Bus Video Shows Pedestrian Hit By Car in Jacksonville Beach, Florida
A Jacksonville Transit Authority bus video shows a man, Shaun Mills, being hit by a car after exiting the bus and attempting to cross the street, according to an article on News4Jax.com. The video clearly shows Mr. Mills exiting the bus in the left lane of Third Street, walking around the back of the bus and trying to cross the right lane of Third Street when he was hit by the car. Mr. Mills was critically injured from the crash but is rehabbing.
The article indicates that Jacksonville Beach police determined that Shaun Mills was at fault for the accident. However, after reviewing the video, that may not be so clear. In personal injury cases, the first question for someone looking to recover compensation for injuries and damages is: whose fault was the accident? This is not always an all or nothing determination. In other words, the parties in the injury lawsuit, or a jury, can decide that each party was partially to blame and attribute some percentage of fault to each of them. Whether a police officer gave one party or the other a citation or attributed fault for the accident to one party or the other is typically irrelevant in the personal injury lawsuit.
For instance, in this case, a personal injury lawyer could argue that while Mr. Mills could have waited for the car to pass before crossing the road, the driver of the vehicle had plenty of time to see him moving in the car's direction and could have slowed or stopped prior to the crash.
In many cases such as this one, fault for the accident is often shared between the parties. When the non-injured party shares some of the blame, the injured party can still get compensation for his/her damages.
