Pedestrian Deaths Highlight Risks From Simply Crossing a Street

7/18/2011
Kevin Duffan
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Pedestrian Deaths Highlight Risks From Simply Crossing a Street

Two pedestrian fatalities separated by one week and 300 miles should again draw attention to the dangers people face when they cross local streets that are actually rural highways.

The first tragedy occurred in Nags Head, North Carolina (NC), when a 37-year-old East Carolina University graduate who had returned to the Greenville school to join the administration and risen to the position of assistant director of admissions, lost his life after being struck by a taxi cab. The man was attempting to cross the five lanes of the Croatan Highway/U.S. 158 at around 9:30 pm on July 9, 2011. The cab driver told police he never saw the man he hit, and investigators determined that excess speed did not contribute to the accident. The driver has not been charged with any violations.

The following Friday, July 15, and almost exactly the same time, a 15-year-old skateboarder was struck by a vehicle while attempting to cross Rockfish Gap Parkway/U.S. 250 in Crozet, Virginia (VA). The teen died at UVA Medical Center the next morning without regaining consciousness. Albemarle County police did not announce the cause of the deadly crash and, at the time of the boy's death, had not charged any motorists in connection to the accident.

My Carolina personal injury attorney colleagues regularly advise pedestrians to stay on sidewalks, use crosswalks and obey traffic signals when crossing roads. As lifesaving as these precautions can be, people in rural areas cannot always take them, simply because they find themselves having to share roadways with cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles and semis in places that lack any conveniences for pedestrians.

When that is the case, drivers have added obligations to watch for people on foot, especially at night and in places where pedestrians are likely to enter traffic, such as near shopping centers.

EJL

Category: Carolina Car & Motorcycle Accidents

Labels: Brannon car accident Carolina personal injury attorney crosswalk Crozet VA Nags Head NC North Carolina pedestrian killed pedestrian safety rural highway skateboarder taxi teenager Virginia

About the Editors: Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law. We maintain office in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC), on East Elizabeth Street, and we have handled thousands of cases in which victims got hurt or killed in car, truck, train and motorcycle crashes caused by others' negligence or carelessness.

We serve every area of North Carolina, including Elizabeth City, Edenton, Raleigh, Durham, Rocky Mount, Roanoke Rapids, Greensboro, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Halifax, Northampton, Greenville, Goldsboro, Havelock, Kinston, New Bern, Tarboro, Wilson, Ahoskie, Currituck, Camden and the Outer Banks towns of Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Manteo, Corolla, Currituck and Dare. In South Carolina, we cover the state from Myrtle Beach and Charleston to Orangeburg, Columbia, Florence, Rock Hill, Darlington, Aiken, Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg.

Firm attorneys Rick Shapiro and James Lewis have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008 and the National Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 2009. In addition, our firm has been named a North Carolina "Best Law Firm" for personal injury law since 2010 by U.S. News & World Report.

We also offer free special reports on distracted driving and the Best Guide to Car Accident Injuries in North Carolina.

While not every injury case meets our criteria, we offer free initial confidential injury case consultations. Call us toll-free at (800) 752-0042. If you cannot get through due to high call volume, please leave a voicemail so we can get back to you.

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Pedestrian Deaths Highlight Risks From Simply Crossing a Street

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