When you are visiting Las Vegas with friends or family members, the last thing you want to experience is a serious accident or an assault. As such, it is extremely important to understand the area you are in and to take precautions. While accidents can happen anytime another party is negligent, those injuries can prevent you from enjoying your time in Las Vegas and much worse. To be sure, getting hurt because of another person’s careless, reckless, or dangerous behavior can result in your spending a significant amount of time at the hospital, followed by weeks and months of recovery time once you get back home.
We often hear tourists in Las Vegas voicing concerns about the safety of the Strip and Fremont Street, and we want to address some frequently asked questions. If you were injured in an accident or by someone’s negligence on Fremont Street, be sure to consult with an attorney to understand your options: 702-252-0055.
First, if you are thinking about safety on Fremont Street, it is important to have a sense of the area and some of the attractions that bring tourists to this part of the city. Unlike the Strip, Fremont Street is located in downtown Las Vegas. As an article in Thrillist explains, it is “the tourist-driven destination that’s all about classic neon marquees, gift shops,” and other attractions. In more recent years, this historic part of the city of Las Vegas has “become a lot busier and more boisterous,” and it is a popular spot for many visitors to the city.
Fremont Street has restaurants, coffee shops, and stores for daytime visiting, but it is also a popular place to go at night. As such, it is important to think about safety when you are on foot at night in a large and bustling city like Las Vegas, particularly when you are downtown on Fremont Street.
Whether you are on Fremont Street or another major road in Las Vegas, you should know that you are in the largest city in Nevada, and that there is a lot of petty crime as in any urban area. According to an article in Safe Around, the area around the Las Vegas Strip has a relatively large police presence to prevent pickpocketing, assaults, and muggings, but other parts of the city can be less safe. For example, while the article emphasizes that the overall risk of being the victim of a crime is low compared to other cities, there is a medium risk of being pickpocketed and a relatively high risk of being mugged, especially if you are in an area that is less traveled by tourists.
Although Las Vegas is a relatively safe city for women travelers to visit and for solo travelers more generally, it is still important to be aware of your surroundings and to think carefully about your safety. For example, walking at night by yourself is never the best idea if you are able to walk with another person. In some situations, walking alone at night can increase your risk of becoming the victim of a mugging or an assault. According to an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, higher crime rates—including violent crime—have become part of the “new normal” in parts of Las Vegas.
While business owners cannot always prevent a mugging or an assault from taking place, restaurant owners, store owners, and other people in business on Fremont Street do need to think about customer safety. More specifically, they need to have proper lighting that can help to deter crime, and those business owners need to replace broken or burned-out lights in a timely manner. In some cases, if the business owner knows about repeat incidents of crime, that business owner may need to consider other security options. If there is a mugging or an assault, the business owner could be held responsible through a premises liability claim.
Most visitors to Fremont Street are not at serious risk of a crime, but there are other significant risks that can also result in personal injury. For example, you could get hurt in a slip, trip, and fall incident around Fremont Street, or you could sustain injuries in a collision with a motor vehicle.
As we mentioned above, business owners have a duty to ensure that customers are not exposed to unreasonable risks. This means making sure that lights outside are working properly, and it also means cleaning up liquid spills or repairing torn carpeting that could lead to a slip and fall accident. For instance, if you are inside one of the many restaurants on Fremont Street, a spilled drink could result in a dangerous slip and fall accident in which you lose your balance and suffer a sprain, a broken bone, or a traumatic brain injury (TBI). In such a situation, the business owner may be responsible.
In addition to slips and falls, pedestrian accidents are a serious problem on and around Fremont Street. One of the major issues is that pedestrians occasionally think they can walk from the Strip to Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, but the walking distance is probably further than you’d expect. Indeed, according to an article in USA Today, you should not try to walk between the Strip and Fremont Street. You could put yourself at risk of a serious pedestrian accident in which you are struck by a negligent motorist.
What can you do to prevent a pedestrian accident? The USA Today article suggests that, if you need to make your way from the Strip to Fremont Street, use one of the following modes of transportation, especially at night:
If you insist on walking from the Strip to downtown, you should know that you will be walking at least two miles, and as such it is important to wear light-colored or brightly colored clothing to avoid being struck by an oncoming motor vehicle.
If you were injured on Fremont Street, you should discuss your options with a Las Vegas personal injury attorney. The advocates at Ladah Law can speak with you today. Contact us online or by telephone at 702-252-0055.