Recently I was in a car with a friend in Southern California. We were stopped at a red light, needing to make a right turn. On our right were two people standin

Recently I was in a car with a friend in Southern California. We were stopped at a red light, needing to make a right turn. On our right were two people standing on the corner. They had activated the crosswalk but were not crossing, instead were focused on their (animated) conversation. Cars were coming from the left. The driver alternated between looking at the pedestrians and looking at the other cars, waiting for the other cars to pass while she also tried to figure out if the pedestrians were going to cross or not. After about 10-12 seconds, the other cars had cleared, and the crosswalk light had switched from the green hand to the red countdown. She started to make the turn, at which point the two pedestrians literally ran into the crosswalk, and in front of her car, with no warning. Apparently they had just noticed the countdown timer and wanted to make it across the intersection without waiting for another cycle. Fortunately she noticed the pedestrians and stopped. The pedestrians continued their run across the intersection, apparently oblivious to the fact that they'd almost been struck Keeping in mind the following: 1. Right turns on red are legal and expected. 2. It is illegal for a pedestrian to enter a crosswalk once the countdown timer starts. 3. Full evaluation of this intersection required visually evaluating an area of 180-200 degrees, but human beings don't have vision that wide, and so it was impossible for the driver to continuously evaluate both the oncoming cars on the left and the pedestrians on the right. 4. Drivers in California are trained to look left while making a right turn. What was the driver supposed to do in this scenario? Should the driver have been at fault if she had struck the pedestrians, and if so, why? I was sitting in the passenger seat, so I could evaluate the intersection and see how my friend was evaluating it as well. As far as I could see, she did nothing to violate either California law or driving custom. On the other hand the pedestrians both entered a crosswalk illegally, and also violated section 21950(b) of the California Vehicle Code (which requires pedestrians to exercise due care for their own safety when entering a roadway). So I don't think that if she had struck them, she would have been at fault. But am I wrong? If so, why?