Bakersfield, CA, November 10 – A 12-year-old girl died after she and another girl were struck by a vehicle while crossing a roadway outside a crosswalk, according to the California Highway Patrol. The girl, identified by authorities as Scarlet Rose New, did not survive despite emergency responders’ efforts to save her. The second girl, age 10, was taken to a hospital with injuries that have not been disclosed.
Bakersfield Girl, 12, Dies After Pedestrian Crash on Edison Highway
The crash happened around 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of Edison Highway and Fairfax Road, according to the California Highway Patrol. The two girls were reportedly walking across the westbound lanes of Edison Highway outside of a marked crosswalk when they were struck by a vehicle. One of the girls, 12-year-old Scarlet Rose New, was among those hit in the crash.
Emergency responders attempted to administer life-saving measures to New after the crash, but she did not survive her injuries, the California Highway Patrol said. The second girl, age 10, was taken to a hospital following the crash; the extent of her injuries and the hospital that treated her have not been made public.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash, though the agency has not released the name of the driver or said whether any citations have been issued. It also has not disclosed what led the girls to cross outside the marked crosswalk, or the current condition of the 10-year-old survivor. Those details have not yet been made public.
What California law requires of drivers around pedestrians
Vehicle Code section 21950 requires a driver to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing within any marked crosswalk, or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. Subdivision (b) is the one people misread: a pedestrian may walk or run, and doing either does not forfeit the right of way.
Subdivision (c) puts a separate duty on the driver. A driver approaching a pedestrian in any crosswalk must exercise all due care and reduce the speed of the vehicle. That duty applies whether or not the pedestrian had the right of way, and subdivision (d) preserves it: nothing in the section relieves a driver of the duty to use due care for the safety of any pedestrian in the roadway.
The deadline that applies to a claim like this one
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives two years for an action for injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The same two years covers an injury claim and a death claim; there is no separate, shorter period because someone died.
Who is entitled to bring a claim when someone is killed
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 decides who may bring a wrongful death action. The first group is the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and the issue of deceased children, or, where there is no surviving issue, whoever would take the estate by intestate succession.
A second group may bring the action only if they were financially dependent on the person who died: a putative spouse and their children, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the person who died where the parents are deceased. Parents are in that second group, which is the part families are most often surprised by, because dependency has to be shown rather than assumed.
Talking to someone about it
Culver Legal represents people injured in collisions across California. A conversation about what happened costs nothing, and we work on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we win. If we do not win, we do not pass the case costs on to you either.
Nothing on this page is legal advice about any particular case, and the facts of a reported collision often change as the investigation continues.
