Duty of care owed by pedestrians—Crossing between intersections
Local traffic regulations that prohibit pedestrians from crossing in the middle of a block and that require that they cross at street corners or intersections express a safety rule of universal knowledge and application, and the failure of a pedestrian to observe such a requirement, by crossing in the middle of a block, may, under the circumstances, constitute negligence.
Whether a pedestrian is negligent in crossing or attempting to cross a street at a place other than an intersection, and whether his or her failure to observe the possible dangers or risks in attempting to cross the street was the proximate cause of the injury, ordinarily present questions of fact to be settled by the jury, under appropriate instructions. Thus, Florida auto accident attorneys argue that it is improper for a court to direct a verdict in favor of jaywalking pedestrians who are alleged to be the cause of a rear-end collision where the evidence is sufficient for the jury to determine whether there were no jaywalking signs in the area, whether such signs were designed to implement traffic control, whether the pedestrians violated a statutory proscription by crossing at the point they did, and whether the jaywalking constituted the proximate cause of the collision. Where, however, the evidence does not support a particular instruction as to the duty of a pedestrian when crossing between intersections, it may constitute reversible error for the court to give such an instruction.
Notwithstanding the fact that the question of a pedestrian's negligence in crossing between intersections is usually a matter for the jury, a pedestrian is clearly negligent if he or she walks into a traffic lane between intersections without looking or into the path of an automobile that he or she could easily have seen but did not.
