Pedestrian Accident Attorneys in Summerville

Section 56-5-2745 covers a driver leaving an alley, building, private road or driveway in a business or residential district. That driver must stop before crossing the sidewalk. Section 56-5-3250 then requires the driver to yield to any pedestrian there. A third rule, Section 56-5-3835, allows driving on a sidewalk only at a permanent or authorized temporary driveway.

Picture a driver nosing out of a shopping center exit onto Dorchester Road while watching for a gap in traffic to the left. A walker on the sidewalk to the right has the protection of Sections 56-5-2745 and 56-5-3250. The state's yearly crash statistics leave out collisions on private property, parking lots included. A driveway or lot injury may never appear in those totals, yet the claim still rests on its own facts.

A driver who hits and injures a pedestrian must stop. Section 56-5-1230 then requires the driver to share a name, an address and the car's registration number, and to show a license if asked. The driver must also give reasonable help, including arranging a ride to medical care when the person plainly needs it or asks. Police must get immediate notice of any crash that injures or kills someone, under Section 56-5-1260.

Under Section 56-5-1210, a driver who leaves after hurting someone commits a misdemeanor. The offense becomes a felony when the harm is great bodily injury or death. A prosecutor handles that charge, and it runs separately from the walker's claim for injuries.

Proof of a failure to yield usually comes from several sources at once. The officer's report, the damage to the car and the injuries themselves can each show where the walker stood. Video and witnesses often fill the gaps, and so do scene photos taken before rain or traffic changes the spot. Frost Law Group can request the report, contact the witnesses it names and ask nearby businesses to hold their footage.

The Officer's TR-310 and What It Cannot Prove at Trial

Officers record a crash on the Uniform Traffic Collision Report, form TR-310. It has a field for the primary contributing factor and room for four more. That report often guides a claim, but Section 56-5-1290 bars the required crash reports from serving as evidence of negligence at a damages trial. The witnesses, photos and measurements the report points to carry the proof instead.

Witnesses at Busy Dorchester Road Intersections

Dorchester Road, SC 642, led every road in Dorchester County in 2024, with 519 collisions and 6 deaths as officers recorded them. Three of the five intersections with the most collisions in the county sat on it, at Old Trolley Road (53), Ladson Road (49) and Bacons Bridge Road (41). Those counts cover every kind of crash, not only pedestrians. SCDOT counted about 45,300 vehicles a day on that road in 2024, on the stretch that begins at Old Trolley Road and ends at the Charleston County boundary.

Traffic that heavy means a crash there may have several people who saw it. Inside town limits, the Summerville Police Department's Traffic Safety Unit includes officers trained in technical collision investigation and collision reconstruction.

Section 56-5-3130(a) applies when traffic signals are absent or not operating. A driver there must yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk who is on the driver's half of the road. The duty also reaches a walker approaching from the other half so closely as to be in danger. Meeting it may require the driver to slow down or stop.

Subsection (d) adds a rule about stopped cars. When a car stops at a marked crosswalk, or an unmarked one at an intersection, to let someone cross, a driver behind it may not pass. That rule reaches the second car that swings around a stopped vehicle and strikes a walker the first driver had already seen. The yield rule drops away for a walker crossing at a spot served by a pedestrian tunnel or overhead crossing, since Section 56-5-3150(b) then makes the walker yield.

Section 56-5-3110 makes pedestrians follow the traffic and pedestrian signals described in Sections 56-5-970 and 56-5-990. Each person's duty turns on what the signal showed when that person entered the intersection or crosswalk. A witness or a video that captured the signal can be central proof. Timing matters for that reason, because a walker who started on Walk may still be crossing lawfully when the light changes.

Turning Drivers Facing a Green Light

Section 56-5-970(A)(1) lets traffic facing a green light go straight or turn unless a sign forbids the turn. Turning drivers must still yield to pedestrians lawfully within the intersection or an adjacent crosswalk. A green arrow carries the same duty toward walkers in an adjacent crosswalk. Picture a driver turning left off Main Street across a crosswalk where a walker started on the green.

Right Turns on Red Across a Crosswalk

Section 56-5-970(C)(3) lets a driver who has fully stopped at a red light turn right where no sign forbids it. The turning driver must yield to pedestrians lawfully in an adjacent crosswalk. A driver watching for a gap in traffic from the left can miss a walker stepping off the curb on the right. The statute places the duty to yield on that driver.

What the Walk and Wait Signals Require

Under Section 56-5-990, a Walk signal lets a pedestrian cross in the direction shown, and all drivers must give that person the right of way. A Wait signal means no pedestrian may start across. Someone already partway over on Walk continues to a sidewalk or safety island. Where no pedestrian signal exists, Section 56-5-970(B)(2) tells a walker facing a steady yellow not to start crossing.

The Fact Book sorts 2024 pedestrian crashes by the kind of road. US primary routes had 55 fatal pedestrian collisions statewide, SC primary routes had 41 and secondary roads had 38. Interstates had 15. Secondary roads had the most pedestrian collisions overall, with 417.

Around Summerville, US 17A is Main Street and SC 642 is Dorchester Road, while Central Avenue carries the secondary number S-13. On US 17A, SCDOT's 2024 estimate was 33,100 vehicles a day for the segment from 5th Street North to where the road enters Berkeley County. None of those counts pins down where any one crash happened.

Outside a marked crosswalk or an unmarked one at an intersection, a crossing pedestrian must yield to vehicles under Section 56-5-3150(a). Between two adjacent intersections that both have working signals, a walker may cross only in a marked crosswalk. Cutting diagonally across an intersection is barred unless signals or signs allow it. Section 56-5-3120 also lets local governments limit crossing outside crosswalks in business districts or on designated highways.

None of that erases the driver's duty. Section 56-5-3230 protects a pedestrian wherever that person crosses. An insurer's claim that someone was jaywalking answers only half of the fault question. The other half asks what the driver could have seen and done.

Freeways carry their own rule. Section 56-5-3170 generally bars pedestrians from the roadway and shoulder of a freeway's main lanes. Its exceptions cover public works and official duties, an emergency caused by a crash or breakdown, and getting help. A driver whose car quit on I-26 and who stood on the shoulder waiting for a tow may fall within them.

Frost Law Group also takes car accident claims for drivers and passengers, including a motorist struck while standing beside a disabled vehicle. That kind of claim can draw on both the pedestrian rules and the policies that cover the car.

Section 56-5-3260 makes pedestrians yield when an emergency vehicle approaches using its siren and lights, or a police car uses its siren alone. That duty does not free the emergency driver from care. Subsection (b) keeps the duty to drive with due regard for everyone's safety and to avoid colliding with any pedestrian. An ambulance or patrol car that strikes a walker can still raise a fault question.

A jury weighs the walker's fault against the driver's under modified comparative negligence, South Carolina's rule for sharing blame. An injured pedestrian may recover if his or her own negligence is not greater than the defendant's. A walker found exactly half at fault can still recover a reduced award, while one found more than half at fault recovers nothing. Any award shrinks by the walker's own share.

An insurer may point to the walking rules to argue for a larger share on the pedestrian's side. Section 56-5-3270, for example, bars a walker impaired by alcohol or drugs to the point of being a hazard from a highway, sidewalks excepted. The split in any one crash rests on its own evidence, and nobody can promise a percentage in advance.

A bicycle lane is a part of the road that striping, pavement markings and signs set aside for cyclists. Under Section 56-5-3425, motorists may not block the lane to oncoming bicycle traffic. A driver entering or crossing the lane, as in a right turn into a driveway, must first yield to a cyclist in it. Riders must use the lane except to pass another rider or avoid an obstruction.

Where no bike lane exists, Section 56-5-3430 has a cyclist ride as near the right side as practicable. The rider may use the shoulder but does not have to. A cyclist may move into another lane when only that lane lets the rider continue on the intended route. Riders may not go more than two abreast except on paths set aside for bicycles.

Section 56-5-3435 requires a driver to hold a safe operating distance from any bicycle "at all times." The statute names no distance in feet, so the question becomes what was safe on that road at that speed. Because the duty never lapses, it reaches more than the moment of passing.

Section 56-5-3445 separately makes it a misdemeanor to harass, taunt or maliciously throw something at a rider. A conviction carries a fine of at least $250, up to 30 days in jail, or both.

An insurer defending a driver may look first at the cyclist's own compliance. Several sections in the bicycle article set duties for riders, and a lawyer checks each one against the evidence. A rider's own lapse can reduce an award under the comparative fault rule, or bar it once the rider's share passes half. The lights, the signal and the rider's position all need review before anyone argues about percentages.

Lamp and Reflector Rules for Riding After Dark

At night, Section 56-5-3470 requires a white front lamp visible from at least 500 feet. The rear needs a red reflector visible from 50 to 300 feet in a car's upper-beam headlights, and a rider may add a red rear lamp. An insurer may ask whether a rider hit after dark had both. Missing equipment does not by itself end a claim, though it can affect how a jury shares fault.

Hand Signals and a Working Brake

Section 56-5-3480 has a rider signal turns and stops by arm. A left arm held straight out means a left turn, and an arm pointed down means slowing or stopping. The rider need not keep signaling when that hand is needed to control the bike. Section 56-5-3490 also requires a brake strong enough to skid the braked wheels on dry, level, clean pavement, and each rule carries a $25 fine.

Proceeding Through a Red Light After 120 Seconds

A cyclist may go through a steady red light under Section 56-5-970(C)(5) only after a full stop of 120 seconds, the same rule motorcycle and moped drivers follow. The rider must also use due care and handle the light as if it were a stop sign. A rider who waited out the full 120 seconds on Bacons Bridge Road and then crossed with care followed the statute.

Civil Fines Under Section 56-5-3500

Section 56-5-3500 sets civil fines for a motorist who breaks the bicycle article when no other violation is cited. The cap is $100, rising to $500 when the violation causes a cyclist minor injury and $1,000 for great bodily injury. Those amounts are fines, not damages. They do not pay a rider's medical bills or replace a claim for the rider's own losses.

A claimant's attorney may ask the driver's insurer for its limits under Section 38-77-250, using a sworn written request that includes the incident report. The insurer has 30 days to respond under oath, naming itself, each insured and the limits. It can supply the declarations page in place of that statement. The statute leaves fleet, umbrella and excess coverage out of that duty.

Under Section 38-77-30(7), a spouse or relative who shares the named insured's household is an insured "while in a motor vehicle or otherwise." The phrase "or otherwise" reaches a person on foot. In 2013, the South Carolina Supreme Court took up that language in Carter v. Standard Fire Insurance Co.

Carter repeated that UIM coverage, like UM, is "personal and portable." Quoting an earlier case, the Court named being a pedestrian as one situation that coverage exists for.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage on Foot

Uninsured motorist coverage, called UM, pays an insured what he or she could have collected from an uninsured at-fault driver. Section 38-77-150 makes UM mandatory on every auto policy issued in South Carolina. A walker from an insured household may therefore have it without knowing. Frost Law Group pursues uninsured motorist claims on behalf of people hit while walking or riding.

A Driver Who Fled Before Anyone Read the Plate

Section 38-77-170 sets three conditions for a hit-and-run UM claim. To start, the report to police cannot come later than is reasonable under all the circumstances. Second, the claim needs at least one of three proofs.

Contact between the fleeing car and the walker counts, and so does a sworn statement from an eyewitness who neither owned nor drove the insured car. A recording that ties the car to the harm is the third option. If a witness refuses to sign, the insured may ask a court to order a presuit deposition, a procedure Rule 27 of the state's civil rules provides. Third, the walker's own carelessness cannot be why nobody identified the driver.

A Driver Who Stayed but Carried No Coverage

Sometimes the driver stops, gives a name and admits to having no insurance. The UM claim then skips the hit-and-run conditions, because police know who the driver is. The household policy answers up to its UM limits for what the walker could have collected from that driver. Its insurer may still dispute fault and damages.

Underinsured Coverage When the Driver's Limits Fall Short

UIM, short for underinsured motorist coverage, can pay the part of a loss that runs past the at-fault driver's liability limits. The law requires insurers to make UIM available under Section 38-77-160, yet buying it stays optional. The same statute forbids a UIM clause requiring the insurer's permission before you settle with the driver at fault.

Stacking combines coverage from two or more vehicles. Under the Supreme Court's 1998 Concrete Services decision, only Class I insureds may stack. That class covers the named insured, the insured's spouse and any relative in the same home. Whether stacking applies depends on the policies and the facts.

Medical Payments Coverage Depends on the Policy Wording

No South Carolina law requires drivers to buy medical payments coverage, known as med pay. Whether it covers a named insured hit while walking depends on the policy language.

Where a policy's med pay does apply, Section 38-77-144 protects it from assignment and subrogation. Subrogation lets an insurer that paid a loss collect the same amount from whoever caused it. The statute also bars a setoff, meaning a deduction of med pay from other money owed to the walker.

Section 38-77-260 adds a protection around first-party payments. An insurer paying med pay or UM cannot get a release, a subrogation assignment or an agreement to deduct the payment until it delivers an approved disclosure statement and three days pass.

Rideshare trips carry layered coverage under Section 58-23-1630, and the driver, the rideshare company or both may provide it. The layer depends on the app's status at the moment of the crash. When the driver's personal policy lacks the coverage the statute requires, the company's insurer must pay starting at the first dollar.

Suppose the driver is online in the app with no ride yet. The minimums then are $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident and $50,000 for property damage. From ride acceptance until the last rider gets out, the requirement rises to $1,000,000 combined for injury, death and property damage.

Section 58-23-1630(H) also makes the driver disclose app status to investigating officers and insurers, meaning whether the driver was logged in or partway through a trip. Frost Law Group handles rideshare accident claims for pedestrians and cyclists as well as passengers.

Darkness does not lower a driver's duty. Section 56-5-1520 requires speed controlled enough to avoid colliding with a person on or entering the highway, under the conditions that exist. The due care rule applies at every hour as well. Headlight range, streetlights and the walker's clothing all bear on what the driver could have seen, and a lawyer works through those conditions before judging fault.

Statewide in 2024, officers recorded a pedestrian or cyclist factor as the primary contributing factor in 146 fatal collisions. The largest single entry, with 82, was a person lying or unlawfully in the roadway. Those codes are an officer's judgment written on a report. Under Section 56-5-1290, the report cannot serve as evidence of negligence at trial, so a lawyer tests any such entry against the scene, the lighting and the witnesses.

The same Fact Book records what each pedestrian was doing just before impact. For 90 of the 158 who died, officers marked walking, playing or cycling. For 41, they marked entering or crossing a location.

Section 56-5-3230 requires a driver to take proper precaution on seeing any child. Statewide in 2024, the Fact Book counted 54 pedestrians aged 10 to 14 in collisions, and 2 of them died. Another 40 were younger than 10, and 1 of those children died. Records from the treating hospital, such as HCA Healthcare Summerville Hospital's 10-bed pediatric ER, document the injury from the first visit.

Filing Time When the Injured Walker Is a Child

Section 15-3-40 generally stops the filing clock while an injured person is under 18. The extension can never run past the child's 19th birthday. When the ordinary three-year period under Section 15-3-530 would end later than that, the extension adds nothing. The right date therefore depends on the child's age at the crash.

Court Review Before a Child's Claim Settles

Section 62-5-433 puts a child's settlement under court review. If the child's net amount tops $25,000, the settlement goes to the circuit court by verified petition. The money must then flow through a conservator or under a protective order from the probate court. The circuit or probate court can approve a smaller claim, and a parent acting alone may resolve only a claim of $2,500 or under.

Pedestrians aged 65 to 74 accounted for 23 of the 158 pedestrian deaths in 2024, and 9 more who died were 75 or older. The same due care statute calls for proper precaution around any obviously confused or incapacitated person. A stricter rule protects a walker guided by a guide dog or carrying a raised white cane, or one white with a red tip. Under Section 56-5-3200, every approaching driver must come to a full stop and take whatever precautions will avoid injuring that person.

Section 56-5-3220 adds that a blind or incapacitated walker without a cane or guide dog keeps every pedestrian right. The statute also says the missing cane is not evidence that the walker was careless. When a walker's injuries will change daily life for good, Frost Law Group treats the case as one of its catastrophic injury claims. Repayment demands from Medicaid, Medicare and health plans can follow in those cases.

Section 15-51-20 sets the order of beneficiaries. A spouse and children come first. If there are none, the claim benefits the parents, and if there are no parents, the heirs. Family members do not file in their own names, because the personal representative brings the case for them. The beneficiaries then share any recovery in the portions each would inherit under intestacy, the rules for an estate with no will.

The survival claim covers what the walker could have sued for if he or she had lived. Conscious pain and suffering between the crash and death is one example. Reasonable funeral costs may go in either the survival or the wrongful death action, but Section 15-5-100 allows them in only one.

Section 15-51-41 makes court approval a condition of any settlement of either claim, and the statute lets a probate, circuit or federal district court give it. Under Section 15-51-42, only a personal representative whom a court has appointed may settle.

Section 15-3-530(6) gives the personal representative three years to file a wrongful death action. That period runs from the date of death, not the date of the crash. If a walker survived the crash and died later, the clock starts on the later date. A government vehicle brings a different statute. If the driver was on duty for a municipality, a county or the state, the Tort Claims Act controls the timing.

That Act gives the family two years to sue from the point of discovery, meaning when the family found out about the loss or reasonably should have found out. Only a verified claim lodged with the entity first can push the limit to three years. The entity must receive that claim within one year of discovery. Those limits come from Section 15-78-110 and subsection (d) of Section 15-78-80. A lawyer checks which clock applies, because the answer depends on who caused the death.

A wrongful death jury may add punitive damages under Section 15-51-40 where recklessness, willfulness or malice caused the death. Such damages exist to punish, not to repay what the family lost. Under Section 15-32-520(D), the family must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the driving behind the death was reckless, willful or wanton.

Leaving the scene of a fatal crash is its own felony under Section 56-5-1210, punishable by one to 25 years in prison. A prosecutor brings that charge apart from the family's civil case, and no lawyer can predict how either one ends.