Quote:
|
Originally Posted by scandium
First, here in Canada (or at least this part of it) my understanding of liability in motor vehicle pedestrian accidents is that the greater burden of responsibility is upon the driver;
|
As a general rule this is the same over here.
The reason behind is the operational risk of a car in movement, a thing that weighs 1 ton or more. Because of that operational risk, you need to have a transport and traffic insurance if you want to drive a car. It can't be that the victims of a car accident don't get compensation, because there is no money around. With a car you can cause terrible losses.
I recall, when I rented a car in Montreal/Canada some years ago ( I made 3000 miles
, no accidents), I had to sign such an insurcance.
In car-car accidents, you come up with a 50:50 quote if there was a "bang" and everything else remains unclear (both tell opposed stories), because of the op.risk of each car.
This is different in car-pedestrian accidents. Over here, the general tendency is a 50:50 quote even when the pedestrian was jay walking and was also careless ("I did not see the car coming"). A different quote is possible, e.g. if the traffic regulations say that it is strictly forbidden to enter a 4 lane highway as a pedestrian. Then you can't say, a driver has to reckon that negligent pedestrians do that (cross a 4 lane highway). At least, if you cross an interstate, it has a different quality then if you cross a side street to buy some milk, that is what I mean.
Btw, I think the police is investigating for bodiliy injury because of negligence against the driver, probably the reason why they questioned you. Such accidents are taken very seriously.
Because you were not driving a car, the question arouses, if you have a private liabilty, because the traffic liabilty does not apply here. If the damage on the car is high and your compensation for pain and sufferung is low compared to that, this depending on the actual quote might be not good.
Out of curiosity, I would be very interested to hear what the whole thing turned out in the end. So please pm me, if you think it is okay.