Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
A person struck at an intersection in Los Angeles County, in a striped crossing or at a plain corner, has the same right of way either way. Deadlines, insurance coverage and damages sit on our Los Angeles pedestrian accident lawyer page, and the plain reading of the right-of-way statutes is in our post on California pedestrian right of way and crosswalk law.
What counts as a crosswalk
Vehicle Code section 275 gives two definitions and two exclusions, and the exclusions matter as much as the definitions. A crosswalk is the portion of a roadway inside the prolongation or connection of the sidewalk boundary lines at an intersection where the intersecting roadways meet at approximately right angles. The prolongation of those lines from an alley across a street is excluded. It is also any portion of a roadway distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface. There is no crosswalk where local authorities have placed signs indicating no crossing.
| Where you were crossing | Crosswalk? | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Painted crossing anywhere on a roadway | Yes | Veh. Code 275(b) |
| Plain corner, streets meet near right angles | Yes, unmarked | Veh. Code 275(a) |
| Corner posted with a no crossing sign | No | Veh. Code 275 |
| Line extended from an alley across a street | No | Veh. Code 275(a) |
| Mid block with no markings | No | Veh. Code 21954 governs |
A driver who says there was no crosswalk usually means there was no paint, and on an ordinary Los Angeles corner that answer is wrong as a matter of statutory definition. The argument is won by measuring the intersection rather than describing it. Aerial imagery and a site visit settle whether the roadways meet at approximately right angles, which is a question of geometry rather than recollection.
Why the passing car is at fault
Section 21951 is a single sentence. Whenever any vehicle has stopped at a marked crosswalk or at any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection to permit a pedestrian to cross, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass the stopped vehicle. There is no visibility qualifier, no speed qualifier, and no exception for a driver who did not know why the first vehicle stopped. The Judicial Council lists the section among the sources for CACI No. 710, the crosswalk instruction a Los Angeles jury receives.
This is the collision that produces the worst injuries on Vermont, Western, Sepulveda and every other wide arterial street. The pedestrian steps out from in front of a vehicle that stopped for her, and the driver in the next lane arrives at full speed with no view of the roadway ahead of the stopped car. Both of them are hidden from each other by the vehicle that did the right thing.
Proof of this pattern lives in physical detail. The resting position of the stopped vehicle fixes where the pedestrian entered the road. The point of impact on the passing vehicle and the throw distance, meaning how far the pedestrian was thrown, fix its speed. The single most valuable witness is the driver who stopped, and that person leaves the scene within minutes unless somebody takes a phone number.
You may finish a crossing you started
Section 21456, in the version operative since January 1, 2024, sets three states for a pedestrian control signal. A WALK or walking person symbol means you may proceed, yielding to vehicles already lawfully in the intersection when the signal first showed. A flashing DON'T WALK or upraised hand accompanied by a countdown means you may start, but must complete the crossing before the countdown ends and the steady symbol appears. A steady symbol, or a flashing one with no countdown, means do not start, and a pedestrian who has partially completed the crossing shall proceed to a sidewalk or safety zone.
| What the signal shows | What you may do | The common defense argument |
|---|---|---|
| WALK or walking person | Cross, yielding to vehicles already in the intersection | That you entered late |
| Flashing hand with countdown | Start, and finish before the count ends | That starting on the countdown was unlawful |
| Steady hand, or flashing with no count | Do not start; finish if already in the road | That you entered against the signal |
| Already partway across | Continue to the sidewalk or safety zone | That you should have retreated |
Insurers most often misread the flashing hand with a countdown. Starting to cross on a flashing hand with a countdown running is what the statute expressly permits, and an adjuster who calls it a violation has misread the section. Section 21456(b)(1) also bars a peace officer from stopping a pedestrian for a violation of the section unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of a collision. The absence of a citation therefore proves very little in either direction.
How a crosswalk case is proved
Signal disputes are resolved by records rather than memory. The agency that operates the intersection keeps timing plans showing the length of the walk interval, the countdown, and any leading pedestrian interval that gives people a head start before the parallel green. Those records are obtained by written request, and they date the argument to the second.
- Send preservation letters, written requests to keep footage, the same week. Storefronts, banks, parking structures and residences with doorbell cameras. Most systems overwrite within seven to thirty days.
- Ask about transit video. A bus stopped at the near-side stop is a camera platform pointed at the crosswalk, and transit agencies keep footage on their own retention schedule.
- Request the signal timing plan. Walk interval, flashing interval, cycle length, and whether a leading pedestrian interval was programmed at that intersection.
- Preserve the vehicle before it is repaired. Modern event data recorders hold pre-impact speed, braking and steering, and a body shop erases the physical evidence in a week.
- Photograph the crossing at the same hour. Sun angle, streetlight spacing and the shadow line change the visibility argument completely.
- Find the driver who stopped. In a section 21951 case that witness decides the case.
Pedestrian, broken leg
Struck in a crosswalk by a speeding driver. Traffic camera footage settled the liability fight.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts, injuries, and insurance coverage. Amounts shown are gross recoveries before attorney's fees, costs, and medical liens.
That result follows the pattern described here. A driver traveling above the limit struck a client who was lawfully in the crosswalk, liability was denied outright, and the argument ended when traffic camera footage was produced alongside witness statements. The footage existed for days, not months. Nothing else in that file changed the insurer's position.
When the crosswalk rule does not apply
Four situations take a crosswalk case out of the ordinary analysis.
- The intersection is not square. Section 275(a) requires roadways meeting at approximately right angles. At a skewed junction, a Y, or a slip lane, the unmarked crosswalk may not exist, and the case moves to section 21954 and the basic speed law.
- You stepped off in front of a close vehicle. Section 21950(b) bars a pedestrian from suddenly leaving a curb into the path of a vehicle so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. That is a real defense, and it is measured in feet and seconds.
- The driveway is not an intersection. A curb cut into a lot creates no unmarked crosswalk, though section 21952 still requires a driver to yield before driving over a sidewalk. Our parking lot and driveway accidents page covers that ground.
- The driver never stopped. A crosswalk case with an unidentified vehicle becomes an uninsured motorist claim with its own conditions, set out on our hit and run pedestrian accidents page.
A crosswalk claim against a driver is an ordinary negligence case. A claim that the crossing itself was unsafe, unmarked where it should have been marked, or timed too short for the width of the road, runs against a public entity on a six month clock. The insurer in a car accident claim and a public entity behave differently, and the two claims are built differently from the first week.
No fee unless we recover.