Can Children File a Claim for Personal Injury After a Car Accident?

April 18, 2018 | By Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers
Can Children File a Claim for Personal Injury After a Car Accident?

The first thing to consider, if there is an accident in which a child is hit by a car, is the child’s age. In the state of North Carolina, law dictates that a child around the age of five or six is incapable of negligence. And no matter the circumstance, in a residential area or neighborhood the driver needs to be extra diligent in looking out for pedestrians. Especially if there are children around, like at bus stops or in school zones, drivers need to be alert and children cannot be given reason for cause of accident.

Video Transcription:

When children are involved as pedestrians and they're hit by vehicles, there's a little bit of a different twist to the entire scenario. The most important thing is the child’s age. If the child is a very young child, five or six years old, that child is incapable of negligence under North Carolina law. So, no matter what happened the child is not negligent. If you're in a neighborhood, or a residential area, or an area where there's a lot of people on the roads, the driver has a duty to keep a lookout, a proper lookout for pedestrians, particularly children, if there are children in the area. For example at a bus stop, and we've actually handled cases where children were hurt, and hurt pretty bad at bus stops when vehicles did not stop for the bus like they're supposed to stop. So in those cases, clearly there's negligence on the part of the other driver and our children have nothing to do with causing the accident. Please give us a call or send us an email. We're here, we're ready to help. Justice counts.