Pedestrian Accident Attorney

• Car Accident
• Pedestrian Accident Attorney

Injured as a Pedestrian?

When you’re traveling on foot anywhere near traffic, you’re more vulnerable to injuries than ever. You don’t have the protective shell that motorists do, and even relatively minor pedestrian accidents can be life-changing. Motorists have a responsibility for the safety of pedestrians in their midst, and when they fail to uphold this duty of care, pedestrians can pay a costly price.

If you or someone you care about has been injured by a negligent motorist in a pedestrian accident, turn to an experienced Texas personal injury attorney at Miller Weisbrod Olesky for the professional legal guidance you need.

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Pedestrian Accidents are Among the Deadliest in Texas

According to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), in 2022, 830 pedestrians lost their lives in traffic crashes throughout the state and 1,526 pedestrians were left seriously injured. Additional statistics that highlight just how dangerous pedestrian accidents are include the following:

• Over the past four years, pedestrian fatalities increased by 22 percent.
• While pedestrians are involved in one percent of all traffic accidents in Texas, they make up 19 percent of all traffic deaths.

The top causes of pedestrian accidents in Texas include driver distraction, excessive speed, and failure to yield the right-of-way.

The National Safety Council (NSC) reports that an estimated 9,188 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents throughout the nation in 2022. Further, since 2010, pedestrian fatalities have been on the rise, and pedestrian fatalities as a percentage of all traffic fatalities have been increasing steadily since 2005.

Pedestrian accidents, in other words, are common and are only becoming a greater concern.

Pedestrians Generally Have the Right of Way

Texas laws mandate that all drivers must yield to pedestrians under the following circumstances:

• When there are pedestrians crossing in crosswalks – even when drivers have the go-ahead to make left or right turns
• When pulling out of or into driveways or alleys

Additionally, drivers aren’t permitted to pass motorists who are stopped for pedestrians crossing the street.

For their part, pedestrians are required to yield to vehicles on the road when crossing anywhere other than a crosswalk. Just like motorists, pedestrians are also required to obey all traffic signals.

Elements of a Pedestrian Accident Lawsuit

In order to bring a successful pedestrian accident claim, the following elements must be proven:

• The at-fault driver owed you a duty of care, which refers to the responsibility every motorist has for everyone with whom they share the road.
• The at-fault driver breached – or failed to live up to – this responsibility in some way, which means they made a careless mistake or violated a traffic law.
• The driver’s breach of duty was the cause of the accident that left you injured.
• You suffered legal damages – or physical, financial, and emotional losses – that are addressed by the law as a result.

Let’s consider each element more carefully.

The Duty of Care

It is generally established that the motorist in your pedestrian accident claim owed you a duty of care. The only time this may not apply is if you were violating a pedestrian traffic rule or were not crossing at a crosswalk. At any other time, drivers will owe pedestrians a duty of care to drive safely around them to avoid causing pedestrians’ harm.

Drivers are required to drive safely in response to whatever is happening on the road, which includes employing utmost care whenever they see pedestrians nearby. This includes complying with all traffic laws relating to pedestrians, walk signals, and more.

The Driver’s Breach of Duty

Pedestrian accidents are often caused by a driver’s breach of duty, or negligence. Too many motorists fail to exercise the caution necessary to keep pedestrians safe, and negligence behind the wheel can take many dangerous forms.

Distracted Driving

One of the worst culprits when it comes to pedestrian accidents is distracted driving. While anything that distracts drivers is a serious issue, texting is particularly concerning and pervasive. It’s estimated that it takes about five seconds to send or read a text, and in that time, a motorist who is traveling at highway speeds can cover the length of a football field. Failing to pay attention to the road for even a moment puts pedestrians at serious risk.

It’s important to point out that pedestrians are more difficult to see in the first place, and from the perspective of drivers, they sometimes come out of nowhere – even when they are using crosswalks appropriately. Pedestrians begin with a safety disadvantage, and distracted drivers only increases this disadvantage.

Excessive Speed

Excessive speed is a serious concern when it comes to pedestrian accidents. When motorists exceed the posted speed limit or drive too fast in relation to the road’s condition, low visibility, or bad weather, they increase the chances that they’ll cause accidents and that those accidents will be fatal. Excess speed plays an important role in far too many pedestrian accidents.

Impaired Driving

Drivers who are impaired by either alcohol or drugs experience cognitive, physical, and even sensory losses that make them dangerous behind the wheel. Although it’s well established that driving under the influence is an unsafe practice, many drivers refuse to make safe choices. The CDC relays that, in a recent year, 11,654 people lost their lives to drunk drivers. This accounts for nearly a third of all fatal traffic accidents in the nation and is more than a 14 percent increase over the prior year.

Drowsy Driving

Motorists who are drowsy behind the wheel suffer dangerous impairments of their own, and they’re not dissimilar from those experienced by drunk drivers. The risks associated with drowsy driving have received more attention in recent years, and while the impact is clear, statistics are hard to come by because proving that a driver is fatigued is exceptionally difficult. Motorists who are sleepy pose a significant threat to everyone on the road, including pedestrians.

Failure to Follow the Rules of the Road

Carefully following the rules of the road is key to keeping everyone safe. Motorists generally owe pedestrians the right of way, and even when this isn't the case, they are required to exercise caution whenever they encounter pedestrians on the road. This makes drivers who fail to yield the right-of-way an immense problem for pedestrians.

These are only some of many examples of how drivers can breach their duties of care to pedestrians, making them liable for resulting injuries. An experienced pedestrian accident attorney can identify the type of driver negligence involved in your pedestrian injury case.

The Driver’s Negligence Was the Direct Cause of the Accident

It’s not enough to prove that the involved driver was negligent, you must also show that their negligence was the direct cause of the accident that caused your injuries. You’ll look to your accomplished car accident attorney to establish this on your behalf, and they’ll do so by gathering all the available evidence and skillfully compiling it into a solid claim that the insurance company will have difficulty disproving.

The kinds of evidence that will likely apply include the following:

• Dash cam footage from vehicles in the vicinity
• Footage from any traffic cameras or security cameras in the area
• The police report and any tickets written by the police
• The testimony of eyewitnesses, including bystanders and the occupants of vehicles in the area
• The testimony of expert witnesses with professional knowledge about the mechanics of the accident
• Crash reconstruction models that depict how the pedestrian accident happened

Our personal injury attorneys will put together a strong claim that seamlessly illustrates the driver’s negligence and how it caused the accident that left you injured.

Legal Damages Suffered In A Pedestrian Accident

The final element that your trusted car accident attorney will need to prove on behalf is that you suffered legal damages as a result of the accident. This means that you experienced losses that are covered by the law, which commonly include the following.

Medical Expenses

The injuries from pedestrian accidents tend to be quite severe. In fact, the CDC reports that traffic-related pedestrian deaths in the United States recently reached a 40-year peak, and this isn’t to mention the many pedestrians who suffer serious non-fatal injuries in traffic crashes.

In a recent three-year stretch, more than 137,000 pedestrians required emergency room care after a traffic accident. In other words, you can expect your medical bills to be high, and they may be ongoing. Serious injuries are more likely to develop complications and can lead to secondary health concerns. Additionally, some injuries require future surgeries, treatment, and care.

After being injured in a pedestrian accident, you can expect to face medical expenses like the following:

• Emergency care at the accident scene and emergency transportation to the hospital
• Surgery and follow-up care
• Hospitalizations and in-hospital care
• Medical tests, treatments, and care
• Physical and occupational therapy
• Rehabilitation
• Assistance with the activities of daily living
• Home health care
• Appointments and care from doctors and medical specialists
• Adaptive physical devices
• Prescription medications
• Pain management

Carefully assessing the full extent of your medical costs is critical to your claim and your recovery. Our personal injury attorneys can present important evidence to prove your medical losses, including:

• The testimony of medical professionals with expertise in the kind and severity of injuries you’ve suffered
• Your doctor’s report and assessment of your condition and prognosis
• Your medical team’s input
• Your relevant medical records
• Your medical bills

Lost Income

If you were seriously injured by a driver’s negligence, which pedestrians often are, you’ll likely be off the job for a considerable amount of time while you focus on regaining your health and well-being. The problem is compounded, however, if your ability to do your job is affected or if your injuries interfere with your overall career path. Ultimately, you could face a decrease in earning potential, which can mean a lifetime of earning less.

Finally, our jobs play an important role in our lives that goes beyond simply earning a living, and if your career is seriously affected, you could experience emotional consequences in addition to your financial losses. This emotional upset can be even more challenging to successfully overcome than the losses that you can easily attach a price tag to.

Proving your lost income involves demonstrating what you earned prior to the accident and what you’re earning now, which can be evaluated in terms of your pay stubs, but there’s more to it than that. Depending on the nature of your work, you may require expert testimony to illustrate the extent of your financial damages over the course of your career, which can be extensive. If your career has stalled, has been shut down completely, or has changed course because of the pedestrian accident, this fact should be carefully addressed in your claim.

Your pedestrian accident attorney knows exactly how important it is to clearly and concisely outline your full range of losses and will leave no stone unturned in their skilled efforts to do so. While insurance companies will try to minimize your losses, you can count on your lawyer to identify every way your injuries affect your life, financially and otherwise.

Physical Injuries From a Pedestrian Accident

As mentioned, pedestrian accidents are often associated with very serious injuries, which can take any number of forms.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are potentially life-altering. Even when they are mild, they can result in significant symptoms that can affect you for weeks, months, or even years. Common symptoms that correlate with TBIs include:

• Headaches
• Fatigue or pervasive drowsiness
• Nausea, which can include vomiting
• Difficulty speaking
• Loss of balance or dizziness
• Sensory issues, such as ringing in the ears, a change in sense of smell, or blurred vision
• Increased sensitivity to light or sound
• A feeling of being dazed or disoriented – or even a loss of consciousness
• Memory issues
• Exaggerated mood swings
• Difficulty sleeping or sleeping more than normal

If you experience any of these symptoms post-accident, you need professional medical care.

Spinal Cord Injuries

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) can occur anywhere on the spinal cord, and they are closely associated with decreased range of motion and can lead to chronic pain. When the spinal cord is severed, the victim suffers paralysis, which is a life-altering injury that often requires enhanced care, such as the following:

• Assistance with the activities of daily living
• Home health care
• Adaptations to home, office, and vehicle – when driving and working are still possible
• Long-term medical care

Paralysis often comes with secondary health concerns that make the injury even more challenging.

Because of their severity, cases involving spinal cord injuries can entitle victims to significant compensation - which means that insurance companies will do everything they can to deny or minimize your claim. The best way to ensure that you get the full and fair value of your claim after a spinal cord injury is to retain a pedestrian accident attorney in Texas as soon as you can.

Serious Soft Tissue Injuries

Pedestrians are often dragged across the ground in the course of traffic accidents, and in the process, they can suffer serious cuts, abrasions, and other soft tissue injuries. These are all highly susceptible to dangerous infections, slow to heal, and likely to scar. When these are on or near the victim’s face, it can be permanently disfiguring, which comes with profound emotional challenges of its own.

Broken Bones

Pedestrians often suffer broken bones in traffic accidents, and these injuries are as painful and often require weeks or even months to heal. When the break is a complex fracture, it is less likely to heal perfectly, which can lead to physical limitations as well as chronic pain. Because pedestrians are so vulnerable to the impact of accidents, experiencing more than one broken bone isn’t uncommon.

Internal Injuries

Internal injuries can hide in plain sight because there are often no external warning signs, and by the time they’re diagnosed, the damage can be far more serious than it would have been had the victim received immediate medical care. Internal injuries include internal bleeding, which can be deadly.

Loss of Limb & Injuries Requiring Amputation

Losing a limb to someone else’s negligence is a catastrophic experience that is difficult to overstate in terms of the physical, financial, and emotional losses victims experience. In many cases, victims are unable to return to the activities they enjoyed prior to their accident and need to use prosthetics or mobility aids.

After Accident Action Items

It’s important to point out that even very serious injuries can go undetected in the aftermath of a pedestrian accident. To begin, you’ll experience an immense surge of adrenaline and may go into shock. Combined, these can mask a considerable amount of pain, which is one of the reasons that some accident victims hold off on seeking medical attention. Erring on the side of caution under these circumstances is always the best practice.

Waiting to seek medical attention can affect both your health and the viability of your legal claim. For this reason, you should go see a healthcare professional as soon as possible after a pedestrian accident.

Taking Steps to Protect Your Health and Your Claim

If you are the victim of a pedestrian accident, there are specific steps you can take to help ensure your best health outcome and your most favorable claim resolution.

Seek Immediate Medical Care

As mentioned, pedestrian accidents – even relatively minor ones – are far too serious to take a wait-and-see approach. Seeking immediate medical attention can make a significant difference in your recovery, and it also lets the insurance company handling your claim know that you take the matter seriously – and that they should do the same.

If you’re not offered medical attention at the accident scene, get yourself to the doctor or ER as quickly as you can – the risk that you may have suffered a serious injury that is masked by adrenaline and shock is all too real. It’s also important to carefully follow your medical team’s instructions, advice, and guidance. This includes following through with all scheduled appointments, tests, and procedures.

Consult with a Trusted Personal Injury Attorney

Next, retain a seasoned pedestrian accident attorney as early in the process as possible. Your attorney will handle the primary tasks that help guide your claim effectively and efficiently toward an optimal outcome.

These include:

• Building a strong claim that is difficult for the insurance company to challenge
• Helping you avoid the claim-damaging pitfalls that too many claimants fall victim to
• Communicating with the insurance company on your behalf – you are not required to provide the insurance company with a statement, and it’s in your best interest to decline any requests to do so
• Knowledgeably negotiating with the insurance company for a fair settlement that supports your rightful compensation
• Skillfully preparing for court in the event that the insurance company isn’t interested in settling fairly

You can trust your dedicated pedestrian accident attorney to guide you through the complicated legal process from beginning to end, and their legal skill and insight can make a significant difference in the outcome of your claim.

Leave the Talking to Your Attorney

Because the insurance company wants to minimize the value of your claim in support of their own profits, they’re very interested in obtaining a statement from you. In fact, the anxiety and fear you experience in the wake of a violent accident can lead you to say things like you’re sorry, or just about anything else that might hurt your claim.

It’s only natural to feel sorry that an accident happened, even if it was someone else's fault, but the insurance company will take your words and twist them to go against your claim and wrongfully blame you for the accident.

Ultimately, leaving the talking to your attorney is always a better option. They’ll share the information the insurance company needs to know without harming your claim. Insurance reps are not above taking advantage of accident victims’ vulnerabilities, and simply declining to make a statement helps to ensure this won’t happen to you.

Stay Off Social Media

Social media is another window into your thoughts that the insurance company will be monitoring, and they’re likely to interpret your posts and pictures very differently than you might. Because your settlement will play a primary role in your ability to reach your fullest recovery, taking a break from social media until your claim is finalized is always the best policy.

Don’t Accept an Early Settlement Offer before Consulting with Your Attorney

The insurance company recognizes that you are facing mounting medical bills, lost earnings, and emotional turmoil, and they may start with an early settlement offer in the hopes you’ll settle out of financial desperation. While it can be tempting to settle early, and while any amount may seem better than nothing at this juncture, accepting an early settlement offer can be very harmful.

When an insurance company offers a settlement right out of the gate, the offer is generally very low and is unlikely to cover a fraction of your losses. Never accept a settlement offer until you’ve carefully discussed the matter with a pedestrian accident attorney who knows the ins and outs of your claim.

Focus on Your Recovery

Your most important job at this point is tending to your physical and emotional health and well-being, which also supports your claim by directing attention to the severity of your losses. While you focus on your recovery, your capable pedestrian accident attorney will spare no effort in their pursuit of an advantageous settlement or court award on your behalf.

Understanding the Insurance Company

The insurance company handling your claim is focused on its own profits, and – as such – it will do what it can to settle it for as little as it can get away with. Insurance companies have a range of practices that they use to help make this happen.

Denying Claims from the Outset

Sometimes, insurance companies deny claims from the outset, and some claimants walk away because they don’t think they have any other option. If your knowledgeable pedestrian accident attorney believes you have a viable claim, you should trust their assessment. If this is the case, an early claim denial is likely just an attempt on the part of the insurance company to get settlement negotiations off to a low start. Your attorney will not be fooled by the insurance company’s tactics.

Insurance Claims Process

Insurance companies sometimes drag out the claims process to the point that claimants can’t take it anymore or make it so complicated that claimants simply give up out of frustration. Again, the insurance company knows what you’re going through, and they’re hoping you’ll call it a day. Your attorney has the experience and drive to help ensure that your claim doesn’t stall.

Refusing to Make a Fair Settlement Offer

Another technique that insurance companies sometimes turn to is simply refusing to engage in fair negotiations. If the insurance company handling your claim will not make a fair settlement and shows no sign of budging, it might be time to go to court.

In the end, fair compensation is a matter of law – not the insurance company’s ability to negotiate low settlements – and your pedestrian accident attorney will be well prepared to address your case in court.

It should be mentioned that time constraints also apply. In Texas, the statute of limitations for pedestrian accidents – or the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit against the at-fault driver – is a mere two years. Pedestrian claims tend to be legally complex, and establishing your strongest claim, which should include an accurate reflection of your total losses, takes time. As a result, you should contact an attorney as soon as you can after a pedestrian accident.

Policyholder’s Fault or Extent of your Damages

Even if the driver’s fault is clearly established and your full range of losses is well-documented, the insurance company may attempt to call either – or both – into question. For example, if you have any preexisting conditions, the insurance company may try to correlate them with the injuries you suffered in the accident. They may also say that you shouldn’t have been crossing the street at the time of the accident in the first place or may come up with some other reason why their policyholder isn’t at fault – or isn’t completely at fault.

The most important point to keep in mind here is that motorists owe pedestrians a duty of care, and your attorney will know exactly how to steer your claim back to the truth of the matter, which is that you suffered serious losses as a result of the driver’s negligence.

Contact our Experienced Texas Car Accident Attorney Today

Pedestrian accidents are some of the most dangerous accidents on our roadways, and if you were injured by a negligent motorist while you were on foot, it’s time to seek the professional legal counsel you need.

The experienced Texas car accident attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky appreciate how serious your losses are and are committed to unleashing the full force of their experience and legal skill in focused pursuit of a claim resolution that honors your rights and supports your fullest recovery. Learn more by contacting us online or calling us at (888) 987-0005 today.

Miller Weisbrod Olesky Personal Injury Lawyers