A bystander injury occurs when someone who is not directly involved in an accident gets physically hurt as a result of the incident, such as being struck by debris, getting hit by a vehicle that loses control after an initial collision, or being injured while trying to help accident victims. Unlike participants in the original accident, bystanders are typically innocent third parties who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when an accident occurred or expanded beyond its initial scope. Common examples include pedestrians being hit by cars that crash into sidewalks, people being struck by flying debris from construction accidents, or Good Samaritans getting injured while attempting to rescue others from accident scenes.
In personal injury cases, bystanders who are injured can typically sue the party whose negligence caused the original accident, since that person's actions set in motion the chain of events that led to the bystander's harm. The legal concept of foreseeability often applies, meaning that if it was reasonably predictable that the defendant's negligent actions could injure people beyond the immediate accident victims, they can be held liable for those additional injuries. However, bystander injury cases can be complicated when multiple parties are involved or when the bystander's own actions contributed to their injuries, such as entering a dangerous accident scene despite warnings, and these cases may involve issues of comparative fault depending on whether the bystander exercised reasonable care for their own safety.
