As a child of the 80’s, I spent no small amount of time playing what is a now-classic video game called Frogger, the object of which was to navigate a hapless frog across many lanes of busy traffic and across a river to a safe point, at which point you had won that round and moved on to a more difficult crossing scenario. Making the journey difficult were fast-moving obstacles, such as speeding cars and semi-trucks, which seemed determined to run over you and kill you, thus ending your game. While that game has been out of the public consciousness for quite a while now, fans of the genre will be glad to know that they can now participate in a real-life version of the game simply by walking through a crosswalk in any major metropolitan area or tourist destination.
If you have ever been walking along the sidewalk, looking at beautiful mountain views, and thought, “The only way this would get any better is if I had to try to dodge a speeding Jeep Wrangler while holding on to my cotton candy and my young child,” then I have news for you. At crosswalks all over the country, there are design defects, distracted drivers, and other forms of visual and driving impediments available to make your vacation more exhilarating. In places such as Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a beautiful town surrounded by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, pedestrians are frequently struck in crosswalks by vehicles whose drivers are distracted by their surroundings, their cell phones or their passengers, or who simply cannot see them crossing the road because of the heavy traffic in the area or some defect in the design of the crosswalk that renders crossing in that area unsafe. Many such accidents result in serious injury or even death to the pedestrians, whose bodies are simply unable to withstand the impact of a moving vehicles and who, unlike our hero in Frogger, can’t simply start all over with unlimited lives and no injuries, and pretend it never happened.
It isn’t fair to you, the pedestrian, to have to lose your life or risk your life because a teenager in a convertible decides that her nineteenth Instagram selfie of the day should take place as her negligently operated vehicle crashes into you while you’re trying to use a crosswalk with your family. It’s even more unfair that in all likelihood you will be the one injured and may have deal with permanent disability, extraordinary medical expenses and the pain and suffering that goes along with them, for the rest of your life. Or even worse, you or a loved one may be killed by such a vehicle and will be faced with handling an unspeakable tragedy alone. If you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident or has been hit by a car while simply trying to walk across the road, contact the experienced car wreck attorneys at Green, Waters Ogle and McCarter to discuss how to protect yourself and recover from your injuries.