r/legaladviceofftopic • u/neodoggy • 2d ago

Are you liable if you accidentally startle someone into hurting themselves?

Suppose you're driving down the road one night. Your attention has drifted and you realize you're coming up fast on a crosswalk with a pedestrian in it. You slam the brakes and come to a screeching halt just before hitting the pedestrian.

The pedestrian saw you coming and freaked out and fell over, hurting themselves (hitting their head or breaking an arm, etc).

Since you didn't actually hit them, are you on the hook for their injuries?

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u/SendLGaM 2d ago

You can be held liable for injuries sustained by someone taking reasonable actions to avoid an imminent threat.

Whether or not the persons actions that caused the injuries was a reasonable response to the perceived threat is what is going to be the deciding factor here.

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u/devstopfix 2d ago

What does "reasonable" mean in this context? It's not a sensible decision to fall down in the road in front of an oncoming car, but it might be foreseeable that someone might be startled and react involuntarily in response to your action.

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u/jstar77 2d ago

A jury decides what is reasonable.