Practice Areas
Pedestrian and Bicycling Injuries
Personal Injury Attorney for Tidewater Virginia: Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News, Hampton, Chesapeake, Accomac, Portsmouth, Cape Charles, Eastern ShoreWhile we often think of serious pedestrian accidents as events that occur on streets and roads involving collisions with moving vehicles, most pedestrian accidents don’t involve automobiles at all. In fact, many injuries resulting from pedestrian accidents fall under the practice area of slip and fall cases or premises liability. Three-quarters of injured pedestrians incur their injuries on sidewalks and in parking lots, and many of those injuries are a result of negligence or lack of due diligence on the part of property owners or custodians.
When negligence is suspected as the cause of a pedestrian injury in the Norfolk area, attorney Joe Perez can help you investigate and pursue damages for the injury you’ve suffered. Joe has helped injured pedestrians recover compensation for relatively minor injuries – such as broken legs, broken arms and concussions – as well as for the less common but more serious accidents resulting in brain damage, nerve damage, spinal cord damage, paralysis or other life-altering injuries. If you’ve been injured at all as a pedestrian, you owe it to yourself and your family to contact an attorney who can thoroughly review your case for the possibility of negligence. Contact Joe today.
Steps toward a safer world for Virginia pedestrians
While the majority of pedestrian accidents don’t involve collisions with cars, those accidents that do occur on the roadway invariably result in the most serious injuries. As road traffic continues to grow at record levels, protecting pedestrians from serious injuries from roadway collisions is an increasing challenge and concern. Many solutions for a safer pedestrian environment have been suggested, including:
• Expanding the use of physical barriers, using pedestrian bridges, overpasses, underpasses, traffic islands, and other similar measures to separate pedestrians from the flow of vehicle traffic
• Building communities that combine residential, work, and shopping areas into close geographic units that promote pedestrian-only environments. Such communities would decrease the reliance on motor vehicles, and the inherent dangers they pose.
• Adopt more traffic calming strategies in road planning, such as narrow streets and street corners, additional traffic signs requiring more frequent yields and stops, and the use of speed bumps and speed tables to make roadway traffic slower and safer.
• Lower speed limits in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, such as schools, shopping malls and business districts, and using video surveillance to increase enforcement.
• Pass laws restricting the legal blood alcohol concentration of pedestrians and continue to enforce existing DUI laws for drivers.
• Improve pedestrian visibility for drivers (e.g., better reflective clothing, personal lights, and street lighting).
• Encourage people of all ages to walk rather than drive – for their physical health, to protect the environment, and to reduce the number of cars on the street.
• Improve adult supervision of young children crossing the street.
• Incorporate pedestrian skills training into school health education curriculum.
• Relocate bus stops to areas with less traffic, and hire crossing guards and escorts to assist young children.
Until these steps and others are taken to make our communities safer for pedestrians, pedestrian accidents will continue to occur. If you or a loved one is involved in a pedestrian accident and suffers a serious injury, you should consult an attorney with experience investigating negligence that can help you build a case against the party responsible for your pain and suffering. Contact Joe Perez today for a thorough review of your case.
Helping injured bicyclists in Virginia get fair compensation
The use of bicycles among both kids and adults has grown steadily in recent years. Bicycles are now used for recreational purposes, as well as for the commute to work. The delays of standstill traffic on the roads, the climbing costs of fuel, and the opportunity for exercise all make bicycles a viable transportation alternative for many Virginians.
But despite a growing trend toward improving safety for bicyclists, including the widespread use of safety helmets, more accessible and safer trails and routes for bikes, and the use of reflective lights and clothing so that bicyclists are more conspicuous on the road, bicycle accidents resulting in injury continue to occur at a steady rate. As with pedestrian accidents, most of the roughly 500,000 bicycle accidents resulting in injury don’t usually involve collisions with motor vehicles. Only about a third of those injured on bicycles involve other vehicles. But also like pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents involving collisions with moving vehicles lead to the most serious injuries, as well as most of the approximately 800 deaths that occur each year among bicyclists.
Most bicycle injury cases are often settled before trial, but when the insurance company or negligent party won’t agree to a figure that is fair and just to the injured bicyclist, there’s no reason to accept it. Joe Perez is a Norfolk attorney that takes every injury seriously. His long history of successful trial experience makes him one attorney insurance companies also take seriously. Hiring Joe to represent your case helps ensure that you get the maximum amount you are legally entitled to. Whether your bicycle accident injury case is settled in mediation or requires a verdict by trial, Joe Perez will be with you each step of the way.
Web Resources for Pedestrian and Bicycling Injuries:
- Bike Travel
Description: A lot of excellent information for the cyclist
- Dahon and REI Novara Folding Bicycles Recalled Due to Fall Hazard
Description: This recall involves model year 2008 Dahon and REI Novara folding bicycles. The models included in the recall are as follows: Dahon Ciao P8, Curve D3, Curve SL, Glide P8, Jetstream P8, Mu P8, Mu P24, MU SL, Mu XL Sport, Vitesse D7 HG, Speed D7, Speed P8, Speed TR, Speed Pro TT, Mariner D7 REI Novara Buzz Flyby and Flyby Shuttle. The words "Dahon" or "Novara" and the model name are printed on the bicycle. The hinge on the handlepost can crack, posing a fall hazard. Hinges with an "R" embossed on the face of the upper handlepost hinge and/or a "Radius Handlepost" sticker on the handlepost are not included in the recall. Contact Dahon California (800)442-3511 or www.dahon.com
Quick Contact
Joseph Perez Attorney and Counselor at Law
4525 South Boulevard
Suite 300
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
Phone: 757.626.0292
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