Bakersfield, CA, November 2 – A man was killed in Bakersfield on Sunday evening when he was struck by a car while walking in a marked crosswalk, according to the Bakersfield Police Department. The pedestrian was crossing the street on foot when he was hit by a passing vehicle traveling through the area. Police responded to the scene and have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the crash.
Bakersfield Man Dies After Being Struck by Car in Marked Crosswalk
Bakersfield police said the collision was reported around 6:32 p.m. near where California Avenue meets Business Center Drive. Officers said the man was in the marked crosswalk, walking westbound, when a southbound Toyota Prius struck him on California Avenue. The driver of the Prius stayed at the scene afterward and cooperated with the officers who responded, police said.
Whether impairment played any role in the crash remained undetermined, the Bakersfield Police Department said. The department also said it was too early to say whether the driver would face a citation in connection with the collision. No specific timeline was given for when those determinations might ultimately be made.
Beyond those details, little else about the crash has been confirmed. The exact cause of the collision has not been released, and the Bakersfield Police Department has not published the name of the man who died. The department has not said when the investigation is expected to conclude or whether additional information will be released.
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.
