It is fair to say that motor vehicle crashes involving pedestrians are disproportionately deadly as compared to vehicle on vehicle collisions. This makes perfect sense as human beings weigh a fraction of what vehicles with occupants do. Consequently, Maryland law makes and effort to provide some greater protections for walking humans.
Specifically, Section 21-502 of the Maryland Transportation Article provides that vehicle drivers "shall" come to a stop when a pedestrian is crossing the road in a crosswalk. Makes simple sense. Pedestrians are prohibited from "suddenly" leaving a curb to walk or run into the path of a car which is close that it is "impossible" for the driver to yield.
As you can imagine words such as "impossible" make objective definition of the driver's duty tricky on a case to case basis.
This state law specifically mentions "unmarked crosswalk" as a place where drivers have to yield. as does Section 21-503. So what is an "unmarked crosswalk"?
For that one must turn to Section 21-101 where a crosswalk is defined as :
“Crosswalk” means that part of a roadway that is:
(1) Within the prolongation or connection of the lateral lines of sidewalks at any place where 2 or more roadways of any type meet or join, measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the roadway;
(2) Within the prolongation or connection of the lateral lines of a bicycle way where a bicycle way and a roadway of any type meet or join, measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the roadway; or
(3) Distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings.
Is that better? Thought not. The basic idea is that a crosswalk exists at every intersection whether "distinctly indicated" or not.
