Teen, 18, Hospitalized After Being Struck by Vehicle on Watson Blvd in Daingerfield

Texas Transportation Code Chapter 552 sets out the duties that pedestrians and drivers owe each other on public roadways. Section 552.008 requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian, to sound the horn when necessary, and to take extra precaution around a child or an obviously confused or incapacitated person. Section 552.005 separately requires a pedestrian crossing at a point other than a marked crosswalk or intersection to yield the right-of-way to vehicles on the roadway. Both duties can apply at the same time in a single crash.

Chapter 33 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code contains the state’s proportionate responsibility rule. A jury assigns each party a percentage of responsibility for the incident, and an injured person’s recovery is reduced by their own share. Under Section 33.001, a claimant found more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing at all. That makes an early police statement about a pedestrian failing to yield an important but not final question, because the percentages are decided by the fact finder rather than by the initial report.