Pedestrian Accidents in the United States: Facts and Stats
Pedestrian accidents continue to cause serious injuries and deaths across the United States.
These cases often involve a pedestrian hit by a car, truck, SUV, bus, rideshare vehicle, or another motor vehicle while crossing the street, walking in a parking lot, using a crosswalk, or traveling along the side of a road.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, drivers struck and killed an estimated 7,148 pedestrians in 2024.
That was lower than the previous year, but pedestrian deaths remained nearly 20% above 2016 levels.
The CDC also identified 137,325 emergency department visits for pedestrian injury from January 2021 through December 2023, showing that nonfatal pedestrian accident cases remain a major public safety concern.
What Are the Elements of a Pedestrian Accident Lawsuit?
A pedestrian accident lawsuit is usually based on negligence.
To bring a personal injury claim, the injured pedestrian or surviving family must show that another party owed a legal duty, breached that duty, caused the accident, and created compensable damages.
In most pedestrian accident cases, the driver has a duty to operate the vehicle safely, obey traffic laws, watch for pedestrians, yield when required, and avoid conduct that puts others at risk.
A driver may breach that duty by speeding, looking at a phone, ignoring a traffic signal, failing to yield, driving under the influence, or failing to keep a proper lookout.
The basic elements of a pedestrian accident lawsuit include:
- Duty: The driver, company, property owner, government entity, or other party owed the pedestrian a duty of reasonable care.
- Breach: The at fault driver or liable party violated that duty through careless, reckless, or unlawful conduct.
- Causation: The breach caused or contributed to the pedestrian accident, injury, or death.
- Damages: The injured party suffered losses, such as medical bills, lost wages, pain, property damage, disability, or wrongful death damages.
A pedestrian accident attorney can help connect the evidence to each element of the claim.
This may include reviewing the police report, interviewing witnesses, securing video footage, analyzing the crash scene, reviewing medical records, and identifying all available insurance coverage.
In fatal cases, the claim may also require proof of who has legal authority to bring the wrongful death action and which beneficiaries may recover damages under state law.
Common Laws Involved in Pedestrian Accident Lawsuits
Pedestrian accident lawsuits can involve several areas of law.
The exact rules depend on the state where the accident happened, the location of the incident, the conduct of the driver, and whether a public entity or company may be liable.
Traffic laws are often central to a pedestrian accident claim.
These laws may address crosswalk use, right-of-way rules, traffic signals, school zones, speed limits, turning movements, and driver duties near pedestrians.
A driver who hits a pedestrian while turning, speeding, texting, or failing to yield may be held liable if that conduct caused the crash.
Common legal issues in pedestrian accident cases include:
- Negligence: Whether the driver or another party failed to use reasonable care.
- Comparative fault: Whether the insurance company claims the pedestrian shares fault for crossing outside a crosswalk, crossing against a signal, or entering the street unexpectedly.
- Wrongful death: Whether surviving family members may bring a claim after a fatal pedestrian accident.
- Insurance law: Whether the driver’s insurance coverage, uninsured motorist coverage, underinsured motorist coverage, or commercial policy applies.
- Government liability: Whether unsafe road design, poor lighting, broken signals, missing signage, or inadequate pedestrian infrastructure contributed to the accident.
- Statutes of limitations: Whether the claim is filed before the legal deadline.
- Public entity notice deadlines: Whether special notice rules apply when a city, county, state, or transportation agency may be responsible.
A personal injury attorney can evaluate these laws and explain the injured pedestrian’s legal rights.
Some states follow pure comparative fault, some use modified comparative fault, and a few still apply more restrictive fault rules.
Those differences can materially affect whether an injured pedestrian may recover damages.
This matters because insurance companies may use traffic law arguments to reduce compensation, deny liability, or pressure clients into a lower settlement.
Common Causes of Pedestrian Accidents
Pedestrian accidents often happen because a driver fails to see, yield to, or safely respond to a person walking near traffic.
These crashes may occur in crosswalks, intersections, parking lots, school zones, residential streets, highways, construction areas, or commercial driveways.
Speed is one of the most important factors in pedestrian injury severity.
IIHS research found that pedestrians struck at 20 mph had a 46% chance of at least moderate injury and a 1% risk of death, while those struck at 35 mph had an 86% chance of moderate injury, a 67% chance of serious injury, and a 19% risk of death.
At 50 mph, the fatality risk exceeded 80%.
Common causes of pedestrian accidents include:
- Failure to yield: A driver hits a pedestrian in a crosswalk, school zone, parking lot, or intersection.
- Distracted driving: A driver looks at a phone, navigation system, app, or in-vehicle screen instead of the street.
- Speeding: A driver travels too fast to stop in time or avoid a severe impact.
- Unsafe turns: A driver turns left or right while focused on other cars instead of pedestrians crossing the street.
- Impaired driving: A driver operates a vehicle while affected by alcohol, drugs, or medication.
- Running a red light or stop sign: A driver enters an intersection when a pedestrian has the right of way.
- Backing collisions: A driver reverses in a driveway, parking lot, or loading area without checking for pedestrians.
- Poor visibility: Darkness, rain, fog, obstructed sightlines, or inadequate lighting makes a pedestrian harder to see.
- Dangerous road design: Missing sidewalks, long crossings, poor lighting, inadequate signage, or unsafe crosswalk placement increases risk.
Federal safety guidance recognizes that poor lighting, parked cars, roadway curves, and other obstructions can reduce crosswalk visibility.
FHWA also states that on multilane roadways with traffic volumes above 10,000 vehicles per day, a marked crosswalk alone is typically not sufficient.
Common Pedestrian Accident Injuries
Pedestrian accident injuries are often severe because the pedestrian has no seatbelt, airbag, vehicle frame, or other protection from impact.
A pedestrian may be injured by the initial vehicle strike, the hood or windshield, the pavement, a secondary vehicle, or a run-over incident.
Some clients suffer injuries that resolve with treatment.
Others face catastrophic injuries that affect work, mobility, independence, and daily life.
A serious injury may require emergency care, surgery, rehabilitation, long-term medication, assistive devices, or home modifications.
Common injuries in pedestrian accident cases include:
- Traumatic brain injury: A traumatic brain injury may involve concussion, brain bleeding, skull fracture, cognitive problems, memory loss, personality changes, or permanent impairment.
- Brain injury and head trauma: A pedestrian hit by a car may strike the windshield, hood, ground, curb, or another vehicle, causing life-threatening head injuries.
- Spinal cord injuries: Spinal cord trauma may cause paralysis, weakness, loss of sensation, chronic pain, or permanent mobility limitations.
- Broken bones: Pedestrians commonly suffer broken bones in the legs, hips, pelvis, arms, ribs, face, ankles, or feet.
- Internal injuries: The impact may cause internal bleeding, organ damage, lung injury, abdominal trauma, or emergency surgical needs.
- Crush injuries: A pedestrian may suffer tissue damage, vascular injury, nerve damage, infection, or amputation risk if run over or pinned.
- Facial injuries and scarring: Facial fractures, dental injuries, eye trauma, road rash, burns, and disfigurement may require reconstructive care.
- Psychological trauma: Anxiety, depression, PTSD, sleep disruption, and fear of crossing the street may follow a serious pedestrian accident.
These injuries can have a devastating impact on a client’s life.
Medical expenses may begin with an ambulance ride and emergency treatment, then continue through hospitalization, surgery, therapy, follow-up appointments, and future care.
A pedestrian accident lawyer can help document these losses and seek compensation from the liable party or insurance company.
Who Can Be Held Liable in a Pedestrian Accident Lawsuit?
Liability in a pedestrian accident lawsuit depends on who caused or contributed to the crash.
In many cases, the defendant driver is the primary at fault party.
In other cases, multiple individuals, companies, or public entities may share liability.
Potentially liable parties may include:
- A negligent driver: A driver may be liable for speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving, failing to yield, running a red light, or violating traffic laws.
- A vehicle owner: An owner may be liable if they allowed an unsafe, unlicensed, impaired, or reckless driver to use the car.
- An employer: A company may be responsible if an employee caused the accident while working.
- A commercial vehicle company: Delivery companies, trucking companies, bus operators, and service fleets may be liable in pedestrian accident cases involving work vehicles.
- A rideshare or delivery driver: Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Amazon, Instacart, or other app-based driving may raise insurance coverage questions.
- A public entity: A city, county, state, or transportation agency may be involved if unsafe road design, broken signals, missing signs, poor lighting, or inadequate crosswalks contributed to the incident.
- A construction contractor: A contractor may be liable if a work zone forces pedestrians into traffic or fails to provide a safe crossing route.
- A vehicle manufacturer or technology company: A product claim may be possible if defective brakes, headlights, backup cameras, automated systems, or other vehicle technology contributed to the crash.
A law firm handling pedestrian accident cases must investigate beyond the obvious driver.
Identifying every liable party can affect the available insurance coverage, policy limits, settlement amount, and ability to maximize compensation.
The Legal Process in a Pedestrian Accident Lawsuit
The legal process begins with understanding what happened, who may be at fault, and how the pedestrian’s injuries or death changed the client’s life.
Some pedestrian accident settlements occur through insurance negotiations.
Other cases require aggressive litigation when the insurance company denies fault, disputes the injury, or refuses to pay fair compensation.
The general process may include:
- Free consultation: A pedestrian accident attorney reviews the incident, injuries, police report, and available evidence.
- Investigation: The attorney gathers crash evidence, identifies witnesses, obtains video footage, reviews traffic laws, and evaluates fault.
- Medical review: The legal team collects medical records, medical bills, expert opinions, and documentation of future medical needs.
- Insurance claim: The attorney contacts the insurance company, identifies coverage, and protects the injured party from unfair claims tactics.
- Demand letter: The attorney may send a demand package that explains liability, damages, medical expenses, lost wages, pain, and other losses.
- Settlement negotiations: The parties may negotiate a settlement before a lawsuit is filed or while litigation is pending.
- Filing a lawsuit: If the insurer refuses fair payment, the attorney may file a personal injury lawsuit or wrongful death lawsuit.
- Discovery: Both sides exchange evidence, answer written questions, produce documents, and take depositions.
- Mediation or trial: The case may resolve through mediation, settlement, or trial.
The process can feel overwhelming for an injured pedestrian or grieving family.
A personal injury lawyer can manage communications, protect legal rights, and push the case forward while the client focuses on medical attention, recovery, and family needs.
Evidence in Pedestrian Accident Lawsuits
Evidence is critical in a pedestrian accident claim because insurance companies often dispute fault.
They may argue that the pedestrian crossed too early, crossed too late, entered the street outside a crosswalk, ignored a signal, wore dark clothing, or contributed to the accident.
Important evidence may include:
- Police report and crash diagram
- 911 calls and dispatch records
- Body camera or dash camera footage
- Surveillance footage from homes, businesses, buses, or traffic cameras
- Witness statements
- Photos of the car, street, crosswalk, traffic signal, lighting, skid marks, debris, and property damage
- Vehicle damage and event data recorder information
- Cell phone records if distracted driving is suspected
- Toxicology results if impairment is suspected
- Medical records, imaging, surgery notes, and discharge instructions
- Autopsy report in fatal pedestrian accident cases
- Clothing, shoes, glasses, phone, backpack, stroller, walker, wheelchair, or other damaged items
- Traffic signal timing, roadway design records, maintenance logs, or prior incident history
- Expert opinions from accident reconstructionists, medical specialists, traffic engineers, economists, or life care planners
Evidence should be preserved quickly.
Video may be overwritten, vehicles may be repaired, roadway conditions may change, and witnesses may become harder to find.
A pedestrian accident lawyer can send preservation letters and take steps to protect the claim before important evidence is lost.
Damages in Pedestrian Accident Lawsuits
Damages are the losses caused by the accident.
In pedestrian accident cases, damages may be substantial because severe injuries can affect health, income, mobility, independence, and family life.
Compensation may include economic damages, non economic damages, and, in limited cases, punitive damages.
Potential damages may include:
- Emergency medical care
- Ambulance bills
- Hospitalization
- Surgery
- Specialist treatment
- Rehabilitation and physical therapy
- Future medical expenses
- Medication and medical equipment
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Disability
- Disfigurement
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of independence
- Property damage
- Funeral and burial costs in fatal cases
- Loss of financial support after wrongful death
- Loss of companionship, guidance, or consortium where allowed by law
Punitive damages may be available in some states when the defendant driver acted with extreme recklessness, such as drunk driving, excessive speeding, or a hit-and-run.
These damages are not available in every case and depend on state law.
The settlement amount in a pedestrian accident lawsuit depends on the facts.
Serious injury, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, broken bones, permanent disability, death, clear driver negligence, commercial vehicle involvement, and higher policy limits may all affect valuation.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome in any future case.
What to Do After a Pedestrian Accident
The steps taken after a pedestrian accident can affect medical recovery and the strength of a legal claim.
The injured pedestrian should seek medical attention immediately, even if the injury seems minor at first.
Some brain injury, internal injury, spinal cord, and soft tissue symptoms may worsen after the initial shock of the incident.
After a pedestrian accident, steps to take include:
- Call 911 and wait for police and emergency medical responders.
- Get medical attention and follow all treatment instructions.
- Ask for the police report number.
- Get the driver’s name, insurance information, license plate number, and vehicle details.
- Take photos of the street, crosswalk, traffic lights, vehicle, injuries, clothing, shoes, and property damage.
- Identify witnesses and save their contact information.
- Preserve damaged personal items, including phones, glasses, bags, strollers, mobility devices, and clothing.
- Avoid giving a recorded statement to the insurance company before speaking with an attorney.
- Do not accept an early settlement before the full injury picture is known.
- Contact a pedestrian accident attorney if you suffered serious injuries or if a loved one died.
If the injured person is a child, such as a high school student hit while crossing near school, additional issues may arise.
These cases may involve school zone traffic laws, bus stop safety, crossing guards, negligent drivers, municipal road design, and long-term damages that affect education, development, and future earning capacity.
Do You Qualify For a Pedestrian Accident Lawsuit?
You may qualify for a pedestrian accident lawsuit if you were hit by a car or other vehicle and another party’s negligence caused your injuries.
A surviving family may also qualify if a loved one died after a pedestrian accident caused by driver negligence, unsafe road conditions, or another liable party.
You may have a claim if:
- You were a pedestrian hit by a car, truck, SUV, bus, rideshare vehicle, or commercial vehicle.
- The driver was speeding, distracted, impaired, or violating traffic laws.
- You were crossing the street, walking in a parking lot, using a sidewalk, or traveling through another pedestrian area.
- You suffered a serious injury, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, broken bones, internal injury, or other harm.
- You needed medical attention, missed work, or received medical bills after the accident.
- A loved one died after being struck by a motor vehicle.
- The insurance company is disputing fault, delaying payment, or offering a low settlement.
- Unsafe road design, poor lighting, broken signals, or inadequate crosswalks may have contributed to the incident.
A personal injury attorney can review the facts and explain whether you may have a pedestrian accident claim.
Liability, compensation, and deadlines depend on the state where the accident happened and the evidence available.
A pedestrian accident lawsuit may involve an injured pedestrian seeking compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, pain, disability, and other losses.
When a person has suffered fatal injuries, surviving family members may be able to bring a wrongful death claim.
These cases can become disputed when an insurance company challenges fault, questions the severity of the injury, or argues that available insurance limits restrict recovery.
Common factors that may affect a pedestrian accident claim include:
- Whether the pedestrian was in a crosswalk or lawfully crossing the street
- Whether the driver had a green light, stop sign, yield sign, or other traffic control
- Whether distracted driving, speeding, intoxication, or driver negligence caused the accident
- Whether the pedestrian suffered severe injuries, catastrophic injuries, or death
- Whether the police report identifies fault or traffic law violations
- Whether the defendant driver was working for a company at the time of the incident
- Whether multiple parties share liability
- Whether insurance coverage and policy limits are enough to pay the full value of the claim
TorHoerman Law: Speak With Our Pedestrian Accident Attorneys Today
If you or a loved one was injured in a pedestrian accident, TorHoerman Law can review your case and explain your legal rights.
Our pedestrian accident attorneys handle personal injury cases involving severe injuries, catastrophic injuries, fatal crashes, disputed liability, and insurance company resistance.
A pedestrian accident can change a person’s life in seconds.
Medical bills can pile up, lost wages can create financial pressure, and the insurance company may try to limit what it has to pay.
Our law firm can investigate the accident, identify the at fault driver or other liable parties, evaluate insurance coverage, and seek compensation for the full impact of the injury.
Contact TorHoerman Law for a free consultation.
You can also use the chatbot on this page for a case evaluation.
