A driver hit you while you were crossing the street in a marked crosswalk. You suffered serious injuries, spent days in the hospital, and now face months of recovery. The legal process ahead looks different from typical car accident cases in ways that might surprise you.
Our friends at Blaszkow Legal, PLLC discuss how these accidents create unique legal and practical challenges not present in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions. As a pedestrian accident lawyer will tell you, pedestrian cases involve different liability rules, typically cause more severe injuries, and require specialized approaches to maximize compensation.
Pedestrians Almost Always Suffer Worse Injuries
The physics are simple and brutal. A 4,000-pound vehicle striking an unprotected human body causes catastrophic damage. While fender-benders between cars might produce whiplash and bruises, pedestrian accidents routinely result in traumatic brain injuries, multiple fractures, spinal cord damage, internal organ injuries, and wrongful death.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pedestrian fatalities have increased in recent years, with thousands of deaths occurring annually. The severity differential between pedestrian and vehicle occupant injuries dramatically affects case values and settlement negotiations.
Insurance companies understand that juries sympathize heavily with injured pedestrians. A person simply walking across the street evokes more sympathy than drivers involved in vehicle collisions where both parties had some level of protection.
Different Liability Standards Apply
Many jurisdictions apply heightened duty-of-care standards to drivers when pedestrians are involved. Crosswalk laws typically give pedestrians the right of way, placing the burden on drivers to yield. This creates favorable liability presumptions for pedestrian plaintiffs.
However, pedestrians aren’t automatically blameless. If you were jaywalking, crossing against a signal, or darting into traffic unexpectedly, you might share fault for the accident. Comparative negligence rules still apply, potentially reducing your recovery based on your percentage of fault.
The key difference is the starting point. In vehicle-to-vehicle accidents, liability often gets disputed extensively. In pedestrian cases, there’s usually a strong presumption favoring the pedestrian that the driver must overcome with compelling evidence.
No Property Damage Complicates Things
Vehicle accident cases have property damage claims that resolve quickly and establish baseline values. Your totaled car provides objective evidence of impact severity. Repair estimates create undisputed damages that anchor settlement negotiations.
Pedestrian accidents lack this component entirely. There’s no damaged vehicle to photograph, no repair estimates to review, and no property damage settlement to use as a negotiating foundation. The case focuses entirely on bodily injuries from the start.
This absence can actually benefit pedestrians by keeping the focus on injury severity rather than vehicle damage. Insurance adjusters can’t minimize the accident’s seriousness by pointing to minor vehicle damage.
Medical Bills Tend To Be Substantially Higher
The severity of pedestrian injuries translates directly to higher medical costs. Emergency room treatment, hospitalization, surgeries, extended rehabilitation, and ongoing care create six-figure medical bills in many pedestrian cases.
These higher medical costs increase case values proportionally, but they also create larger liens and reimbursement obligations. Health insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, and hospitals all may claim reimbursement from your settlement, reducing what you ultimately receive.
The upside is that substantial medical documentation exists proving your injury severity. The downside is managing multiple competing claims against your settlement proceeds.
Witness Evidence Plays A Bigger Role
Pedestrian accidents often occur in public areas with multiple witnesses. Intersections, crosswalks, parking lots, and sidewalks typically have people nearby who observe the collision. These witnesses provide testimony about who had the right of way, traffic signal status, and driver behavior.
Video evidence from traffic cameras, business security systems, and dash cams frequently captures pedestrian accidents. This footage can definitively establish liability in ways that benefit pedestrian plaintiffs far more often than defendants.
We prioritize identifying and preserving witness testimony and video evidence immediately after pedestrian accidents because this evidence degrades quickly as memories fade and video systems overwrite old footage.
Your Own Insurance Might Not Apply
In vehicle accidents, your auto insurance policy provides several potential sources of recovery including uninsured motorist coverage, underinsured motorist coverage, and medical payments coverage. As a pedestrian, accessing these benefits depends on whether you own a vehicle and the specific terms of your policy.
Some auto insurance policies extend coverage to the policyholder even when they’re a pedestrian. Others exclude pedestrian accidents entirely. This creates uncertainty about available insurance coverage beyond the at-fault driver’s policy.
If you don’t own a vehicle, you likely have no insurance coverage of your own to fall back on if the driver is uninsured or underinsured. This makes investigating the at-fault driver’s insurance coverage absolutely vital before accepting any settlement.
Location Of Impact Matters More
Where the accident occurred significantly affects liability in pedestrian cases. Crosswalks create strong presumptions of pedestrian right-of-way. Sidewalks give pedestrians almost absolute protection, making drivers who mount curbs or lose control clearly liable.
Mid-block crossings in unmarked areas create more contested liability. Parking lots have ambiguous rules about whether pedestrians or vehicles have priority. Highway or freeway accidents involving pedestrians face questions about why the pedestrian was in such a dangerous location.
The specific location details often determine whether you have a strong liability case or face serious comparative negligence challenges. Document exactly where the accident occurred using photographs, measurements, and witness descriptions.
Reconstruction Evidence Is More Complex
Accident reconstruction in pedestrian cases involves different calculations than vehicle collisions. Experts analyze throw distance, injury patterns, vehicle speeds, and pedestrian positioning to recreate what happened.
The pedestrian’s lack of protection means injury severity helps establish vehicle speed and impact force. A traumatic brain injury from striking pavement suggests the pedestrian was thrown with significant force, indicating the vehicle traveled at a certain minimum speed.
These reconstruction analyses often become battles between competing professionals, with each side’s investigator reaching different conclusions. Strong pedestrian cases include early involvement of reconstruction specialists who can preserve evidence and document the scene before it changes.
Pedestrian Contributory Actions Get Scrutinized
Defense attorneys examine everything you did before the collision looking for contributory negligence arguments:
- Were you using a crosswalk or jaywalking?
- Did you have the walk signal or were you crossing against the light?
- Were you looking at your phone or paying attention to traffic?
- Were you intoxicated or impaired?
- Were you wearing dark clothing at night without reflective materials?
- Did you step into traffic suddenly or give drivers time to react?
These factors don’t necessarily eliminate your claim, but they reduce its value under comparative negligence principles. Expect detailed questions about your actions immediately before the accident and be prepared to explain your behavior honestly.
Settlement Timing Often Differs
Vehicle accident cases sometimes settle quickly when liability is clear and injuries are minor. Pedestrian cases rarely settle fast because the injuries are typically too severe to evaluate fully for months.
You might spend weeks hospitalized, undergo multiple surgeries, and face extended rehabilitation before doctors can assess whether you’ve reached maximum medical improvement. Settling before understanding your long-term prognosis risks leaving substantial compensation on the table.
Insurance companies know pedestrian injury severity often justifies large verdicts, so they’re more likely to make substantial settlement offers. However, they also know pedestrians often face financial pressure from mounting medical bills and lost wages, creating incentive to settle early for less than full value.
Multiple Defendants Might Be Involved
Beyond the driver who hit you, other parties might share liability. The municipality could be liable for dangerous intersection design, inadequate signage, or poorly maintained crosswalks. Property owners might be responsible if overgrown vegetation obscured drivers’ views of pedestrians.
Vehicle owners who aren’t the driver can be liable if they negligently entrusted their vehicle to someone they knew was a dangerous driver. Employers might be liable if the driver was working at the time of the accident.
Identifying all potentially liable parties increases available insurance coverage and improves your chances of full recovery, particularly when the driver carries minimal insurance.
If you’ve been injured as a pedestrian and are unsure how your case differs from typical vehicle accidents or what unique challenges you face, reach out to discuss the specific liability rules, insurance issues, and legal strategies that apply to pedestrian injury claims and how to maximize your recovery despite the distinct complications these cases present.