What area of the United States do you think many people immediately think of when they hear the words “car culture?”
Southern California likely crops up as a prime candidate, given the region’s close association historically with automobiles. Moreover, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, from the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay, is crisscrossed with intertwining streets and interstates and a general traffic grid of tremendous complexity that is surely unrivaled anywhere else in the country.
It is just a flat-out truism that cars rule across Southern California.
Which means, conversely, that pedestrians do not.
In fact, walking in Los Angeles County and surrounding environs can be a dangerous proposition, with pedestrians literally putting their lives on the line sometimes when they traverse cross walks and otherwise negotiate the limited areas of space that are typically available to them.
It is small wonder that pedestrians are often injured by negligent drivers in Southern California, as we note on the Protecting the Rights of Pedestrian Accident Victims page at the South Bay Law Offices of Fred D. Crawford, IV, in Redondo Beach.
Walkers suffer injuries that stem directly from a host of negligent and wanton driving behaviors. Those include speeding, reckless driving marked by sudden/erratic lane changes and the failure to properly signal, motorists’ refusal to lawfully yield to pedestrians, and blatant disregard for traffic signals, including stop signs.
Pedestrians have rights while in the public domain, and it is legally incumbent upon drivers to respect them.
When they do not, and injuries result, a proven personal injury attorney can help an accident victim pursue legal remedies that provide for a meaningful recovery.