I think generally the party who causes the accident is liable for damages in the accident, regardless of who gets a ticket for what they were doing at the time.

I think generally the party who causes the accident is liable for damages in the accident, regardless of who gets a ticket for what they were doing at the time. Though in some states, the driver always pays for the pedestrian's bodily injury. So you need to swerve into anything else you can find (tree, ditch, etc.) to avoid that darting pedestrian.