Some of the best things to do in Newburyport involve walking. Whether strolling by the shops and restaurants on Market Square and State Street in Downtown Newburyport or getting a taste of the outdoors at Plum Island, Maudslay State Park, or Waterfront Park, there are plenty of beautiful things to see and do.
Newburyport pedestrian accidents are incredibly serious personal injury accidents that cause significant injuries and medical expenses. Pedestrian accidents often lead to death, broken bones, brain injuries, and paralysis. Unfortunately, these terrible accidents happen every day.
If you or a loved one were recently injured in a Newburyport pedestrian accident, Spada Law’s pedestrian accident attorneys are available to talk about your legal options. In a free consultation, we can review your case, explain your rights, and discuss the next steps to help you recover compensation for your injuries.
Call for a free consultation today: (978) 765-2112.
What to do After a Newburyport Pedestrian Accident
If you or a loved one were injured, or worse, killed, in a pedestrian accident, we are so sorry you and your loved ones are navigating this difficult path. We’re here to help.
3 Important Things to Do to Help Yourself after a Newburyport Pedestrian Accident:
- Get Medical Care
- Document Everything
- Hire an Injury Attorney
Get medical care immediately after being hurt in a pedestrian accident. Once the adrenaline from the accident wears off, the pain usually sets in and worsens. It’s essential to go to the doctor even if you don’t think your injuries are serious because many injuries will worsen if not treated. Going to your doctor, urgent care, or emergency room will ensure you get the necessary medical treatment. It will also help prove that the accident caused your injuries, not something else.
Document everything from your accident if you can, and collect information from the accident scene. Write down everything you remember about what happened as soon as you can. An excellent way to do this is by sending yourself an email from your phone so you have a record of it. Take photos of where the accident happened, and see if any witnesses can tell you what they saw. Ask witnesses if they are willing to give you their contact information. When you see your doctors, communicate honestly about your pain and symptoms. Honest communication will help your doctor correctly diagnose you, and it will help them document detailed and accurate information in their records about your injuries and symptoms.
Hire a pedestrian injury attorney to represent you. Never talk to an insurance company after you’re injured in a Newburyport pedestrian accident. If an insurance agent calls, whether it is your own insurance company or the insurance of the person who hit you, tell them you are hiring an attorney and will not speak with them without your attorney present. Often, the insurance company of the person who hit you will call you to try and get you to admit fault for the accident somehow, or they may offer you a very low money settlement. Sometimes the insurance company will offer you what may sound like a lot of money – but still, beware. Whatever the insurance company is willing to offer you initially will likely be way less than what you’re owed.
How Common Are Pedestrian Accidents in Newburyport?
In 2021, pedestrian deaths increased by 30% in Massachusetts, and pedestrian deaths hit a 40-year high nationally. In spring 2022, A pedestrian was airlifted from Newburyport after being hit by a vehicle on Route 1.
Little information is available on how many pedestrian accidents occur in Newburyport. WalkMassachusetts, a pedestrian advocacy organization, provides insights based on evaluating where and how fatal pedestrian accidents happen across the state.
The report cited that in 2021, Newburyport was among 35 communities that had one fatal pedestrian crash during the year. The report did not indicate all pedestrian accidents, only fatal accidents.
“The data sadly confirm that crashes are happening throughout the Commonwealth, with the same municipalities emerging again and again as higher risk,” said Stacey Beuttell, Executive Director of WalkMassachusetts. “Every life lost is tragic, but the data also gives us confidence that by implementing proven road safety improvements and lowering speed limits, it is absolutely possible to reduce or even eliminate pedestrian deaths in Massachusetts.”
Most Dangerous Streets for Pedestrians in Newburyport:
The Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in MA (2021) revealed that most fatal Massachusetts pedestrian crashes happen on streets with a 30-35 MPH speed limit. As a pedestrian, pay attention to the speed limit of the roads you’re walking near and take extra caution (even when you’re on a sidewalk) when you’re in an area with a 30 MPH speed limit or higher.
Newburyport areas with documented pedestrian injuries:
- Storey Avenue and Noble Street intersection: An elderly woman was injured after being hit by a truck in 2022.
- Route 1: A 25-year-old man was seriously injured after being hit by an SUV in March 2022.
- Route 113 at Low Street: A 64-year-old man died after being hit by a vehicle in 2017.
It’s important to note that these reported severe pedestrian injuries and fatalities involved collisions with cars and motor vehicles. Pedestrian accidents involving cars are the most serious and are the most likely to be reported in the news. Pedestrian injuries, however, can happen in many other ways.
Types of Pedestrian Accidents
- Pedestrian accidents include being injured on a jog through your neighborhood. We helped a young girl seriously injured by an obstacle in a neighbor’s yard.
- Pedestrian accidents encompass accidents that happen in a parking lot. This could be a slip and fall or being hit by a car.
- Pedestrian accidents can include a slip and fall on ice.
- Pedestrian accidents can include trips and falls on poorly maintained sidewalks and walkways.
Many of the accidents we see involve cars, parking lots, and crosswalks.
Pedestrian Safety Tips for Crossing Newburyport’s Streets
- Put your phone away: We’ve seen many cases when a person stepped off a curb while looking at their phone, which contributed to their injury.
- Looking left & right is not enough: Make sure cars are not turning onto the street you're crossing by looking in front of and behind you.
- Use crosswalks: Use crosswalks because they heighten driver awareness and you are more likely to make it to the other side of the street safely.
- Make eye contact with a driver: Make eye contact to make sure a driver sees you. Just because drivers stop or slow down does not mean they see you.
- Be alert if a car stops for you: Even if one car stops to let you cross, be cautious. Another car may be approaching in the next lane, or a vehicle may pass the car that stopped for you.
- NEVER walk in front of a truck, even at a red light: Wait for the truck to pass, even if you have to wait for a light cycle. Tall trucks might make it impossible for a driver to see you if you are right in front of a truck. If you’re crossing the street in front of a truck, and the light turns green, you might be hit because the driver could not see you at all. Unfortunately, we’ve had this happen to several clients.
How Can a Lawyer Help Me with My Newburyport Pedestrian Accident Case?
After a pedestrian accident, caring for yourself and your health is the most important thing. Hiring a Newburyport pedestrian accident attorney lets you focus on healing because we will handle everything related to your injury case.
Spada Law Group's Newburyport pedestrian accident lawyers have considerable experience in all types of pedestrian accident cases. We’ve handled many types of pedestrian accident cases, including crosswalk accidents, runners injured by homeowner negligence, car vs. pedestrians accidents, parking lot accidents, and more. We understand devastating pedestrian injuries are, and we are here to support you and work to get you the best possible outcome on your Newburyport accident case.
At your free consultation, we will listen to your story and all the details of your accident. Then, we will tell you about your legal rights, options, and the likely path of your pedestrian injury case. Once you hire us, we handle everything – from communicating with your insurance company and the insurance of the driver who hit you, negotiating for a fair settlement, to advocating for you to ensure you get all the medical treatment and compensation you deserve.
Our Newburyport Pedestrian Attorneys Will Investigate your Case, Find Out What Your Case is Worth, and Negotiate With Insurance Companies
We will thoroughly investigate your Newburyport pedestrian accident by looking into police reports, requesting any possible nearby surveillance footage that captured the accident, speaking with witnesses, accident experts, and more. We will use all this information to determine a fair value for your case. Once we know what your case is worth, based on our investigation and the severity of your injuries, we will negotiate with the insurance companies to ensure you get what you deserve.
If an insurance company doesn’t offer a fair settlement, our Newburyport pedestrian injury attorneys can file a lawsuit to represent you in a trial in court.
How Long Do I Have to Contact a Newburyport Pedestrian Accident Attorney?
In most cases, you have three years from the date of your pedestrian injury in Newburyport to file a claim. Generally, you have three years to either reach a settlement in your case or file a court claim to go to trial.
If you do not reach a settlement or file a lawsuit within three years, you lose your legal right to seek compensation for your injuries and damages from the person who caused the accident. This three-year period is what’s known as the statute of limitations for injury cases in Massachusetts.
While you technically have three years to file a pedestrian injury lawsuit, the best practice is to contact a Newburyport pedestrian attorney as soon as possible after your accident. The sooner our team is on board, the more helpful we can be, and it gives us the best opportunity to gather all the evidence we can in your case. For example, many local businesses only keep records of their surveillance footage for a few months, so that is the information we will never be able to get if we’re not involved in your case from the beginning. The sooner we begin representing you, the more time we have to negotiate a favorable settlement rather than filing a lawsuit under a tight time constraint.
What Damages Can I Collect After a Pedestrian Accident in Newburyport?
If you were injured as a Pedestrian in Newburyport, your own Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage on your car insurance policy would cover up to $8,000 of your medical bills and a portion of lost wages. The PIP policy limit is $8,000. Most of the time, however, the medical bills and other expenses after a Newburyport pedestrian accident are much more than $8,000. Treatment can involve emergency medical care, x-rays, MRIs, stitches, treatment for broken bones, chiropractic care, physical therapy, other forms of rehabilitation, and more – the medical expenses add up quickly. To recover more than this or for other losses, such as your pain and suffering, you must file a claim or lawsuit against the person who caused the accident.
You can recover compensation for non-economic and economic damages after being injured as a pedestrian. Economic damages include monetary damages, such as any costs and expenses due to your injuries. Non-economic damages include losses without a dollar amount.
Economic damages include medical bills, lost wages, property damage expenses, and any other expenses related to the accident.
Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, the loss of quality of life, emotional or psychological trauma, loss of companionship, and more.
Suppose a loved one was killed in a Newburyport pedestrian accident. In that case, you may file a wrongful death claim on their behalf to pursue compensation for losses, including their medical expenses, funeral costs, emotional pain and suffering, and loss of financial support.
Whose Fault is a Newburyport Pedestrian Accident?
One of the first things an injury attorney will do in your case is determine who caused the Newburyport pedestrian accident. There are many factors to consider when determining who caused the accident.
You might think a driver is automatically at fault if you were hit by a car while crossing the street in Newburyport. This is not necessarily true. It is possible for both you and the driver who hit you to be responsible, for example. It is also possible that a third party caused the accident by forcing the driver who hit you to swerve unexpectedly.
How Do I Prove a Driver Is at Fault for My Newburyport Pedestrian Accident?
Pedestrians still have a valid pedestrian injury claim even if they are partially responsible for the accident. To recover compensation from the driver who hit you, we only need to prove that the other driver was more than 50% responsible for the accident.
In Massachusetts, a modified comparative negligence rule allows pedestrians to recover damages as long as they are not primarily at fault. So, if pedestrians are 50% or less at fault for an accident, they can still recover damages.
Pedestrians could be partially at fault for causing a Newburyport pedestrian accident if they were texting while walking, jaywalking, unexpectedly running out in front of a car, or crossing the street without looking. If a pedestrian is found 20% responsible for the accident, for example, they can still recover 80% of their case’s total value from the at-fault driver.
Drivers are often at fault for pedestrian accidents for driving while distracted, speeding, not obeying traffic lights or stop signs, not stopping for a crosswalk, or if they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
How We Help People After Pedestrian Accidents in Massachusetts
Check out our case results to learn how our Massachusetts injury attorneys have helped people recover after being injured in a pedestrian accident.
- Learn how Spada Law helped a pedestrian injured in a life-threatening Massachusetts accident while crossing a street settle for the maximum insurance benefit.
- Learn how Spada Law helped a woman Injured in a Parking Lot get a $200,000+ Settlement.
Injured in a Pedestrian Accident in Newburyport, Massachusetts? Reach out for a FREE Consultation with a Pedestrian Accident and Injury Lawyer
Pedestrian accidents are among the most severe cases we see. They almost always result in serious injuries or even death. Getting hit by a car while walking is challenging and stressful enough, but navigating the legal process and dealing with insurance companies doesn’t have to be challenging and stressful.
If you or a loved one were injured as a pedestrian in Massachusetts, you have rights and may be able to get compensation for your medical bills, time lost from work, pain and suffering, and more. Our pedestrian accident attorneys are here to guide you every step of the way.
Over the last three decades, we’ve helped thousands of people in Massachusetts get the recovery they need after a pedestrian accident injury. Recently, Boston Magazine named Attorney Spada one of Boston’s Top Personal Injury Lawyers. We’re here and ready to help.
We have three offices but proudly serve the entire state with the ability to meet with you remotely from the comfort of your own home. Contact us for a free consultation so we can learn more about your accident and injuries and see how we can help you get the recovery you deserve.
