Dew On Windshield No Excuse For Hitting Teen Pedestrian

Several Central Florida media outlets are reporting that a teenager was hit this morning in Sanford in an automobile versus pedestrian accident.  Apparently Liang Chen, a teenage student in Sanford, was standing at a school bus stop waiting for the bus when he was hit by a car being driven by Robert Dubois, also of Sanford.  The boy was rushed from the scene by ambulance and was treated at the hospital for what was thought to be a broken leg.

According to reports, Mr. Dubois claimed that he could not see the child due to dew on his windshield and side windows.  As an Orlando accident attorney, this kind of explanation raises several red flags for me.  First, if a driver has dew on his windows, in order to operate his car safely he needs to either wipe or clean his windows before leaving his home, or wait for the window defroster to evaporate the dew. This is just plain common sense. Obviously, neither was done in this case.

Second, I am at a loss for how dew on the windshield could cause Mr. Dubois to leave the roadway for enough distance to hit a child waiting at a bus stop.  I might be able to understand a collision if the child was crossing the road, but this was not the case here.  I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly what happened, but we do know that a child was senselessly injured.

Any readers of this blog will know that Central Florida has witnesses at least 12 students being hit by vehicles heading to or from school so far this year.  This is obviously far too many.  Drivers in Central Florida need to be on the lookout for children and take more care.

If you have any questions regarding an automobile versus pedestrian accident, or an injury to a child, call Winter Park personal injury lawyer Kim Cullen at 407-254-4901.