7.15 Negligence – Care Required of Pedestrian on Sidewalk
- In General
A pedestrian using the sidewalk must act with the same amount of care for her/his own protection as a reasonably careful person would have exercised under similar circumstances. In order to determine whether or not the pedestrian acted reasonably, you must decide whether a reasonably careful person would have discovered the danger which existed in this case and would have avoided it. - Artificially Created Conditions for Private Use
A pedestrian using the sidewalk is required to exercise reasonable care for her/his own safety, however, a pedestrian is entitled to assume that there is no dangerous impediment or pitfall on any part of the sidewalk. The law does not require that a pedestrian anticipate dangerous conditions. A pedestrian is not negligent merely because she/he does not look for dangerous conditions; however, when or if a pedestrian sees or is aware of a dangerous condition, then she/he must exercise reasonable care to avoid that condition.
