In mid-July, two pedestrians were struck and hit at around 11:30 p.m. near Midtown Houston. KHOU reported that the pedestrians were in serious condition after the accident, which occurred on Tuam Street near Helena Street. The driver who was involved in the accident was allegedly intoxicated at the time and was arrested following the crash.
Our Houston pedestrian accident lawyers know that those who are walking, jogging or biking are often at risk of sustaining very serious injuries in the event they are involved in a pedestrian accident. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that a pedestrian is one-and-a-half times as likely to be killed in a car wreck on each trip as compared to motorists in passenger vehicles. Unfortunately, lifelong injury or death are common since these accident victims have little or no protection from the force of the impact.
Pedestrians in Danger from Intoxicated Motorists
Pedestrian deaths due to traffic collisions occur so frequently and are so often serious that the CDC reports that a pedestrian is killed in a wreck an average of once every two hours. A pedestrian also sustains injuries in a car wreck approximately once every eight minutes on average.
With so many pedestrian crashes causing injury or death, it should come as no surprise that there were 4,280 people killed and 70,000 injured in 2010 alone.
The two Texas pedestrians who were involved in the recent accident on Tuam Street will be among those counted as injured in pedestrian accidents for 2013. The pedestrians - a man and a woman - were reportedly walking very close together, which is how a single driver hit them both. The two were taken to different hospitals. Both were listed in serious but stable condition.
The driver who struck them reportedly tried to leave the accident scene, but was followed by a witness to the crash and thus the driver returned. The driver then tried to leave a second time, but witnesses detained him until the police arrived. When the police came, they arrested him for fleeing the scene, failure to render aid and allegedly being drunk.
The fact that the driver may have been intoxicated is not a surprise, since the CDC indicates that drunk driving is one of the leading causes of pedestrian crashes. In fact, the CDC said that alcohol-impairment of either the driver or of the pedestrian was reported in 47 percent of fatal pedestrian accidents.
The accident also fit into several other high-risk categories identified by the CDC as likely to lead to a pedestrian wreck. For example, the CDC says that most fatal pedestrian wrecks occur at night and most occur in urban areas.
This wreck happened late in the evening on a well-traveled road. Fortunately, the victims in this case were able to survive the wreck and hopefully will make a full recovery. The accident victims should be able to seek compensation to cover the medical bills and costs necessary to help them recover provided it can be proved that the driver was the direct cause of their accident.
If you have been injured in a pedestrian accident, contact Hagood & Neumann at (800) 632-9404. Offices in Houston and Galveston.