Driver Liability for a Low-Speed Pedestrian Collision in a Parking Lot

Attorney Answer

Speed is not the defense you are hoping for. Five miles per hour is enough to cause real injury, and the question is not how fast you were going but whether you used ordinary care — so the honest answer is that you may well be liable, though how much you owe can be reduced by the pedestrian's own carelessness.

Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a) makes everyone responsible for injury caused to another by want of ordinary care. Drivers are expected to exercise heightened caution in gas stations and parking lots, where pedestrians move unpredictably between vehicles and pumps. The same duty runs the other way: a pedestrian who steps into the path of a moving car without looking has failed to use ordinary care too.

That is where California's pure comparative fault rule works in your favor. Fault is apportioned by percentage, and a pedestrian found partly responsible has their recovery reduced by their share. A pedestrian who walked out from behind a vehicle, or was looking at a phone, may bear a substantial percentage. This is not all-or-nothing.

The practical point almost no one tells drivers: this is not really your fight. Your auto liability insurer owes you a duty to defend and to pay a covered claim up to your policy limits. Handling it yourself, or saying the wrong thing to the pedestrian's lawyer, is how drivers turn a covered claim into personal exposure.

What you can do

1. Report the collision to your own insurer immediately, even if no claim has been made and even if the pedestrian said they were fine. Late notice can jeopardize your coverage. 2. Ask the gas station today, in writing, to preserve its surveillance video. It is usually overwritten within weeks, and it is the best evidence of what the pedestrian did. 3. Write down everything you remember now: where they came from, whether anything blocked your view, what was said, and who was present. 4. Do not discuss fault, apologize in writing, or agree to pay anything. Refer any lawyer or adjuster who contacts you to your own insurer. 5. Give your insurer everything — photos, names of witnesses, the police report number if officers responded. 6. If the claim looks like it could exceed your policy limits, tell your insurer in writing that you want it settled within limits, and consider consulting your own attorney separately.

⏱ Time limits apply. In California a pedestrian generally has two years to file a personal injury lawsuit under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, so a claim may surface long after the incident. Do not treat silence as the end of it, and do not let your insurer's file be closed prematurely. The exact deadline depends on the specific facts.