Marines Injured and Killed While Jogging in Yorktown, Virginia (VA) | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

Friendly fire, as it’s usually defined, involves the discharge of a military weapon that injures or kills a member of one’s own armed forces or an ally. At Naval Weapons Station in Yorktown, Virginia (VA), a different kind of weapon killed a Marine and injured two others.

That weapon was a car. A vehicle struck several Marines who were jogging in formation while wearing reflective belts. One of the Marines was killed in the car accident, and several others got injured. Our thoughts go out to the family of the deceased Marine and to his brothers-in-arms who suffered injuries. It’s terrible enough that we lose so many brave service men and woman overseas, but to have one run over on our own soil is almost too much to bear.

As a Virginia (VA) car accident injury attorney, I have seen a disturbing increase in pedestrian injuries and deaths recently. If knowledge is power then maybe these safety tips will help you avoid injury and death. A Mean Street study revealed that on a per-mile basis, walking is more dangerous than driving, flying, or riding a bus or train and that most fatalities — 69 percent — occur on neighborhood streets.

Pedestrians, joggers and bikers are often at the mercy of distracted drivers and many times even a crosswalk isn’t enough to protect them. People often ask me if a car has to stop if there is a pedestrian crossing the road or in a crosswalk in Virginia. I can offer a four-part answer:

  1. pedestrian has the right of way when crossing a highway or street within any clearly marked crosswalk or at any regular pedestrian crossing at the end of a block, by the most direct route, at any intersection where the maximum speed limit is not more than 35 miles per hour.
  2. The pedestrian’s right of way begins on one side of the street and continues until he has completed his crossing in the crosswalk or at the regular pedestrian crossing.
  3. When a pedestrian has the right of way, the driver of the vehicle has a duty to change course, or slow down, or come to a complete stop, if necessary, to permit the pedestrian to cross safely and expeditiously.
  4. A pedestrian has a duty to use ordinary care to keep a lookout for motor vehicles.

 CT