Quote:
Originally Posted by sxyblue
So last night around 8:30PM I was cruising along a pretty dark street near my house. Three lanes a side, median and a break for turn traffic. I’m doing probably 35 in the middle lane with a car to my right one car length behind other wise no traffic. I’m passing by a hospital on the left hand side but even so the amount of street lights is pretty sparse. All of a sudden a 50s-ish dude in dark clothes appear in front of my headlights and I stomp on the brakes and am less than 5 feet from him as he panics and dashes past my car and then almost gets hit by the car next to me, who also slam on their brakes even though I’m sure they couldn’t see him.
At this point both of our cars had set off from a red light about a 1/4 mile ago and the guy has jaywalked more than half the road and has plenty of time to see us coming. More than that, we’re much easier for him to spot at night than he is for us to see.
I’m curious as to wether any liability or how much would have been to me in situations like this?
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I'm no lawyer but I'd hazard to guess that if you had not spotted him in time and ended up hitting him, you would NOT be found liable given the circumstances with him J walking, wearing dark clothes, at night, etc. You were not speeding I'm assuming. If you were doing 35 in a 20, well, you could be found partially liable I'd think. Also, if you had hit him and did the rigth thing and stopped immediately, called 911, made an effort to help him, etc. I'd think you'd be fine.