Pedestrian Car Accident Attorneys | Free Consultations

A pedestrian hit by a car absorbs the force of the vehicle with nothing between them and the metal. The injuries are usually serious, the bills start immediately, and recovery takes time you did not plan for.

The driver's insurer starts working on its version of the crash the same day it happens.

The adjuster's first move in a pedestrian claim is to put a share of the blame on you, because every percentage point assigned to you comes out of your recovery.

You do not have to accept their version. The pedestrian accident lawyers at Lawsuit Legal build these cases on the evidence: the camera footage, the scene, the driver's phone records, and the medicine.

Our attorneys are trial-tested, with a history of winning substantial settlements in serious injury cases.

We handle pedestrian cases on contingency, so hiring us costs nothing up front and nothing at all unless we win.

Call (888) 713-6653 now for a free case review, 24 hours a day, or fill out the form to get started.

In most cases, the at-fault driver's liability insurance pays for a pedestrian's injuries. The claim starts with a demand to that insurer, and if a fair settlement cannot be reached, it becomes a lawsuit where a judge or jury decides liability and the amount.

Pedestrians injured by a negligent driver may recover compensation for:

Medical expenses: Emergency care, hospital stays, surgery, rehabilitation, and the future treatment your doctors project.

Lost wages: Past and future income the injuries cost you, including diminished earning capacity if you cannot return to your old work.

Pain and suffering: Non-economic damages for the physical pain and the mental and emotional toll of the trauma.

Disability or disfigurement: Compensation for permanent impairment, scarring, or debilitating harm the crash left behind.

Severity and permanence drive the numbers. In our experience, the extreme-injury cases, and the ones where the harm is permanent, produce the higher settlements, which is exactly why insurers fight them hardest.

Our legal team reviews thousands of pedestrian car accident injury claims every year. The most common:

Crosswalk Accidents: Pedestrians struck while legally crossing at a designated crosswalk, usually by a turning or distracted driver who failed to yield.

Intersection Accidents: Drivers focused on oncoming traffic while turning routinely miss the person in the crossing.

Hit-and-Run Accidents: Drivers flee most often when the harm is serious. Identifying the driver, and using your own uninsured motorist coverage when nobody can, takes fast investigative work.

Parking Lot Accidents: Drivers backing out or hunting for a space hit walkers they never checked for.

Bus and Transit Accidents: People struck while boarding, exiting, or crossing near stops, by large vehicles with large blind spots.

Backing-Up Accidents: A driver reversing out of a driveway or parking spot strikes the person behind the vehicle, most often in neighborhoods and lots.

Vehicle Off-Road Accidents: A car leaves the roadway and hits someone on a sidewalk, in a yard, or in another place vehicles were never supposed to be.

Roadside and Highway Strikes: People walking on or near high-speed roads suffer the most extreme and most often fatal injuries.

If you or a loved one suffered serious or fatal injuries in any of these situations, our award-winning personal injury lawyers can help you pursue the accountability and compensation you deserve.

A vehicle strike hits an unprotected body twice: the impact with the car, then the impact with the pavement. NHTSA counted 7,522 pedestrian deaths in 2022, the most in over four decades, alongside an estimated 67,000 pedestrians injured in traffic crashes that same year.^[1]

The injuries that drive these claims typically require extensive treatment and can permanently change a victim's life:

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): Caused by the initial strike or the secondary impact with the concrete. Brain injuries can mean long-term cognitive impairment, memory loss, and lifelong care, and a developing brain bleed can be fatal.

Back and Spinal Injuries: The force of a vehicle strike can fracture vertebrae, rupture discs, and damage the spinal cord itself, causing anything from chronic pain to partial or full paralysis.

Amputations: Crushing trauma can force surgical amputation, with permanent effects on mobility, work, and daily life.

Internal Organ Damage: Impact forces can rupture the liver, kidneys, or lungs, requiring emergency surgery for internal bleeding.

Bone Fractures: Multiple breaks, including compound fractures, that bring surgery, hardware, and months of rehabilitation.

Crushing Injuries: When a person is pinned between a vehicle and another object, the soft tissue and nerve damage can be extensive and permanent.

Whatever the injury, get examined early and follow the treatment plan. The medical record is the backbone of the claim, and gaps in care become the insurer's argument that you recovered.

Sometimes, partially. But the starting point in most of these cases is the driver's duty of care: motorists must follow the rules of the road, keep a lookout, and maintain control of the vehicle at all times. Driver negligence is the most common cause of pedestrian crash injuries.

Common examples of driver negligence in pedestrian cases:

• Failure to yield
• Running a red light or ignoring traffic signs
• Speeding, or failing to slow for weather and traffic conditions
• Distracted driving (texting, phone calls, eating)
• Losing control of the vehicle

Expect the driver's insurer to fight back by assigning blame to you. Jaywalking, crossing against a signal, walking while intoxicated or distracted by a phone, or entering a prohibited area can all be framed as pedestrian negligence.

How much that matters depends on your state's fault doctrine. In most states, comparative negligence reduces your recovery by your percentage of blame: a victim found 20% at fault collects 80% of their damages. A few contributory negligence states can bar recovery entirely for even a small share of fault, which is why the percentage fight is worth real money in every pedestrian case.

Third parties can share liability too. Poor lighting, faded crosswalk paint, faulty signals, crossing timers set too short, and badly designed intersections can put a city or state on the hook alongside the driver. Claims against government entities carry their own short notice deadlines, covered below.

To learn more about how negligence is proven, read our negligent actions guide.

There is no honest average, because a broken wrist and a spinal cord injury are not the same case.

The factors that set the number are consistent: the severity and permanence of your injuries, the medical care still ahead of you, the income the crash has cost and will cost, how cleanly the driver's fault can be proven, and how much insurance exists to collect from. Fault percentage matters more here than in most claims, because the blame the insurer pins on you discounts everything else.

Serious pedestrian cases can also reach beyond the driver's policy: your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, a commercial policy if the driver was working, or a municipal defendant when road conditions contributed.

For real numbers and worked examples, see our guide to pedestrian accident settlement amounts. For your own case, the free consultation is the honest answer: a valuation built on your records, not a chart.

Every state sets a statute of limitations, most commonly two years from the date of the crash, with the full range running one to six years.

Two shorter clocks hide inside that one. If a government vehicle hit you, or a dangerous road condition contributed, claims against the city or state can require formal notice within a few months. And the evidence expires fastest of all: surveillance and doorbell footage that captured the strike gets overwritten in days to weeks, and it is often the single best proof of what the driver did.

Miss the statute and the claim is gone regardless of how strong it was. Talk to a lawyer early enough that the deadline is never the issue.

Two related situations get handled differently. A bicyclist hit by a car is treated much like a pedestrian in most states for liability purposes, and injured riders are usually entitled to recover from the at-fault driver the same way (see also our motorcycle accident lawsuit information for motorized two-wheel crashes).

An injury on someone's property with no vehicle involved, a fall on a wet floor or a broken surface, is a premises liability claim against the property owner rather than a driver. Our slip and fall lawyers handle those cases.

If you are able, these steps in the hours and days after the strike protect both your health and your claim:

• Call the police and get medical care. Seek a diagnosis even if the injury seems minor. Symptoms that surface days later get blamed on something else without an early record.
• Identify the driver. Photograph their license and insurance card, and confirm their phone number before they leave.
• Identify witnesses. Names and contact information, before they scatter.
• Get the police report. It anchors the official version of events.
• Keep every medical record and bill. The paper trail is the claim.
• Contact a personal injury attorney. Before you give any statement.

Do not give a recorded statement to an insurance adjuster until you have spoken with your lawyer. Innocent-sounding answers get used to shrink claims once real money is at stake.