Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
Quick questions
What decides your pedestrian claim
We represent people struck by a vehicle while on foot in Los Angeles County, and the family reading from a waiting room. The claim turns on what the driver owed you, what your crossing costs you, who pays, and every deadline. A fall with no vehicle involved is a premises liability claim.
Five terms decide most of these files. A crosswalk is defined by Vehicle Code section 275 as the part of the roadway between the extended sidewalk lines at an intersection where the roadways meet at approximately right angles, or any part of a roadway distinctly marked for crossing. The first half is the unmarked crosswalk. Right-of-way is the entitlement to go first, and due care is the attention a reasonable person would use.
Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care, and Civil Code section 1714 makes a person responsible for harm caused by a want of ordinary care. Comparative fault divides responsibility by percentage, so a pedestrian found 30 percent responsible recovers 70 percent.
Your first 48 hours after the crash
Pedestrian cases are decided by evidence that disappears on its own. Cameras overwrite in days, the vehicle goes to a body shop inside a month, and the driver's account gets smoother every time it is told. A family member can do the following this week.
- Get the report number. Every LAPD collision report carries a DR number (the report number), and the insurance adjuster asks for it within days. Our post on getting your LAPD traffic collision report covers who may have a copy.
- Photograph the sight lines at the same hour of day. A crossing that looks obvious at noon is invisible at 7 p.m. in November, and the lighting argument is decided by photographs nobody took.
- Ask for the trauma record, not the discharge summary. The trauma flow sheet has the imaging, the mechanism and the first neurological findings. The discharge summary is a paragraph.
- Give the other insurer no recorded statement. There is no duty to give one to the driver's insurer, and it is taken while you are on pain medication.
- Find out whether any vehicle involved is public. A Metro bus, city truck, school van or Caltrans vehicle starts a six month deadline that day.
Your rights in a crosswalk
Vehicle Code section 21950(a) requires a driver to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing within any marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. Subdivision (c) adds a duty that does not depend on the right-of-way: a driver approaching a pedestrian in any crosswalk shall exercise all due care and shall reduce speed or take other action necessary to safeguard that pedestrian. Subdivision (d) says a pedestrian's own lapse does not relieve the driver of it.
One neighboring section decides many crosswalk cases. Section 21951 says that when a vehicle has stopped at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross, the driver approaching from behind shall not overtake and pass it. That is the second lane collision, and the prohibition carries no reasonableness qualifier, so the driver cannot argue the pass looked safe. A Los Angeles jury reads all of it in CACI No. 710.
| Section | What it requires | Effect on the claim |
|---|---|---|
| Veh. Code 21950(a) | Driver yields in any marked or unmarked crosswalk | The clearest liability in this practice area |
| Veh. Code 21951 | No passing a vehicle stopped at a crosswalk | Answers the second lane defense |
| Veh. Code 21954(b) | Pedestrian's duty to yield does not relieve the driver of due care | Keeps a mid block claim alive |
| Veh. Code 21952 | Driver must yield before driving over a sidewalk | Governs driveway and parking exits |
The turning movements are their own subject: the permissive green left turn, made on a plain green light with no arrow, the right turn on red under section 21453(b), and the signal phase that ran out while you were still in the road. Our crosswalk accidents page covers those, and our post on California pedestrian right of way law reads the statute itself.
If you were not in a crosswalk
This is the question people call about most. Section 21954(a) does require a pedestrian outside a crosswalk to yield to vehicles so near as to constitute an immediate hazard. Then subdivision (b) says the section shall not relieve the driver from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway. Both duties exist at once, and only one party was operating a vehicle.
The enforcement rule changed on January 1, 2023. Section 21955(a) still tells pedestrians to cross in a crosswalk between adjacent signalized intersections, but subdivision (b)(1), added by Assembly Bill 2147, says a peace officer shall not stop a pedestrian for that violation unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of a collision. The same limit now sits in sections 21950(e) and 21456(b). None of it changes the civil standard, and the policy declared in section 21949 is that safe pedestrian travel, by foot, wheelchair, walker or stroller, be provided to the residents of this state.
What crossing mid block does is set up an argument about percentages. The jury hears CACI No. 405 on comparative fault and CACI No. 406 on apportionment, dividing fault among everyone involved, and Civil Code section 1431.2 makes each defendant liable for non-economic damages in proportion to its own fault. An insurer that opens at ten cents on the dollar has stated a position, not a finding.
UC Berkeley's Safe Transportation Research and Education Center reports pedestrian violation as the most common primary crash factor in California pedestrian fatal and serious injury crashes in 2023, at 48.6 percent. The same page carries a caution: that code does not indicate which party is at fault. A primary collision factor is an officer's field entry, not a court ruling.
How often Los Angeles pedestrians are hit
- 273Pedestrian deaths, Los Angeles County, 2023UC Berkeley SafeTREC
- 959Pedestrian serious injuries, Los Angeles County, 2023UC Berkeley SafeTREC
- 170Pedestrian deaths, City of Los Angeles, 2024Crosstown, LAPD Traffic Division
- 27%Share of California traffic deaths who were pedestrians, 2023UC Berkeley SafeTREC
Los Angeles County led California on both pedestrian counts in 2023: 273 deaths and 959 serious injuries, first in the state on each, per SafeTREC's 2025 traffic safety facts on pedestrian safety. The same report puts 1,106 pedestrian deaths statewide, 27 percent of all California motor vehicle deaths against 18 percent nationally, with 92 percent of the fatal crashes in urban areas and 51 percent between 6 p.m. and midnight.
| Figure | Number | Year | Geography | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestrian deaths | 273 | 2023 | LA County | SafeTREC |
| Pedestrian serious injuries | 959 | 2023 | LA County | SafeTREC |
| Pedestrian deaths | 1,106 | 2023 | California | SafeTREC |
| Pedestrian deaths | 170 | 2024 | City of LA | Crosstown |
| Pedestrian deaths | 7,080 | 2024 | United States | IIHS |
Two rows need explanation, the City of LA row and the national row. Crosstown, using Los Angeles Police Department Traffic Division data, reported 170 pedestrian deaths in the City of Los Angeles in 2024 against 88 in 2015, inside 302 traffic deaths and 1,522 severe injuries, in its report that traffic deaths exceeded the murder total for a second consecutive year. The national row is IIHS Fatality Facts 2024: 7,080 deaths, 84 percent urban, 73 percent between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
How most pedestrians get hit
Five patterns account for most of these cases, and each has a statute behind it. Naming the section early puts the file on a rule the insurance company's lawyers already know.
- The permissive green left turn. The driver watches for a gap in oncoming traffic and sweeps through the crosswalk he is turning into. Section 21950(c) applies in full, because the pedestrian was visible for the whole turn.
- The right turn on red. Section 21453(b) permits the turn after a stop, then requires the driver to yield to pedestrians lawfully in an adjacent crosswalk. The head is turned left; the car goes right.
- Backing and driveway exits. A vehicle crossing a sidewalk to leave a lot must yield under section 21952. Our parking lot and driveway accidents page covers what changes on private property.
- The driver who does not stop. A quarter of United States pedestrian deaths in 2024 were hit and run crashes, per IIHS. Our hit and run pedestrian accidents page explains who pays when the driver is never found.
- A child near a school. The darting out defense arrives before the medical records. Our child pedestrian accidents page covers the school zone speed rule and the deadline trap.
If the city or Metro is responsible
Some pedestrian claims are not against a driver at all. Government Code section 835 makes a public entity liable for a dangerous condition of public property where the plaintiff proves the property was in a dangerous condition, that it proximately caused the injury, that it created a reasonably foreseeable risk of that kind of injury, and either that an employee created it or that the entity had notice in time to fix it. A crossing whose markings were allowed to disappear, a signal with no pedestrian phase, and a bus stop nobody can reach safely all fall under that section.
Two more steps follow. Under section 912.4 the entity's board has 45 days to act, or the claim is deemed rejected on the last day. Under section 945.6 you then have six months from written rejection to sue, or two years from accrual if no notice was sent.
Which policy pays an injured pedestrian
Vehicle Code section 16056 has set California's minimum liability limits at $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 for two or more, and $15,000 property damage since January 1, 2025. Policy limits are the ceiling an insurer will pay, and one trauma admission with surgery passes $30,000 before the first physical therapy appointment.
| The situation | The policy that responds | The condition attached |
|---|---|---|
| Driver is insured | The driver's bodily injury liability | $30,000 per person is the legal floor since 2025 |
| Driver has no insurance | Your own uninsured motorist coverage | You had to buy it; a written rejection removes it |
| Driver's limits are too low | Your underinsured motorist coverage | Pays the difference only if your limits exceed the driver's |
| Driver fled and was never found | Your uninsured motorist coverage | Contact, a report in 24 hours, a sworn statement in 30 days |
| A public entity is the defendant | The entity itself, not an insurer | A written government claim within six months |
One defense that limits a driver's case does not apply to yours. Proposition 213, at Civil Code section 3333.4, bars non-economic damages for an injured person who owned an uninsured vehicle involved in the accident, operated one without financial responsibility, or was convicted of driving under the influence in the crash. Every trigger attaches to a vehicle. A pedestrian with no car recovers pain and suffering in full.
The bills in the meantime are a separate problem. A hospital lien is a hospital's right to be paid out of your recovery, and it has to be tracked from the first week because it comes out of the settlement at the end. Our post on getting treated in Los Angeles with no health insurance sets out the order to try things in.
How long you have to file
| Who the defendant is | Deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A private driver | 2 years to file suit | Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 |
| City, county, Metro, school district, Caltrans | 6 months to present a written claim | Government Code 911.2 |
| The agency's response window | 45 days, then the claim is deemed rejected | Government Code 912.4 |
| Suit after a rejected government claim | 6 months from written rejection | Government Code 945.6 |
| Your own uninsured motorist claim | 2 years to sue, agree, or demand arbitration | Insurance Code 11580.2(i) |
Statute of limitations is the outside date for filing suit, and an injury or wrongful death action runs two years from the incident under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. It is the last deadline that matters, not the first. Camera retention, vehicle repair and the agency claim all run shorter. We keep every California injury deadline in one table.
If your child or parent was hit
A child is not judged by an adult's standard. CACI No. 402 tells a jury a child must use the care a reasonably careful child of the same age, intelligence, knowledge and experience would use, and CACI No. 412 tells the same jury an adult must anticipate the ordinary behavior of children. A tolling rule, which pauses the deadline for a child, sits behind that, and our child pedestrian accidents page sets it out.
Older pedestrians are overrepresented in the serious files. California Office of Traffic Safety rankings for 2023 count 1,432 pedestrian victims killed and injured in the City of Los Angeles, 186 of them 65 and over and 86 under 15. The preexisting condition argument arrives with those files, and the treating physician answers it.
What your claim can recover
| Damage | What proves it | Instruction |
|---|---|---|
| Past medical expenses | Billed and paid records, lien balances | CACI 3903A |
| Future medical care | A treating physician or life care plan with unit costs | CACI 3903A |
| Lost earnings | Pay records, tax returns, the employer's letter | CACI 3903C |
| Lost earning capacity | A vocational assessment and an economist | CACI 3903D |
| Pain, suffering, disfigurement | Treating notes, function before and after | CACI 3905A |
There is no vehicle between a pedestrian and the impact, so the two diagnoses that move these numbers most are a traumatic brain injury and a spinal cord injury. When either is permanent, the file belongs on our catastrophic injury track with a life care plan attached.
Wrongful death is the family's own claim for what the death cost them, and Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 defines who may bring it: a surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, and others in the categories the statute lists. A survival action, the deceased person's own claim carried on after death, belongs to the estate. Our wrongful death page covers both.
What a pedestrian case is worth
No one can price your case from a web page. What we can show is one of our own cases and the evidence that moved it.
Pedestrian, broken leg
Struck in a crosswalk by a speeding driver. Traffic camera footage settled the liability fight.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts, injuries, and insurance coverage. Amounts shown are gross recoveries before attorney's fees, costs, and medical liens.
That client was lawfully in a crosswalk when a speeding driver struck her. The leg was broken, surgery was followed by months of physical therapy, and liability was disputed until traffic camera footage and witness statements settled it. The first offer of $150,000 became a $950,000 recovery. The evidence that ended the argument would have been gone in a week.
What happens after you call us
- 1We get you treated
Treatment comes before paperwork. With no health coverage, we arrange care on a lien so the surgeon is not the reason you wait.
- 2We preserve the evidence
Preservation letters go the same week to every business, agency and homeowner with a camera pointed at that crossing.
- 3We handle the carrier
You give no recorded statement. We handle the carrier, meaning the insurance company, and its adjuster, and answer the mid block argument in writing, once, with the statute.
- 4We identify every policy
The driver's liability, your own uninsured and underinsured coverage, medical payments (med pay) coverage, and any employer or agency behind the vehicle.
- 5We demand, and we file if the number is wrong
The first offer is a negotiating position. We track the two year deadline, and the six month one, from day one.
There is no fee unless we recover. The outcomes we may discuss are on our case results page, and what clients say is on our testimonials page.
When a pedestrian has no claim
Not every person hurt on foot has a claim against a driver, and we would rather say so in the first call.
- A fall with no vehicle involved. A broken sidewalk, a raised slab, or an unlit stairwell is a premises or dangerous condition claim, and against a city it runs on the six month deadline.
- A crossing where signs prohibit it. Section 275 says there is no crosswalk where local authorities have posted signs indicating no crossing. The crosswalk duties do not attach there. Section 21954(b) still does.
- The driver had no way to stop. A pedestrian who steps off a curb into a vehicle already too close is what section 21950(b) describes, and the fault percentage can get high enough that the case is not worth bringing.
- A workplace injury on foot. Struck by a forklift or a yard truck at work, the first claim is workers' compensation, with a third party case only where someone outside the employer is at fault.
Talk to a pedestrian accident lawyer
Crossing outside a crosswalk does not end your claim, because section 21954(b) keeps the driver's duty of due care in place wherever you stepped into the road. Your crossing becomes a number, not a verdict. What decides the case is speed, attention, the turn, the lighting, and whether anyone preserved the footage.
What we need is the date, the intersection, the report number if one exists, and whether any vehicle involved was public. What we do next is send the preservation letters. We take these claims across the county and in Beverly Hills, Calabasas, Santa Ana and Orange County. Speak with one of our attorneys about what happened; the responsible attorney is Josh Kohanim.
No fee unless we recover.