Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
What is different in Pasadena
A person struck while walking in Pasadena, or the adult child handling a parent's claim, needs five things. They are the state's ranking for this city, the right of way statutes, what an insurer does with an older person's medical file, where treatment happens, and which courthouse hears the case. Crashes between vehicles and falls on private property are separate claims; for those, start at our Pasadena personal injury lawyer page.
How often Pasadena pedestrians are hit
| Category | Killed and injured | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians 65 and older | 19 | 1 of 62 |
| Pedestrians, all ages | 75 | 5 of 62 |
| Total fatal and injury | 978 | 7 of 62 |
| Pedestrians under 15 | 3 | 42 of 62 |
Rank 1 is the worst rate in the group, so a high rank number is good news. The Office of Traffic Safety measures each city against cities of a similar size, adjusting for a Pasadena population of 140,054 and 1,659,580 daily vehicle miles. Read the ranks with the caveat the agency publishes itself. It states: "if a crash report is taken by the CHP on a road with shared jurisdiction, it does not count against the city." Collisions the Highway Patrol works on the 210 are outside these numbers.
The last row matters as much as the first. Pasadena is unremarkable for children on foot and worst in its group for people over 65. That shows where these crashes happen: the arterial crossings on Colorado Boulevard, Lake Avenue and Fair Oaks. The city's daytime population is swollen by Old Pasadena, Caltech, Pasadena City College and the hospitals.
The driver had to yield to you
| Section | What it requires | Who it binds |
|---|---|---|
| Veh. Code 21950(a) | Yield to a pedestrian in any marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection | Drivers |
| Veh. Code 21950(c) | Approaching a pedestrian in a crosswalk, use all due care and reduce speed | Drivers |
| Veh. Code 21950(d) | A pedestrian's own duty of care does not relieve the driver of due care | Drivers |
| Veh. Code 21453(b) | Turning right on red, yield to pedestrians lawfully in an adjacent crosswalk | Drivers |
| Veh. Code 21952 | Yield to a pedestrian on the sidewalk before driving across it | Drivers |
| Veh. Code 21954(b) | A pedestrian outside a crosswalk still gets the driver's due care | Drivers |
The sources: section 21950, 21453, 21952 and 21954. An unmarked crosswalk is the unpainted continuation of the sidewalk across the road at an intersection, and it carries the same right of way as a painted one. A driver who broke one of these sections gives a jury negligence per se, the presumption that arises when a safety statute is violated and causes the harm it was written to prevent. Los Angeles juries get it as CACI 418, and the crosswalk duty as CACI 710. Our Los Angeles pedestrian accident lawyer page takes each one further, and our guide to crosswalk accidents covers the turning driver on a permissive green.
When the insurer blames your age
In an older client's file the dispute is rarely about the crosswalk. It is about the MRI. Every adult over 60 has findings on a spine study that predate any crash, and an adjuster will call all of them degenerative and offer the value of a sprain. The answer is the before and after: what this person could do the week before, what they can do now, and a treating physician who is willing to say which findings are new.
The second argument in these files is that the pedestrian was slow or unsteady. Vehicle Code 21950(c) answers it. A driver approaching a person in a crosswalk has to reduce speed or take other action to safeguard that person's safety, a duty measured against the pedestrian who is there rather than one who crosses at full stride.
Rose Parade and Rose Bowl day crashes
Pasadena's own geography puts enormous foot traffic onto arterial streets on known dates. Colorado Boulevard is the Rose Parade route and the Old Pasadena retail spine, and the Arroyo Seco holds the Rose Bowl. The CHP Altadena Area, 2130 Windsor Avenue in Altadena, patrols roughly 400 square miles including Pasadena. It states that it is minutes from the Rose Bowl and provides escorts, traffic control and security for the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game.
On an ordinary day a pedestrian crash on Lake Avenue is a Pasadena Police Department report. On an event day, or anywhere on the 210 or a state route, a different agency may hold the report, the traffic control plan and the officer who saw it. Knowing which agency was working the intersection is the difference between a report in two weeks and a report in two months.
Your hospital and your courthouse
Huntington Hospital, 100 W California Boulevard, 493 licensed beds, is a Level II trauma center on the California EMS Authority list updated October 22, 2025, and the only trauma center between downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley foothills. A person hit on Colorado Boulevard is treated about a mile from the courthouse that may hear the case. That keeps the records, the treating doctors and the liens, the rights to be repaid out of a settlement, in one city.
| Case type | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Unlimited civil, more than $35,000 | Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena or Alhambra Courthouse |
| Limited civil, $35,000 or less | Stanley Mosk Courthouse, downtown |
| Claim against a public entity | Written claim to that entity, six months |
The Los Angeles Superior Court filing locator returns four possible courthouses for an unlimited civil case from a Pasadena address. Pasadena sits in the Northeast District, whose courthouses are the Pasadena Courthouse at 300 East Walnut Street and the Alhambra Courthouse at 150 West Commonwealth. Local Rule 2.3 ties the assignment to the district where the incident arose. Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 gives two years to sue, Government Code 911.2 gives six months against a public entity, and the rest are in our table of California injury deadlines.
Five situations that change your claim
- A city vehicle, a bus or a bad crossing. Six months to present a written claim under Government Code 911.2, then 45 days for the agency to act under section 912.4. That clock runs while an older client is still in rehabilitation.
- The driver never stopped. Your own uninsured motorist coverage stands in, and Insurance Code 11580.2 sets conditions for an unidentified vehicle, including a report within 24 hours and a sworn statement within 30 days.
- It happened in a parking structure or a driveway. Vehicle Code 21952 covers a driver crossing a sidewalk to reach the road, but deep inside a private structure the claim runs on the ordinary duty of care in Civil Code 1714, plus the owner's responsibility for lighting and sight lines.
- The person hurt was a child. Code of Civil Procedure 352(a) pauses the lawsuit deadline until age 18, and section 352(b) refuses that pause for a claim against a public entity.
- You were driving rather than walking. The 210 through Pasadena carries more than 300,000 vehicles a day: see our Pasadena car accident lawyer page. A crash across the city line belongs on our Glendale pedestrian accident lawyer page.
- Insurer’s first offer
$150,000What we recovered$950,0006× the first offerPedestrian, 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.
All case resultsWhere you stand after being hit
The statute was on your side in any crosswalk, marked or not, and it did not stop applying because you crossed slowly. The state's own ranking says this city is the worst in its group for people your age on foot, and that is a fact about the road rather than about you. The dispute will be over the imaging, and it is won with treatment records and a doctor who will testify.
Our headquarters are in Tarzana, and you do not have to make the drive. We come to you. Bring the police report number, the name of the hospital, and the date, and we will do the rest.
Tell us the intersection and who responded. We will find the report, the footage and the deadline that matters.