Hit By a Car in San Francisco?

Pedestrian Accident Attorney Explains Legal Options

Video Transcript:

Claude Wyle:

If your listeners hear anything I've had to say today about pedestrians, this is the most important thing.

Rob Rosenthal:

If you're hit by a car while you're walking down the street, do you know what to do to get help? Well, we're going to find out right now because that's what we're going to ask the lawyer today. Hi again, everybody, I'm Rob Rosenthal with askthelawyers.com. My guest here to help us is San Francisco attorney Claude Wyle. Claude, good to see again.

Claude Wyle:

Good to see you too.

Rob Rosenthal:

I appreciate you making some time to answer our questions. I'm going to guess in San Francisco especially, with a combination of lots of tourists and lots of cars, maybe some narrow streets, you guys probably have your share of pedestrian versus vehicle accidents. True?

Claude Wyle:

It's a sad, sad fact that San Francisco has an inordinately high amount of pedestrian injuries and pedestrian fatalities. I've actually gone down to the Board of Supervisors to try and help out with some of the law and let my voice be heard on behalf of pedestrians, because for many years it’s just been rampant and it's terrible. So, the City of San Francisco actually has a zero tolerance, Project Zero; they've named it different things over the years, but because we have a small city with a lot of people and a lot of different kinds of vehicles, we have a very, very high amount of pedestrian fatality.

Rob Rosenthal:

Well, let me, first of all, let you play mayor; if you could change something about the law what would it be?

Claude Wyle:

Well, from my perspective, I think we need to have better accountability. I think that accountability really helps to promote safety because only if people are made accountable for what they do are they ever going to change their behavior before something bad happens. So we have to prosecute when motorists strike pedestrians; that should be prosecuted. Right now in California law, there's only prosecution for vehicular manslaughter and no criminal prosecution for doing anything short of death. So paralysis, brain injury, ruining somebody's life is not actionable criminally, and I'm always an advocate of the civil justice system because I know from experience over all these years that the criminal justice system really doesn't take care of the survivor or the wrongfully killed person's family, their survivors. The criminal justice system just doesn't do that much for them, so they rely upon the civil justice system to try to support and help the family and try to make a difference in their lives after something terrible has been done. So as a mayor, I would only be able to do something regarding the criminal prosecution. As the governor though, I might promote higher levels of civil accountability for people who run over pedestrians.

Rob Rosenthal:

Well, let's do a scenario. Someone is, say, crossing the street in the crosswalk and they're struck by a vehicle, they’re obviously injured. What is your advice? What should they do? What's the process?

Claude Wyle:

Well, assuming they are able to speak, they should let somebody in their family or a close friend know. So that even though they're whisked off to the hospital—and right now, Rob, if you’re taken to a hospital in San Francisco, nobody can come visit you. You can talk to people on Zoom, you can talk to people on FaceTime and on your phone, but nobody can come work with you. Lawyers can't go to the hospital to interview their clients, they can only go through electronic means. But normally, assuming one day we get back to normal, get somebody to help out because often there's evidence right on the street. There are witness marks; there are—it's a little gory—but there's blood. There are different signs on the street that perhaps the police have failed to pick up in their investigation. Sometimes when the at-fault party is so obvious, the police don't gather more information than they need, than just to support that one finding that it's the car driver’s fall.But there are many, many pieces of evidence that will be at the scene of any collision, whether it's a pedestrian bicycle, motorcycle, whatever kind of collision, but there are lots of remnants of what happened usually.

Rob Rosenthal:

Now, you mentioned that right now the attorney can't go visit anybody in the hospital, but that doesn't mean that they should wait to contact an attorney, right? You can still do things remotely.

Claude Wyle:

Well, if you actually contact an attorney right away, they can get an investigator out to the scene of where this person's been run over by a car, and the investigator is trained to look for signs and evidence. It's all about preserving evidence, because people who run over pedestrians don't always tell the truth to the police if nobody witnessed it other than the person who got run over and the person who was driving the motor vehicle. You may not have a very easy time getting to the truth unless you've gathered up some evidence and preserved it. So our office is all about quickly preserving evidence for use later to support our client’s claim.

Rob Rosenthal:

What about the person who's in the hospital who was injured, Claude? Do they use their personal health insurance for that? Is their automobile insurance helpful there? What's your advice?

Claude Wyle:

Absolutely. My advice is to use all the insurance that you have. Of course, your health insurance will cover it initially and well and mostly. Most people's auto insurance also covers them as pedestrians if they have uninsured underinsured motorist coverage, and they have MedPay that will cover them. But MedPay is often only as large as $5,000. I think the maximum you can get from Medical Payments coverage—most people only have a maximum $25,000. And if you spend a couple of days in the hospital, $25,000 is going to come and go very fast, so you need to make a claim against all of your first party insurance, meaning your own insurance. And also, of course, then have a lawyer make a claim against the person's insurance of that person who hurt you.

Rob Rosenthal:

What if it's a hit and run? The driver doesn't stop, they leave the scene. Should they still contact a personal injury attorney to help him?

Claude Wyle:

Absolutely. In California, if a person is hit and run as a pedestrian, their own automobile insurance covers them for uninsured motorists. Or if they're hit by someone who doesn't hit and run, but really just has a minimal policy, $15,000 let's say, your own underinsured coverage covers you as a pedestrian and as a bicyclist. So it's very important, and believe me I don't make any money selling insurance, but it's very important to buy all the insurance, the highest limits that you can get for your auto policy, so that if ever you're hurt as a pedestrian, your uninsured or underinsured limits will come into play and help make a better change in your life than just the $15,000 that many people have.

Rob Rosenthal:

Some people may think, Claude, “Well, I've got UM or UIM insurance. Are the insurance companies going to automatically pay me the max amount that I've got coming?” That's not necessarily the case, is it? They still may need someone like yourself to help them get everything they deserve, correct?

Claude Wyle:

Rob, if it was the case, it would be wonderful. But it's just not.

Rob Rosenthal:

Right.

Claude Wyle:

What happens is, if there is an uninsured motorist, someone who doesn't have insurance, or someone who has hit and run, your own insurance company steps into the shoes of the person who hurt you. So they act like the other guy's insurance company. I know they're supposed to be better to you, and they're supposed to treat you better and some carriers take that to heart, but many insurance companies treat you like the opposition as soon as you make a claim against your own policy. And underinsured motorist coverage comes into play as well, and then your insurance company steps into the shoes like they were insuring the person who hurt you. They fight you on liability, they fight you on damages; you definitely need a lawyer to make your claim.

Rob Rosenthal:

Let's say the vehicle that strikes this pedestrian is a city vehicle, a muni bus, something like that. Does that change things?

Claude Wyle:

It changes things very much in two big, big ways. One: the City of San Francisco has insurance, but only for over a million dollars, but before a million dollars they pay their own way. So if somebody is harmed by a city vehicle, a bus, or a maintenance vehicle, then they are going to get compensated as much as they can prove with liability and damages. The negative for the case or the claim is that when a muni bus is involved, the muni investigators are usually called first by the operator of the bus or the street car, and they come and gather the evidence. Then they hand off the evidence to the police; the police get their paycheck from the city of San Francisco; the muni investigators get their paycheck from the City of San Francisco. Miraculously sometimes bus video disappears. It's just lost. Or that particular bus’s video, they say, wasn't working that day. It's very tough to gather the right evidence if you have a claim against the City of San Francisco. I'm not casting aspersions on anyone in particular, but I'm just saying it is extra challenging when you have the San Francisco Police and the muni investigators first on the scene gathering witnesses.

I've actually had cases go to trial where there was clearly a bus load of witnesses, but the muni investigator didn't collect a single name. So we were forced to try to make our case through accident reconstruction and a video that was on the bus behind our bus that actually ran over this bicyclist. It was extremely difficult and an uphill battle from the beginning, and the challenges hurt us in the end.

Rob Rosenthal:

Now, our scenario so far was for somebody who's crossing the street legally, they're in the crosswalk. Let's say they're not in the crosswalk, they're jaywalking or crossing the street in the middle of the street. Does that mean they don't have a case at any point? How does that change things?

Claude Wyle:

Absolutely not. They do have a case. If your listeners hear anything I've had to say today about pedestrians, this is the most important thing: The term jaywalking is applied way too broadly. In California, a pedestrian has the right-of-way whether they are in the crosswalk, or mid-block, or anywhere up and down that block, the pedestrian has the right of way. Jaywalking does not eliminate your case; there is a very technical definition of jaywalking and most people do not qualify for that technical definition. The only time that a pedestrian does not have the right of way in California is if they suddenly dart out between parked cars, dart out off the curb, and the driver, the motorist does not have adequate time to get the vehicle stopped. Then it could be the pedestrian’s fault. You can always have comparative negligence; if somebody is staggering their way down the street on a rainy night and they're drunk and when they get hit the bottle of Jack Daniels pops out of their back pocket, there will be some comparative negligence, but there is still liability if that driver should have seen the pedestrian, and if that driver had time to do something other than strike the pedestrian. This is really important. Let me put it this way, jaywalking does not eliminate your case.

Rob Rosenthal:

Lots of helpful information as always, Claude, thank you so much for answering our questions today.

Claude Wyle:

Absolutely. Anytime, Rob. You know I’d be here every week with you if you guys would want.

Rob Rosenthal:

We'll have to look into that. That's going to do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been San Francisco attorney Claude Wyle. Remember, if you want the very best information or you just want to make sure you can choose a lawyer that lawyers choose, make sure to go to asklawyers.com first. Thanks for watching. I'm Rob Rosenthal with AskTheLawyers™.

Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.