reduced in proportion to their share, and never barred entirely (Daly v. General Motors Corp., 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978)). Read from your wife's side, that means a pedestrian's own carelessness may cut the exposure down, but it does not make it go away.

Her liability insurer is the party that investigates, hires and pays for a defense lawyer, and pays a settlement or judgment up to the policy limits. Getting the claim opened is important, and so is being careful about how she talks to them.

What you can do

1. Have her speak with a local criminal defense attorney before any further contact with the police, the pedestrian, the pedestrian's family, or the other side's insurer. If an officer has already contacted her, take that paperwork to the attorney.

2. Preserve what already exists — dash camera footage, photos taken at the time, the vehicle in its current condition, the citation or report number, and the insurance card. Do not create a new written account of the collision.

3. Report the collision to her own liability insurer as the policy requires, and ask the criminal defense attorney before she gives a recorded statement to anyone, including her own carrier.

4. If she was cited, treat any court date printed on the citation as a hard deadline and give it to the attorney immediately.

5. Ask a local lawyer about the policy limits and what exposure beyond them would mean, rather than guessing at it.

6. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts with a local attorney is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. A pedestrian's claim for injury runs on Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, which gives two years for an action for injury caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. Any criminal matter has its own separate deadlines, and a date on a citation is not the same clock. Where these fall on your wife's facts is not something to work out from a webpage — have a local attorney confirm them for her.