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Injury Lawyers Asserting the Rights of Wheaton Residents
Wheaton is a suburban city situated in DuPage County and traversed by Routes 38 and 56. The city has a total area of 11.5 square miles. Residents and visitors to Wheaton can enjoy a number of unique attractions in the area, including the Cosley Zoo, the Chicago Golf Club, and the Little Popcorn Store, which was built in a former alley and opened back in the 1920s. While most people enjoy activities there without incident, many do suffer injuries in preventable pedestrian accidents caused by driver error. If you have been hurt while you were walking along or across a road, you need to consult a Wheaton personal injury lawyer who can assist you. At Therman Law Offices, we are devoted to holding negligent drivers responsible for their conduct.
Pedestrian Accident Statistics
A pedestrian is defined as any person who is not in or on a vehicle. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a pedestrian was killed almost every 1.5 hours in traffic accidents in 2016. That same year, pedestrian fatalities made up 16 percent of all traffic deaths. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) revealed that crashes involving pedestrians accounted for 1.5 percent of the overall crashes in Illinois in 2016. Specifically, there were 141 fatalities and 4,501 injuries in the state that year.
Filing a Lawsuit After a Pedestrian Accident
Most often, pedestrian accidents result from the behavior of negligent motorists. Negligence is a failure to do something (or refrain from doing something) that a reasonably prudent person in the same situation would have done (or refrained from doing) to protect others from foreseeable harm. To win a negligence claim, a plaintiff and a pedestrian accident attorney in Wheaton will be required to prove the following elements:
- The defendant owed the plaintiff a legal duty of care (i.e., a duty to act as a reasonably prudent driver would have acted under the circumstances);
- The defendant breached the legal duty of care through action or inaction;
- The defendant’s breach was a direct and proximate cause of the pedestrian accident; and
- The plaintiff was injured as a result.
For example, consider a motorist who runs a stop sign and ends up striking a pedestrian in the crosswalk. In such a scenario, the motorist would be responsible for the accident and the pedestrian’s injuries. This is because a reasonably prudent motorist would not run a stop sign, understanding the foreseeable risk of harm (i.e., an accident with a pedestrian or another car) associated with such behavior. In addition, the motorist’s actions (i.e., running the stop sign) could be shown to be the direct and proximate cause of the pedestrian accident.
Burden of Proof in Illinois Personal Injury Cases
In all Illinois personal injury cases, the plaintiff has the burden of proving his or her case by a preponderance of the evidence. Under this standard, the burden of proof is satisfied when a Wheaton pedestrian accident attorney convinces the fact finder (the judge or jury) that there is a greater than 50 percent chance that the plaintiff’s claim is true.
Recovering Damages After a Pedestrian Accident
Sadly, pedestrians are among the most vulnerable accident victims. This means that a disproportionately high number of serious or even fatal injuries can occur in the event of an accident. After a pedestrian accident, a victim’s expenses can skyrocket. Thankfully, Illinois law allows plaintiffs to recover compensation for a variety of damages, including medical expenses, rehabilitation costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, disability, and other out-of-pocket expenses that may pile up, such as home modifications.
