Child Pedestrian Accidents
Personal Injury Lawyers in Maryland
Children are especially susceptible to pedestrian accidents due to their low visibility and sometimes erratic behavior. And when a child is hit by a car, they often suffer severe or fatal injuries. Car accidents are the leading cause of death among children aged 14 and younger, and about one fifth of those deaths are pedestrian accidents. The number is even higher–nearly one-fourth–for children between ages five and nine. Although awareness by drivers and parents has reduced child pedestrian accidents, every year about 20,000 children are struck by a vehicle.
Because children do not yet know how to keep safe, drivers must take extra care to protect children’s safety. This is especially true in residential neighborhoods, near schools, and around school buses. Drivers are required by law to drive more carefully in these high risk areas, and traffic signs remind them of this responsibility. Unfortunately, many drivers do not live up to their responsibility.
School Bus Accidents
The majority of child fatalities in school bus accidents (about 80%) occur when children are boarding and exiting. In most cases, these accidents could be prevented if drivers followed the most basic safety measures.
There are precise laws and procedures for protecting children when they get on and off a school bus. When the bus stops to pick up or drop off a child, the bus driver extends a stop sign and the bus displays flashing lights. The law requires that other drivers, no matter what their direction of travel stop and wait until the lights are turned off and the stop sign is retracted. The bus driver is required to display caution signs until all of the children are safely out of the road.
Children may be struck by vehicles when these procedures are not followed, such as:
- Drivers failing to stop when sign extended
- Bus drivers failing to extend stop sign or retracting it before all children are safely out of the road
- Bus drivers not seeing children near the bus
- Defective buses with malfunctioning warning signs
In all these cases, the serious or fatal injuries sustained by the child could have been prevented.
School Zones
School zones are designed to minimize the risk of child pedestrian accidents near a school. They have reduced speed limits for several reasons:
- Vehicle speed affects driver reaction distance, giving them more time to see and react to the erratic motion of children
- Greater speed leads to more severe pedestrian injuries
- Signs for school zones and reduced speeds alert drivers to use extra caution and be on the lookout for children
Depending on how close the zone is to the school and the type of road, school zone speed limits may be as low as 15 miles an hour. A 2000 survey by the National Safe Kids Campaign, about two thirds of all drivers travel at excessive speeds in school zones, with almost 25% driving more than 10mph over the speed limit in these areas. A more recent study, in 2009, found that one in six drivers is distracted in a school zone, making them as dangerous as a drunk driver.
Most child pedestrian accidents can be prevented. It only takes compliance with the law and a little extra care. Child pedestrian accidents can be fatal, and if a child survives he or she may suffer life-altering brain injuries and require life-long medical care — care that is expensive, that you may only be able to afford through just compensation. We can help.
If your child has been injured or killed in a pedestrian accident in Maryland, please contact our personal injury law firm to speak with one of our skilled auto accident lawyers at Chaikin Sherman Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. today.
