A Crosswalk’s Tale: The Price of a Driver’s Inattention
The eastbound crosswalk on 600 East in Logan is a typical neighborhood crosswalk. It has the standard white, reflective crosswalk paint we’ve all seen, and it connects the sidewalks on either side of the street. Countless thousands of walkers, joggers, students, pet walkers, parents with children on tricycles and others have traversed that crosswalk over the years. The crosswalk has served these people well, demarking a zone of safety, declaring that folks on foot have the right of way, and that car traffic must yield to them, keeping everyone safe.
But when drivers are inattentive to their surroundings, even crosswalks are not safe. That’s what happened at this crosswalk on a cold January evening in 2016, and two young women paid the price for that driver’s carelessness.
Candace and Sue were star students in their Chinese universities, and they were invited to study abroad in the U.S.
for a year at Utah State University. It was exciting to live in a foreign country, with new foods, a different language, a different culture and new friends. But Candace and Sue would never have guessed that their experience would end
in the hospital with serious injuries
Candace and Sue were heading home from class one evening and got off the bus across the street from their home. They paused at the marked crosswalk at 600 East and looked both ways. They saw all the traffic stop for them and began to carefully cross the street.
A pickup truck then approached the intersection. The driver, who was laughing with his friends, saw all the other traffic stopped at the intersection, which was unusual because he knew there was no stop sign and no signal light. He also knew, from having driven this road many times before, that there was a marked crosswalk. But the driver didn’t slow down. He didn’t look around to discover the reason the other traffic had stopped. He didn’t check the crosswalk for pedestrians. By the time he finally saw Candace and Sue in the crosswalk—they had almost reached the other side of the street—his inattention meant he now couldn’t stop in time to avoid hitting them. As Candace and Sue saw the pickup truck that had suddenly come upon them, there was nowhere for them to go and nothing they could do to avoid being hit.
The pickup truck swerved but slammed into Candace and Sue, throwing them onto the hard pavement. Sue hit her head hard and slammed her knee and hip into the ground, breaking her pelvic bone. Candace landed on her knees and shoulder, breaking her collarbone. Two young women, who were far from home in a foreign country, were hurt badly in a pedestrian injury accident in Utah. They needed help.
Candace and Sue’s case resonated with Jessica Andrew, a Utah pedestrian injury lawyer at Lance Andrew, P.C., both because she has lived in China and speaks Chinese and because she understands what it feels like to be hit by a car, because she was hit by a car when she was a child. “It’s really disorienting and scary,” says Jessica. “You can’t believe someone could fail to see you when you’re in plain sight right where you're supposed to be. For a driver's momentary inattention, you as the pedestrian pay a heavy price."
Candace and Sue certainly paid a heavy price. Sue hit her head on the pavement and lost consciousness for a time. Her next memory was waking up in the hospital, under fluorescent lights and surrounded by medical equipment and strangers. “I didn’t understand what was happening, and I couldn’t understand what the medical people were telling me. It was scary, and my family was so far away. I was taken to another hospital in an ambulance and was so scared. Was I hurt badly? What was going to happen to me?” Sue had broken her hip and sustained a serious concussion, in addition to straining her knee and back. She would undergo many months of treatment and therapy to recover. She would incur tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills that she was responsible for, even though the accident wasn’t her fault.
Candace has a perfect memory of the accident, and it haunts her to this day. “I think of it anytime I have to cross a street.” She worries that every car will hit her. Candace landed on her shoulder and broke her clavicle. She too was taken to the hospital and had to undergo surgery to repair her clavicle, where a plate was screwed into her bone with a bolt. Even after the bone healed, the plate made sleeping and carrying a backpack uncomfortable, a constant reminder of the accident and the pickup truck driver's inattention. Candace also incurred tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills, which the driver and his insurance company refused to pay.
Lance Andrew proudly represented Candace and Sue in litigating their claims against the pickup truck driver and his insurance company, who sought to place all blame on Candace and Sue, even though they were in the marked crosswalk and had the right of way. Ultimately, after nearly two years of fighting and denying fault, the driver’s insurance company finally agreed to resolve the case with Candace and Sue. Lance Andrew, P.C., Candace, and Sue were all pleased with the result.
If you or someone you love has been hit by a car, call the Utah pedestrian injury lawyers at Lance Andrew Law and speak with an attorney who understands.
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What Do We Learn?
The crosswalk’s story teaches all of us some valuable lessons about pedestrian injury accidents in Utah, particularly as drivers.
Always pay attention to your surroundings when behind the wheel. Always. Remember that you are driving a big, heavy, metal machine, and that machine can, at any speed, smash into a human body and injure or kill someone. Inattention while driving for any reason is just not worth the risk and is never acceptable.
If you see something unusual, like other traffic doing something you know is not typical, take precautions. Slow down or stop, and look around to be aware of what is happening around you. Remember that you are responsible for operating your vehicle, and you can always choose safety. There are serious consequences to failing to be responsible as a driver, both for you and for others.
Never drive in a hurry. We’ve all been late to something, but cutting corners when it comes to safety rules is not worth the cost of injuring or killing someone else. There is no excuse for carelessness behind the wheel.
Always watch for pedestrians, especially in crosswalks. Not all crosswalks are placed at traffic signals or have flashing lights. Be aware of the road, and watch for signs that pedestrians may be crossing.
Safety. Spread The Word.
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