79-Year-Old Woman Killed Crossing S. Collins Street in Arlington, TX

Texas Transportation Code Section 552.005 requires a pedestrian crossing a roadway outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk to yield the right-of-way to approaching vehicles. Arlington police say the woman was crossing South Collins Street outside a designated crosswalk when she was struck, which is why this statute is central to how investigators are evaluating the crash. Even when a pedestrian is not in a crosswalk, however, drivers still carry independent duties under Texas law. This statute does not eliminate a driver’s obligation to drive safely and watch for pedestrians on the roadway.

Texas Transportation Code Section 552.008 separately requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian on a roadway, sound a horn when necessary, and take extra precaution around children or people who appear confused or incapacitated. This duty applies regardless of whether the pedestrian had the right-of-way at the moment of the crash. Courts have recognized that a pedestrian’s failure to yield does not automatically excuse a driver from liability if the driver could have avoided the collision through reasonable care. Because both statutes can apply to the same crash, fault in nighttime pedestrian collisions like this one is often evaluated under a comparative-negligence analysis.