Bakersfield Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
After Bakersfield pedestrian accidents, our attorneys want to help victims avoid a couple of heartbreaking situations in particular:
- Injured victims left to struggle with medical debt while insurers delay.
- Injured victims worrying about how they’ll support themselves and their families while they can’t work.
These and other hardships are 100% the responsibility of reckless drivers and their car insurance providers.
Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers of Bakersfield offers a free, no-obligation consultation for all pedestrian accident victims in Kern County.
It’s a chance to find out how to hold car insurance companies fully accountable.
How Do I Decide If I Need a Lawyer After a Bakersfield Pedestrian Accident?
If a careless driver hits you and you come away with serious injuries, it’s a good idea to speak to a Bakersfield pedestrian accident lawyer about your options. You may need the protection of a lawyer when insurers seek to shift blame in an accident or downplay how badly you are hurt.
Your attorney fights back on your behalf, investigating your accident and securing evidence that keeps the facts from changing. The experience of a great attorney often means you’ll be getting much more for your injury than if you decide to handle your claim yourself.
Who Is Responsible for My Pedestrian Accident?
Drivers can be liable for almost any pedestrian collision, no matter where it happens. Motorists are called upon to show extreme caution as they approach a crosswalk. They must scan every side of the road, slow down upon seeing a pedestrian, and be ready to stop if a collision could occur. These duties and more are listed in California’s Vehicle Code, CVC 21950.
But this duty is required even when pedestrians aren’t in crosswalks. Jaywalking laws are no longer enforced in Bakersfield unless a pedestrian causes an immediate danger of a collision. Walkers can cross anywhere they like as long as they do it safely.
Of course, obeying traffic lights shouldn’t have to be mentioned, but pedestrians get hurt each year because people run red lights or pull too far into an intersection before stopping.
When drivers make these careless decisions and fail to show due care, their car insurance providers can be held fully accountable for all recovery costs. Insurers would need to provide money to pay hospital bills and to support the victims until they can return to work.
Why do I need a lawyer for my case, then?
Sadly, insurance adjusters often resort to proven tactics to try to leave victims with as little support as possible. They’ll also stretch the evidence to try to find ways to reject claims altogether.
Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers of Bakersfield gets aggressive with insurers to make sure victims earn full compensation to pay for a recovery, no matter how long it takes victims to get back on their feet.
Common Injuries in Pedestrian Accidents
The level of support you receive is critical to your physical and financial recovery. You’ll want enough to cover every single medical bill. The amount you need will depend on the severity of your injury.
Doctors will give you their best guess about how long getting better will take, but your pedestrian accident settlement must cover many potential complications. You might require emergency surgery months after an accident when a broken bone doesn’t heal properly. You could have trouble walking normally again, needing expensive physical therapy.
The support you win in your claim must cover all types of damages, because the injuries in any car vs. person impact can be severe.
These are just a few of the injuries that might send you to the emergency room at Adventist Health Bakersfield:
- Broken Bones: Often arm fractures, leg fractures, and hip fractures. The issues with mobility after suffering something like an injury to a hip joint can also be damaging. UCLA Health reports that many hip fracture patients can go home after a week, but others must transfer to a rehabilitation center or a nursing facility for a couple of weeks before going home.
- Tissue Damage: Damage to nerves, muscles, ligaments, and tendons.
- Neck and Back Injuries: Damage to the spinal cord and vertebrae. Tears in ligaments and nerves in the back lead to pain that’s hard to alleviate.
- Head Injuries: Victims striking their heads on the edge of a car or on pavement can cause Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) and even skull fractures.
What Should Be Included in a Pedestrian Accident Insurance Settlement?
Your attorney will be fighting to get you every possible benefit in compensation, because insurance adjusters will be fighting to restrict what you get. They’ll delay your claim and purposely fail to mention certain sources of support. All to get you to accept a “lowball” offer.
Your experienced Bakersfield pedestrian accident attorney is your protection against these tactics. Your attorney would seek support for you for these factors and more:
- Support to cover all of your medical bills, your physical therapy costs, and all medical equipment for as long as care is necessary.
- Support for a lifetime if your injuries result in a permanent disability.
- Support for the pain you experience and that you may suffer with for months or years.
- Support for the emotional trauma you experience after a scary collision with a car.
- Support to replace the job income and benefits you have to go without while you are in injury recovery.
- Support to cover the costs of travel to make doctor’s appointments and to see out-of-town specialists.
Pedestrian Accident Risks in Bakersfield
Bakersfield traffic isn’t the most forgiving place to trust your fate to. Drivers are known for speeding, looking at cellphone screens instead of traffic lights, and driving aggressively.
This is bad news for those trying to walk or run across dangerous intersections like California Avenue and Union Avenue, or Brundage Lane at P Street.
Bakersfield is actually a very dangerous place for those on foot. Far too many people get struck by drivers who aren’t showing the proper level of care to everyone on the road.
According to California’s Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS), Bakersfield has averaged 129 pedestrian accidents involving injuries a year recently (2020-2024). In that time, the city has seen around 23 tragic fatalities a year.
In 2024, Bakersfield recorded 128 serious pedestrian accidents and at least 17 deaths on our roads.
Contact a Pedestrian Accident Attorney Who Backs Your Claim with Evidence and Fights to Earn You More
You will have up to two years to file an accident claim, but don’t wait months or years to act. Waiting can mean evidence gets lost and witnesses become harder to find. Surveillance video can be erased after a few weeks. Go over your case with a skilled attorney as soon as you can.
If you have a serious injury, and a reckless driver caused your accident, contact Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers of Bakersfield to schedule a free consultation. It’s a confidential, no-obligation review of your case with a real pedestrian accident lawyer.
If you need our help, there are no worries about how you’ll pay a lawyer. We will sign a contingency agreement with you when you officially hire us. It means we cover all upfront case costs. We also don’t earn anything unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement money that a car insurance company must pay out to you and your family.