Walking round the town centre on a Friday or Saturday night, you can see why drunken pedestrians get involved in accidents. There is often no regard for the vehicles on the road and a lot of the time the pedestrians are just stepping out into the roads.
If a drunken pedestrian is involved in an accident, although the courts normally favour pedestrians in road traffic accidents, it is not likely that a claim for negligence against the driver will be successful.
There is a recent case in law that highlights this; Stewart v Glaze 2009. In this case Mr Stewart was sitting at a bus stop with his friend having been out drinking. Mr Stewart had consumed around 5-7 pints and was drunk. Mr Glaze was driving on the road towards the bus stop when Mr Stewart ran into the road which resulted in a collision with Mr Glaze’s vehicle. Mr Stewart suffered severe head injuries and was left in a vegetative state. The Judge held that Mr Glaze was not negligent in this case. There was no evidence to suggest that he was not driving carefully and that it was unreasonable to say that Mr Glaze should have seen Mr Stewart at the precise moment he decided to charge into the road. On the facts of this case, there was absolutely no reason to find that Glaze had been negligent.
Although the consequences in this case were horrific, they could, of course, have been much worse. What if Glaze had been a motorcyclist and sustained serious injuries himself as a result of Mr Stewart wandering into the road?
Although a drunken pedestrian can suffer serious injuries as a result of this type of accident, the motorist can also suffer. The injuries are likely to be whiplash however could be worse given that most drivers would attempt to swerve out of the way of a pedestrian which can result in loss of control of the vehicle.
Also, if you were the driver of a vehicle which has resulted in injuries to a pedestrian such as those in the above case, it is likely that there may be some serious psychological issues as well, even though the accident may not have been your fault.
If you have been involved in an accident that was caused by a drunken pedestrian, you may find it difficult to claim. Whilst the pedestrian could be fully at fault, it’s likely they may not have any finances to actually meet a claim. If you have minor whiplash, you’re looking at an average payout of around £2,500.00 – plus around £1,500.00 of lawyer’s costs. So that’s around £4,000.00 the pedestrian needs to have to settle the claim. Unless they’re well off, or have assets to make a claim from, you may find yourself struggling to get any money for the claim.
