Pedestrian and Bicycle Collision Claims in West Covina, CA Crosswalk Duties and Passing Rules

The crosswalk duty and its limits

Vehicle Code section 21950 requires a driver to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing within any marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, and directs drivers to exercise due care and reduce speed or take other action necessary for safety. The same section states that its provisions do not relieve a pedestrian from using due care, and prohibits a pedestrian from suddenly leaving a curb or place of safety and walking or running into the path of a vehicle so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. Section 21954 covers crossing outside a crosswalk, requiring the pedestrian to yield to vehicles close enough to constitute an immediate hazard while also stating that its provisions do not relieve drivers of the duty to exercise due care. In a disputed file the two duties coexist and the outcome is a percentage.

Bicycles are vehicles for most purposes

Section 21200 gives a person riding a bicycle on a roadway all the rights and duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle. Section 21202 requires a rider traveling slower than the traffic flow to ride as close as practicable to the right curb or edge, with express exceptions for passing, preparing for a left turn, avoiding hazards including parked vehicles and debris, and approaching a right turn, and for substandard-width lanes where a bicycle and a vehicle cannot safely travel side by side. That exception list is the core of most contested bicycle claims, because a rider positioned away from the curb was frequently exercising a statutory exception rather than violating the rule.

The three-foot passing rule

Section 21760, the Three Feet for Safety Act, requires a driver overtaking a bicycle traveling in the same direction to pass at a safe distance that does not interfere with the safe operation of the bicycle, and specifies a distance of at least three feet between any part of the vehicle and any part of the bicycle or its operator. Where that distance cannot be maintained given traffic and roadway conditions, the driver must slow to a reasonable and prudent speed and pass only when it will not endanger the rider. Sideswipe and overtaking collisions on arterials are the fact pattern this section addresses.

The local numbers

The City's roadway safety plan, covering 2017 through 2021, recorded 154 pedestrian-involved collisions, of which 14 were fatal and 10 severe, and 98 bicycle-involved collisions including one fatal and five severe, for 252 vulnerable road user collisions in total. Against 5,044 collisions citywide, that is a small proportion of events and a large proportion of the 29 fatalities. The plan also reported that roughly 88 percent of collisions occurred at or near intersections and that 34 percent occurred during darkness, dusk or dawn, which describes the lighting condition in which most serious pedestrian collisions here take place.

What the city is changing at signals

West Covina's Highway Safety Improvement Program award of $3,184,700 in state funds covers signal improvements at ten intersections, with the countermeasures identified including protected left-turn phasing and pedestrian-related upgrades, at locations including Sunset Avenue and Merced Avenue, Vincent Avenue and Puente Avenue, Lark Ellen Avenue and Badillo Avenue, and Azusa Avenue and Fairgrove Avenue. For a collision at one of those junctions, the configuration in place on the crash date is a documentable fact and differs from the configuration a person sees there today.

Evidence in a vulnerable user case

Injuries are typically severe enough that the claimant has no usable memory of the impact, so the record is built from physical evidence and third parties. Point of impact on the vehicle, throw distance, clothing marks, bicycle frame and wheel damage, helmet damage, and the position of debris all speak to speed and geometry. Lighting conditions and the state of any streetlight are documentable through the operating agency. Camera coverage near retail frontage is the most common source of imagery and the most quickly overwritten.

If a pedestrian or bicycle collision is the question

The first items are the report number and investigating agency, photographs of the vehicle and the bicycle before either is repaired or discarded, the complete medical record beginning with the ambulance run sheet, and the exact location including approach direction and lighting. Where a roadway or signal condition may be at issue, the six-month presentation window for public entity claims in Government Code section 911.2 controls and is much shorter than the two-year injury deadline in Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. This page is general information about California traffic statutes, not legal advice, and it does not evaluate any collision. Specific questions belong with the attorney who advertises on this site.