How Does Distracted Driving Put Pedestrians at Risk Around Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square?

Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square draws heavy foot traffic into a tight downtown grid where drivers are already threading through narrow streets, around parked cars, and across frequent crosswalks. When drivers become distracted, this increases pedestrians’ risk of an accident.

A driver glancing at a phone for even a few seconds has less time to notice someone stepping off a curb, and Public Square concentrates exactly that kind of pedestrian activity into a few compact blocks. Pennsylvania has specific laws addressing both distracted driving and a driver’s duty to pedestrians, and these laws intersect directly in a setting like this.

Understanding how those two laws work together is crucial right after a crash when insurance companies are already deciding who to blame.

How Much Foot Traffic Does Public Square Actually Draw?

Public Square is a two-acre park at the historic center of downtown Wilkes-Barre, and it draws a steady stream of pedestrians well beyond people simply passing through.

The city’s farmers market runs every Thursday from June through mid-November, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., right on the Square, attracting shoppers, vendors, and food trucks to the same blocks drivers are trying to use.

The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts sits about 275 feet from the Square, and its shows send crowds of theatergoers walking to and from parking well after dark, often in the same hours when drivers are less alert. Between a weekly market and a working theater, Public Square has a far greater pedestrian volume than a typical downtown block.

Restaurants and shops ring the Square as well, so pedestrians are constantly crossing between parking areas and storefronts rather than sticking to a single predictable path that a driver can anticipate.

What Does Pennsylvania Law Say About Distracted Driving Near Pedestrians?

Pennsylvania has banned texting while driving since 2012 under 75 Pa.C.S. Section 3316. A newer law, Section 3316.1, took effect June 5, 2025, expanding that ban to nearly all handheld phone use behind the wheel, including while stopped at a red light or in traffic. A violation is a summary offense carrying a $50 fine.

The 2025 expansion, also known as Paul Miller’s Law, closed a real gap. Before it, a driver broke no law by scrolling a phone while stopped at a light on Public Square, waiting for a crosswalk signal to change, even though the same distraction could carry into the next block once traffic moved again.

The fine may sound small, but the legal consequences are not.

Texting while driving is negligence per se under Pennsylvania law, meaning the violation itself establishes that the driver acted negligently. A pedestrian struck by a driver who was texting or holding a phone need not separately prove that the driver was careless in some other way.

Does a Driver Still Have to Yield to Pedestrians at Public Square’s Crosswalks?

Yes. Distracted driving laws do not replace a driver’s separate duty to yield to pedestrians. Under 75 Pa.C.S. Section 3542, a driver must yield to a pedestrian crossing at a marked crosswalk, or at an unmarked crosswalk within an intersection, whenever a signal is not controlling the crossing.

Public Square’s compact block structure means most pedestrian crossings around it qualify as intersection crosswalks, marked or unmarked, so the yield duty applies broadly around the Square. A driver distracted by a phone is often the same driver who fails to see a pedestrian who already has the right of way, which is why these two legal issues tend to appear together in the same crash.

Proving both violations at once, a failure to yield and a phone in hand, tends to leave a defense attorney very little room to argue the driver did everything reasonably possible to exercise care behind the wheel. This combination also removes one of the most common defenses in a pedestrian case, that the person simply appeared out of nowhere.

Who is Liable When a Distracted Driver Strikes a Pedestrian Downtown?

A driver’s phone records are often the most direct evidence in these cases. Cell carrier records and a phone’s own screen-time data can show whether a driver was actively texting, scrolling, or on a call at the moment of impact, and this evidence can be far more objective than a driver’s own account of what happened.

However, this data does not preserve itself indefinitely. A request to the driver’s carrier or a formal subpoena often needs to be sent quickly before records age out of a normal retention window.

Liability does not stop at the driver, either.

Pennsylvania’s modified comparative negligence rule allows a court to weigh a pedestrian’s own conduct, such as crossing well outside a marked area, but a driver’s distraction rarely gets erased by minor pedestrian missteps.

A driver found more than 50% at fault bars the other side’s recovery, but the reverse is also true: a distracted driver found mostly at fault does not get to hide behind a technicality on the pedestrian’s side.

What Should You Do After Being Struck as a Pedestrian Near Public Square?

Request the responding officer’s crash report, and ask early on whether the driver was cited under Pennsylvania’s distracted driving statutes. This is important as this citation becomes part of the official record. Preserve your own phone if you had one on you, since its location data can help establish exactly where and when the crash happened.

On a farmers’ market Thursday, vendors and shoppers nearby are often the best witnesses, since the square is far more crowded than on a typical afternoon. Photograph the specific crosswalk or intersection involved, including any temporary signage or barriers the market itself may have added that day.

See a doctor promptly even if the injury feels minor at first, since the adrenaline of being struck in a public, crowded place can mask real pain for hours. Claims arising from a crash in downtown Wilkes-Barre are filed in the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas at 200 North River Street.

A pedestrian struck by a distracted driver downtown is often left facing an insurance company that focuses on what the pedestrian was doing rather than what the driver wasn’t watching. Reconstructing exactly what a driver was doing on a phone in the seconds before impact is often where these cases are won or lost.

Munley Law has represented pedestrians injured throughout Luzerne County, including downtown Wilkes-Barre, for nearly seven decades, and knows how to pull a driver’s records before they disappear. Contact our Wilkes-Barre pedestrian accident attorneys today to schedule a free consultation.