Elderly Pedestrian Hit & Run Victim In Anaheim
Posted by
IB ContributorJanuary 27, 2007 12:05 AMAn 88-year-old man was struck and killed by a vehicle as he crossed South Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim Wednesday night, according to a news report in the Orange County Register. The driver of a dark-blue Toyota Prius, who reportedly hit the elderly man failed to stop, police officials said.
The victim, Du Whang Kim of Santa Ana, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange and was pronounced dead, the article said. Witnesses said the victim was walking westbound on Harbor near Orangewood Avenue when the driver of the Prius, who was southbound in the Number One lane, struck him and drove away. It was also reported that the victim was not on a crosswalk.
I'm not even going to begin talking about the irresponsibility and negligence of this alleged hit-and-run driver. Why someone would strike a pedestrian - an 88-year-old man at that - and leave him on the roadway to die, is just beyond me.
Pedestrian accidents are more common than you think. About 110,000 pedestrians are injured each year in this country and more than half die as a result of those injuries. Of the 748 pedestrian fatalities in California, 53 were in Orange County. Strangely enough, there were more pedestrian fatalities on Orange County roadways than there are vehicle passenger fatalities, according to California's Statewide Integrated Traffic Reporting System (SWITRS). Children and the elderly are most at risk of being involved in a pedestrian accident.
It is interesting that the article mentions that the pedestrian was not on a marked crosswalk. It's a common misnomer for people to think that if a pedestrian was not walking on a crosswalk at the time of the incident, he or she is not entitled to damages. That's not true. The most common factors contributing to pedestrian accidents are driver negligence, driver inattention, failure to observe speed limits, failure to yield to pedestrians and driving under the influence of alcohol. I've not seen an automobile involved pedestrian accident where the automobile driver did not have some responsibility, in my opinion.
Our firm is deeply committed to protecting the rights of our seriously injured pedestrian accident clients and holding negligent automobile drivers accountable for the harm they cause. In the event of an injury accident, call us.