Being struck by a car while walking leaves you with injuries you did nothing to cause and a claim you have to build from a hospital bed. Zavodnick & Lasky Personal Injury Lawyers represent people hit by vehicles across Philadelphia, and the work starts with getting the facts straight before the insurer settles on its version.
Drivers who hit a pedestrian in Philadelphia almost always say the same thing to the responding officer: the person stepped out. Insurers repeat it, because blaming the person on foot is the cheapest defense available in these claims and it is easy to say when the only other witness is in the hospital.
From Center City crosswalks to Roosevelt Boulevard, call (215) 875-7030 and we will start with the evidence rather than the driver’s account.
Does limited tort apply if you were hit while walking?
No. If you were on foot when a vehicle struck you, the limited tort election on your own auto policy does not restrict your claim, even if that is what an adjuster told you.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court settled this in 2005, holding that the restrictions in Section 1705 of the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law do not apply to pedestrians injured in motor vehicle accidents. The statute addresses drivers and passengers and says nothing about people walking, and the Court declined to extend it.
The practical consequence is large. A pedestrian with a limited tort policy can still pursue pain and suffering, disfigurement and the loss of what the injury took, while the same person driving the same week could not. If an insurance company has used the words “limited tort” to lower an offer on a pedestrian claim, that is a reason to call a lawyer before you sign anything.
One caveat worth knowing: the analysis changes when someone was getting into or out of a vehicle at the time, because that raises a question about whether they were an occupant. Our limited tort page covers the election itself, and our comparison of limited and full tort explains how the choice works for drivers.
Call (215) 875-7030 if your claim was reduced or denied over a tort election.
Who pays when the driver has no insurance or leaves the scene?
Usually your own policy, or a household member’s, through uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Hit-and-run crashes are treated as uninsured motorist claims in Pennsylvania, so a driver who was never identified does not end the claim.
Medical benefits are the other piece. A pedestrian with auto insurance, or who lives with a relative who has it, generally has medical benefits coverage available regardless of fault, and that is what keeps treatment moving while liability is argued.
| Situation | Where the money usually comes from |
| Driver identified and insured | The driver’s liability coverage |
| Driver’s policy too small for the injuries | Underinsured motorist coverage on your policy or a household policy |
| Hit and run, driver never found | Uninsured motorist coverage |
| No auto policy in the household | Medical benefits questions get complicated, and a lawyer should look at it early |
| Struck by a commercial vehicle | The company’s commercial policy, usually far larger than a personal one |
These claims have notice requirements of their own, and an uninsured motorist claim opened late is a claim an insurer will fight on procedure instead of facts.
Where pedestrians get hit in Philadelphia
The pattern is not random. Roosevelt Boulevard remains the most dangerous corridor in the city for people on foot, with twelve lanes, long distances between signals and speeds that treat an urban road like a highway.
Downtown, the danger is the turn. Drivers turning right on red across a crosswalk, delivery vehicles cutting corners on one-way streets, and left turns across a crosswalk on a flashing yellow produce a steady share of these cases. Along Market and Chestnut, buses and box trucks create blind spots that swallow a person mid-crossing.
Pennsylvania law requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk, a rule PennDOT restates in its pedestrian safety guidance, and it is worth knowing that an intersection has a crosswalk whether or not anyone painted lines on it. A driver who hit someone at a corner with no markings does not get a pass because the paint has worn away.
What if a SEPTA bus or trolley hit you?
That claim runs on a different set of rules, and the deadline is the part that catches people. SEPTA is a Commonwealth agency, which means sovereign immunity applies and a written notice generally has to be filed within six months of the injury.
Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5522, that notice has to include the injured person’s name and address, the date and hour of the incident, its location, and the name and address of the treating physician. Miss the window without a recognized excuse and the claim can be barred entirely, years before the ordinary deadline would have run.
Damages against a Commonwealth party are also capped by statute, currently $250,000 per plaintiff, which changes how a case is built and where else responsibility might lie. Our SEPTA accident page covers transit claims in more detail.
If a transit vehicle was involved, call (215) 875-7030 this week rather than next month.
Results in pedestrian cases
The firm has handled pedestrian claims ranging from collisions with lasting orthopedic injuries to cases where a pedestrian was struck and killed by an impaired driver. Outcomes are listed on our case results page.
Past results do not predict what any other case will bring. Every claim turns on its own facts, the available insurance, and the medical evidence.
What we do in a pedestrian case
We go after the video first. Corner stores, apartment buildings, parking garages, SEPTA vehicles and doorbell cameras all record the block, and most of it is overwritten within days.
We request the vehicle’s event data recorder download, which records speed and braking in the seconds before impact and answers the “she stepped out” defense better than any witness. Where a signal is involved, we request the timing data for the intersection, because what the walk signal was doing is a fact rather than an opinion.
We document the injuries fully. Pedestrian cases run heavy on orthopedic trauma, head injuries and long recoveries, and the value of the claim follows what the medical record says about permanence rather than what the first bills add up to.
And when a pedestrian does not survive, the claim becomes a wrongful death case with its own rules about who can bring it and what the estate has to do first.
Questions Philadelphia pedestrians ask
The driver’s insurer says I was jaywalking. Is my claim over?
No. Pennsylvania reduces a recovery by your share of the fault and bars it only above half, so crossing outside a crosswalk lowers a claim rather than ending it. Drivers still have a duty to watch for people in the road.
How long do I have to file a pedestrian accident claim?
Two years from the crash for most injury claims against a driver. A claim involving SEPTA or another government entity carries a written notice requirement within six months, which is the deadline that ends these cases early.
What if I was hit in a parking lot or a driveway?
It is still a motor vehicle claim. Low-speed impacts in lots and driveways cause real injuries, and the property owner’s maintenance or design can matter alongside the driver’s conduct.
Do I need a police report to have a case?
It helps and it is not required. Video, medical records, witness accounts and the vehicle’s own data can carry a claim where no report was taken or where the report got the facts wrong.
Talk to someone before you give a statement
The driver’s insurer usually calls within days, and the request sounds routine. What it produces is a recorded account of an event you may not fully remember, given while you are on pain medication, and it gets read back to you months later.
Zavodnick & Lasky Personal Injury Lawyers handle Philadelphia pedestrian claims on a contingency basis, so the fee comes out of what is recovered. Call (215) 875-7030. Our Philadelphia car accident page covers how motor vehicle claims work generally.
