Personal Injury
Pedestrian Injuries
Cases for pedestrians hit by vehicles in parking lots, crosswalks, and along roadways.
Pedestrians hit by vehicles almost always suffer disproportionate injuries. A 30 mph impact between a 4,000-pound SUV and a person on foot produces orthopedic, head, and internal injuries that take months to a year to fully document. Recovery often involves multiple surgeries, extensive physical therapy, and time off work that the injured person cannot afford.
In South Texas, pedestrian cases happen most often in three settings: parking lots (HEB, Walmart, restaurant lots where drivers back out without looking), crosswalks (especially at signalized intersections where drivers fail to yield on green-light right turns), and along roadways where there is no sidewalk and the shoulder is the only path. Each setting has its own evidence challenges.
Texas law generally requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and to exercise due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian. But pedestrians also have duties - using crosswalks where available, not stepping into traffic from between parked cars, and obeying signals. Comparative fault is common in these cases, and we work to minimize the percentage assigned to our client through scene investigation and reconstruction.
These claims often involve multiple insurance sources: the driver's auto policy, the pedestrian's own UM/UIM coverage if the driver is uninsured or underinsured, and sometimes premises coverage where a property owner created or failed to address a hazardous condition.
Common scenarios
Situations we see often
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Backed over in a parking lot
You walk behind a parked SUV at the grocery store. The driver does not check their backup camera and reverses into you. Your foot, ankle, and lower back take the impact.
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Crosswalk strike on a green-arrow right turn
You step off the curb with the walk signal. A driver turning right on green never looks to their right and hits you in the crosswalk.
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Roadway strike at night with no sidewalk
You walk along the shoulder of an FM road home from a friend's house. A driver drifts onto the shoulder and clips you. The driver claims they "did not see" you.
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Child hit in a residential neighborhood
A child runs after a ball into a residential street and is struck by a driver going faster than the 25 mph posted limit. Driver speed, reaction time, and visibility all matter.
What to do
If this happens to you
Call 911 from the scene and get a police report. Get the names and contact information of every witness - parking lot strikes often have shopper witnesses who will leave within minutes. If the driver who hit you is on the phone, taking photos, or visibly distracted in any way, note that and tell the responding officer.
Get medical care the same day, even if you can walk away. Lower-leg and pelvic fractures, ligament tears, and concussion symptoms can present hours or days later. Preserve the clothes and shoes you were wearing - they sometimes corroborate impact location and direction.
How we help
How our firm can help
We pull surveillance from nearby businesses, work with reconstructionists to estimate driver speed and reaction time, and document the full mechanism of injury. In parking lot cases we look at the property owner's sight-line obstructions and signage. In crosswalk cases we look at signal timing and driver behavior patterns.
We coordinate with treating orthopedic, neurology, and physical therapy providers so the medical record is complete and consistent. We address all available insurance - auto, UM/UIM, and premises - so no source of recovery is left on the table. When the carrier wants to assign disproportionate comparative fault to a walking victim, we push back hard.
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7,522
pedestrian deaths nationwide in 2022
NHTSA, 2022
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828
pedestrian fatalities in Texas in 2023
Texas DPS Crash Records
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1 in 6
traffic deaths in the U.S. are pedestrians
NHTSA, 2022
Common questions
Questions about Pedestrian Injuries
What if the driver claims I was jaywalking?
Comparative fault is common in pedestrian cases. Even if you were not in a marked crosswalk, you can still recover unless your fault is more than 50 percent. We work to document the driver's share of fault clearly: speed, distraction, lack of yield.
The store says it is not their fault because it happened in their parking lot. Is that right?
It depends. The driver who hit you is primarily responsible. The property owner can also be liable if poor lighting, inadequate signage, or sight-line obstructions contributed to the crash.
I do not have my own car insurance. Can I still get UM/UIM coverage?
You may be covered under a resident family member's policy. If a household member has UM/UIM coverage, that policy often extends to you as a pedestrian. We always look at every household policy.
How are damages calculated for a pedestrian case?
Past and future medical care, lost wages and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, physical impairment, and disfigurement. Pedestrian cases tend to have higher non-economic damages because the injuries are typically more severe.
Related topics
More under Personal Injury
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