You’re driving down a busy city centre road and all of a sudden there’s a human being stood looming in front of your car.  You slam on the brakes but it’s too late.

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Hitting a pedestrian is a terrifying experience, possibly even more so than bumping into another car.  This tragic occurrence is not rare, either, with over 60,000 pedestrians injured in traffic accidents in 2006.  The faster you’re driving, the more likely it is that serious damage to the individual could have been sustained, with driving speeds of over 30 mph possibly leading to a fatality.  To avoid such horrific circumstances, you should try your best to avoid them from happening in the first place, but if an accident does occur you could follow this advice.

Safety first

The most important thing to do in an accident is ensure that those who have been injured are safe.  That means that if the pedestrian is okay but your passenger appears injured, your passenger takes priority.  Ensure that any injured person has been given the right level of medical attention before you continue on with the situation.

Get legal assistance

The next thing you should do is talk to the pedestrian.  Exchange contact information, and then try to assess who is at fault.  If the driver hit the pedestrian then the driver is to blame, if the pedestrian ran carelessly into the middle of the road then the pedestrian is to blame.  If you don’t come to agreement about who is at blame then the only sensible cause of action will be to resort to legal aid.  Particularly if you believe you are at risk of facing crime charges such as intoxicated driving, then you should contact the police and ask for a criminal defence attorney.  You will also be asked to take a statement of the course of events.  You should give it truthfully and accurately.

Avoid it

Going down the legal rabbit hole is tedious, stressful affair which is bad for everybody involved.  Not only that, but it is likely beside the point because somebody has been hurt.  What we aught to do is try to avoid the accidents in the first place.  Drivers and pedestrians can do this by maintaining a high level of visibility at all time. Drivers by using the appropriate level of lighting, and pedestrians by being sensible when crossing the road.  If you’re working on the road and will therefore be on the road for extended periods of time, then it would be a sensible idea to wear high-visibility clothing.  If you want to find out what constitutes high visibility clothing then you should visit Ebrooks, and they will be able to give you good advice.