What general duty of care does a Georgia driver owe to people on foot?

· 3 min read

Every Georgia driver owes pedestrians a baseline duty of care that exists independently of any right-of-way rule. Even where a pedestrian lacks the right of way, a driver must still take reasonable steps to avoid hitting them, which is why “the pedestrian was jaywalking” rarely settles a case by itself.

The statutory duty of due care

O.C.G.A. § 40-6-93 sets out the core obligation: every driver must exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian on the roadway, must sound the horn when necessary to give warning, and must use proper precaution when observing a child or any person who is obviously confused, incapacitated, or intoxicated. This duty applies broadly, not only at crosswalks, and it covers pedestrians a driver should anticipate encountering.

The heightened-precaution language is significant. A driver who sees a child near the road or a visibly impaired person stepping into traffic is expected to do more than the bare minimum, because such pedestrians may behave unpredictably.

How it interacts with right-of-way rules

Georgia’s crosswalk and yield rules assign priority in particular situations, but the general duty of due care runs alongside them. A pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk may have to yield under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-92, yet the driver still cannot mow down a person who is plainly in the road if reasonable care would have avoided the crash. The two layers work together: right-of-way rules decide who should yield, while the due-care duty governs how carefully a driver must operate regardless of who had priority.

This is why a driver who was speeding, distracted, or inattentive can be at fault even when the pedestrian made a mistake.

What the duty means in practice

Reasonable care behind the wheel generally includes keeping a proper lookout, controlling speed for the conditions, slowing near areas with foot traffic, and reacting to pedestrians who come into view. When a driver breaches that duty and injures someone on foot, the breach supports a negligence claim. From there O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 takes over, sorting the parties into percentages, docking the pedestrian’s recovery by the pedestrian’s own portion, and cutting it off at 50% or more.

The bottom line

A Georgia driver owes every pedestrian a duty of due care to avoid a collision, to warn when needed, and to take extra caution around children and obviously impaired people. That duty exists alongside right-of-way rules and can place fault on a careless driver even when a pedestrian lacked priority, with comparative fault deciding how any shared blame affects recovery.

This article is for general educational and informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship, and Georgia law may change. For advice about a specific situation, consult a licensed Georgia personal injury attorney.

Related:

  1. What duty does a Georgia property owner owe to a customer or invited guest? A customer or invited guest stands in the most protected position Georgia premises law recognizes. To this class of visitor, called an invitee, the owner owes the highest standard of......
  2. What traffic duties does a Georgia cyclist owe the same as a car driver? A cyclist in Georgia carries essentially the same traffic obligations as a motorist, because the law that grants riders vehicle-like rights also binds them to the rules of the road.......
  3. Do Georgia drivers owe extra care toward children or visibly impaired pedestrians? Yes. Georgia law expects more from a driver who sees a child or an obviously vulnerable person than from one passing an alert adult. The general duty of reasonable care......
  4. What is the 14-hour on-duty window and how does breaking it show driver fault? The 14-hour window is a federal ceiling on how late into a workday a commercial trucker may keep driving. Once a driver starts work, the clock runs continuously, and driving......
  5. What safety duties does a Georgia pool owner owe to swimmers and guests? A pool owner in Georgia must keep the swimming area reasonably safe for the people invited to use it. The exact level of responsibility depends on why the guest is......
  6. What does a Georgia landowner owe to a social guest or licensee on the property? A social guest occupies a middle tier in Georgia premises law and is owed less protection than a paying customer. This visitor, classified as a licensee, is on the property......
  7. What security does a Georgia business owe to customers as invitees? A Georgia business owes its customers ordinary care to keep the premises reasonably safe, and that duty can include protection against foreseeable criminal acts. The level of security required is......
  8. Does a Georgia landlord owe security to a tenant’s visitors A landlord's duty in Georgia can reach beyond its tenants to the people those tenants invite, particularly within the common areas the landlord controls. Whether security is owed to a......
  9. Can I recover if a Georgia apartment balcony failed while several people stood on it? A balcony failure at a Georgia apartment can support a claim against the landlord or property owner when poor maintenance or a hidden defect caused the structure to give way.......
  10. Can several people injured in the same Georgia crash sue together? Multiple people hurt in one Georgia collision can often pursue their claims in a single lawsuit, but doing so is a procedural choice rather than a requirement. Joining together can......
  11. How is one insurance policy divided among many injured people in a Georgia wreck? When several people are hurt in a single Georgia crash but the at-fault driver carries only one liability policy, the available money can fall short of everyone's losses. How that......
  12. Can a Georgia driver cross the center line to give my bike the 3-foot buffer? Yes. On the narrow, two-lane roads where this question usually comes up, crossing the centerline is often the only way to give a cyclist three feet, and Georgia's 2021 update......
  13. What does Georgia’s share-the-road duty require drivers to do around cyclists? Georgia law puts concrete obligations on drivers around cyclists, the most specific being a minimum passing distance. The duty to share the road is not just a slogan on a......
  14. Does a Georgia hospital lien attach to my settlement or to the at-fault party’s duty to pay? Both. A Georgia hospital lien reaches the injured person's claim against the responsible party and the money produced by that claim. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-470, the lien attaches to the......
  15. What is spoliation of evidence and when does the duty to preserve arise in Georgia? Spoliation is the destruction, loss, or material alteration of evidence that a party knew or should have known was relevant to litigation. In Georgia, a duty to preserve such evidence......

Leave a Reply