Florida leads the nation in pedestrian fatalities annually, and Palm Beach County contributes significantly to that statistic. The combination of high vehicle speeds on multi-lane arterials designed primarily for vehicle throughput, tourist drivers unfamiliar with South Florida’s specific pedestrian crossing patterns, the large population of older pedestrians whose injury vulnerability is elevated, and the year-round outdoor activity that keeps pedestrians on West Palm Beach’s roads throughout all seasons creates a pedestrian accident environment that is among the most dangerous in the country. For pedestrians seriously injured in West Palm Beach, Florida’s 2023 HB 837 tort reform has made the legal claim more complex at exactly the moment when the pedestrian environment has become most hazardous.
Driver Duties to Pedestrians Under Florida Statute
Florida Statute Section 316.130 establishes specific duties that Florida drivers owe to pedestrians. Drivers must yield the right of way to pedestrians lawfully within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is in the driver’s half of the roadway or approaching so closely as to be in danger. Drivers must exercise due care to avoid striking any pedestrian on a roadway, must give a warning signal when necessary for pedestrian safety, and must take all precautions when encountering children or obviously incapacitated persons. These statutory duties create specific legal obligations whose violation is direct evidence of the driver’s negligence when a pedestrian is struck.
The duty to exercise due care extends beyond formal crosswalk situations and applies wherever pedestrians are reasonably foreseeable. On West Palm Beach’s Clematis Street entertainment district, on Dixie Highway through the city’s commercial neighborhoods, and along the Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard corridor where pedestrian activity is constant regardless of formal crossing infrastructure, a driver who claims surprise at encountering a pedestrian is making an argument that the surrounding environment makes factually implausible.
HB 837’s 51 Percent Bar and the Fault Arguments It Enables Against Pedestrians
Florida’s prior pure comparative fault standard allowed a pedestrian found significantly at fault to recover a proportional share of their damages from the at-fault driver. Under HB 837, a pedestrian attributed 51 percent of the total fault recovers nothing. This change gives Florida insurers a specific financial incentive to build pedestrian fault arguments that approach or exceed the threshold, and the fault arguments most commonly deployed against West Palm Beach pedestrian claimants include mid-block crossing where the pedestrian was required to yield to traffic under Florida Statute Section 316.130(10), crossing against a pedestrian signal, and distraction by a mobile device.
Each of these arguments has specific evidentiary counters that experienced pedestrian accident counsel develops as part of the case-building process. Whether the pedestrian was actually in a mid-block location or near an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection requires specific reconstruction of the crash site geometry. Whether a formal crossing was reasonably accessible from the pedestrian’s location affects the legal weight of the mid-block crossing argument. And the at-fault vehicle’s event data recorder data showing the driver’s pre-crash speed and the absence of braking before impact establishes whether the driver had adequate stopping distance regardless of the pedestrian’s crossing location.
Government Entity Liability for Dangerous Crosswalk Infrastructure
When West Palm Beach’s pedestrian accident environment reflects inadequate crosswalk infrastructure, missing pedestrian signals, or dangerous road design on a government-maintained roadway, the City of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, or the Florida Department of Transportation may share liability for the crash. Claims against Florida government entities require written notice under Florida Statute Section 768.28 within three years of the incident as a condition of suit, and best practice is to serve notice as early in the case as possible rather than waiting until the liability investigation is complete.
The Florida Department of Transportation’s pedestrian safety program data identifies high-risk pedestrian corridors throughout Florida and documents the infrastructure improvements planned or implemented on specific roadways. Working with the pedestrian accident legal team at Rosenthal, Levy, Simon and Sosa gives seriously injured West Palm Beach pedestrians access to the complete liability investigation, government entity notice compliance, and HB 837 fault defense strategy that these claims require.