Drivers and insurers treat ‘jaywalking’ as a case-closing word. Pennsylvania law doesn’t. Crossing outside a crosswalk is a comparative-fault factor — weighed against the driver’s speed, attention, and ability to avoid — and the 51% rule does math, not moralizing.
- The driver’s duty survives: drivers owe care to all pedestrians, crosswalk or not — speeding, phone use, and failure to brake for a visible person are their percentages.
- The real questions: visibility and avoidability — how long were you visible, what was the driver doing, what would attentive driving have changed. Reconstruction and camera territory.
- The stakes: pedestrian injuries run severe — CDC data is blunt — which makes surrendering a claim to a label costly; our pedestrian practice runs the percentage fight with evidence.
- Special populations: children can’t be blamed like adults, and their cases carry added protections.
Frequently Asked Questions
The police report says I was ‘crossing mid-block.’ Is that a fault finding?
It’s a location fact — fault is the analysis of both parties’ conduct, and mid-block crossing against an inattentive or speeding driver regularly leaves the pedestrian well under the bar.
The driver stayed in their lane and says I ‘appeared suddenly.’ Now what?
Sight-line and timing reconstruction answers it — ‘suddenly’ usually measures the driver’s attention, not your movement. Cameras and physics beat adjectives.
What does hiring you cost?
No attorney’s fee unless we recover; the contingency percentage and cost handling are in the written fee agreement. Consultations are free.
Hurt in a crash like this? Call (215) 464-4600 or contact us online — free, confidential consultations, contingency-fee representation.