If you accidentally hit a pedestrian with your car, the law requires you to stop immediately, call 911, render reasonable aid, and exchange information, and what you do in the minutes and days that follow determines whether you walk away with a traffic citation or face felony charges and personal financial ruin. In 2023, more than 7,300 pedestrians died and over 68,000 were injured in U.S. traffic crashes.1NHTSA. Pedestrian Safety Even an accident that wasn’t your fault opens the door to criminal exposure, a civil lawsuit, and insurance consequences that can outlast your policy limits.
At the Scene: What You’re Legally Required to Do
Every state requires you to stop at or near the scene of a crash involving injury. Driving off, even in a panic, turns the accident into a hit-and-run, which is a felony in most states when someone is hurt. That remains true if the pedestrian stepped into the road illegally. Stopping is always the less catastrophic choice.
Once you’ve stopped:
- Call 911 and request both an ambulance and police. This satisfies your legal duty to summon aid and gets the crash officially documented.
- Provide reasonable assistance. You’re not expected to perform medical care, but you shouldn’t walk away from someone lying in the road.
- Exchange your name, driver’s license number, vehicle registration, and insurance details with the pedestrian or, if they’re unconscious, with a witness or the responding officer.
- Stay until police release you. If no officer responds, most states require you to report to the nearest police station promptly.
Do not apologize or say anything that sounds like accepting blame. Phrases like “I didn’t see you” or “I’m so sorry” end up in police reports and witness statements and get used against you in both criminal and civil proceedings. Keep the exchange factual. Save opinions about what happened for your attorney.
Reports You Still Have to File After You Leave the Scene
A police report at the scene is not the end of your paperwork. Most states require a separate crash report filed directly with the Department of Motor Vehicles, typically within 10 days, even when officers responded. The DMV report goes into your driving record and triggers the state’s own review. Missing that deadline can cost you your license until you file.
Your auto insurance policy almost certainly requires prompt notice to your insurer, usually within 24 to 48 hours. Miss that window and the insurer may have grounds to deny the claim or cancel the policy. Report the crash before you’ve figured out what to say about fault — reporting is a factual notification, not a confession.
Whether You’re Actually at Fault
Hitting a pedestrian does not automatically make you legally responsible. Investigators, adjusters, and courts look at the whole picture.
The Driver’s Duty of Care
Every driver owes a duty to operate their vehicle with reasonable caution. The question is whether a reasonably careful driver in the same situation would have avoided the collision. Running a red light, looking at your phone, or failing to scan a crosswalk all point to a breach of that duty and anchor a negligence claim against you.
Right-of-Way and Speed
Pedestrians generally have the right of way in marked and unmarked crosswalks when signals aren’t controlling the intersection. Failing to yield there usually puts most or all of the fault on the driver. Pedestrians who cross mid-block, dart into traffic, or ignore a “Don’t Walk” signal can share liability.
Driving at or under the posted limit doesn’t automatically clear you either. Rain, fog, darkness, or heavy foot traffic near a school can require a slower speed. Investigators reconstruct speed from skid marks, vehicle damage, and your car’s event data recorder, which captures pre-impact speed, braking, and throttle in the seconds before impact.2NHTSA. Event Data Recorder That data can help or hurt you depending on what it shows.
The Pedestrian’s Own Conduct
Pedestrian behavior gets scrutinized too. Crossing against a signal, wearing dark clothing on an unlit road, or texting at the moment of impact can all shift fault. Phone records are routinely subpoenaed in litigation.
How Shared Fault Changes the Payout
Most states use comparative negligence, which reduces the pedestrian’s recovery by their percentage of fault. A pedestrian who is 30% responsible recovers 30% less. About half of comparative-negligence states cut off recovery entirely once the injured person’s fault hits 50% or 51%. Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia still follow contributory negligence, where a pedestrian who is even 1% at fault can be barred from recovering anything.
What You Could Owe
Your Auto Liability Coverage
If you’re found at fault, your bodily injury liability coverage pays the pedestrian’s medical bills, rehabilitation, and related losses up to your policy limit. State-mandated minimums range from $15,000 to $50,000 per person.3Insurance Information Institute. Automobile Financial Responsibility Laws By State Those limits are dangerously low for a serious pedestrian injury. A single night in a trauma center can exceed $15,000. A brain or spinal cord injury easily generates six- or seven-figure costs.
When damages exceed your policy limit, the insurer’s obligation stops at that limit. The pedestrian can then pursue your personal assets, including bank accounts, home equity, and wages, for the remainder through a civil judgment. This is the scenario that catches drivers off guard.
Umbrella Coverage
A personal umbrella policy picks up where your auto liability stops, commonly extending another $1 million or more. Umbrella insurers usually require you to carry at least $250,000 or $300,000 per person in underlying auto liability before they’ll sell you a policy. The premium is modest relative to the exposure.
No-Fault States
In roughly a dozen no-fault states, the pedestrian first files for medical expenses and lost wages through Personal Injury Protection, regardless of who caused the crash. PIP pays quickly but has caps and doesn’t cover pain and suffering. When injuries cross a threshold set by state law, the pedestrian can step out of the no-fault system and sue you directly.
What the Pedestrian Can Sue For
Beyond what insurance covers, a civil lawsuit can seek:
- Past and future medical expenses, including surgeries, therapy, medication, and assistive devices.
- Lost wages during recovery and, for severe injuries, diminished future earning capacity.
- Pain and suffering. There’s no statutory formula; attorneys and insurers often start from total medical costs and apply a multiplier based on severity and permanence, but courts aren’t bound by any particular method.
- Disability and disfigurement, when injuries cause lasting physical limitations or scarring.
Most states give the injured person between one and three years from the date of the crash to file suit. Miss that statute of limitations and the claim is permanently barred.
If the pedestrian dies, the family or estate can bring a wrongful death action for funeral costs, lost future income, loss of companionship, and in some cases punitive damages if your conduct was especially egregious, such as driving drunk. These cases routinely settle or resolve well into the millions. The wrongful death statute of limitations is typically two years but varies by state.
Criminal Charges You Could Face
Not every pedestrian crash produces criminal charges. If you were attentive, obeying traffic laws, and the pedestrian stepped into your path in a way you couldn’t reasonably avoid, you may face none. The range of possible charges scales with how far you strayed from safe driving.
Traffic Citations
The most common outcome in a minor-fault crash is a citation for failure to yield, improper speed, or inattentive driving. Fines usually run from a couple hundred to several hundred dollars, plus license points. Enough points within a set period triggers suspension, and even short of that, points raise your insurance rates for years.
Reckless Driving
If investigators conclude you drove with willful disregard for safety, the charge rises to reckless driving. In most states this is a misdemeanor with up to 90 days in jail for a first offense, fines in the hundreds to low thousands, and license suspension. When reckless driving causes serious injury, several states elevate it to a felony with substantially longer prison terms.
Vehicular Assault and Vehicular Manslaughter
Serious injury can bring vehicular assault charges. A fatality can bring vehicular manslaughter or negligent homicide. Sentences range from under a year for the least serious classifications to 15 years or more for aggravated offenses. A felony conviction follows you into employment, housing, and professional licensing for the rest of your life.
DUI
If alcohol or drugs were involved, everything escalates. The legal blood alcohol limit for non-commercial drivers is 0.08% in every state.4NIAAA. Adult Operators of Noncommercial Motor Vehicles Hitting a pedestrian while impaired stacks DUI charges on top of injury-related ones, and in many states causing serious injury or death while impaired is an automatic felony with mandatory minimum prison time. DUI-related vehicular homicide sentences range from one year to 20 or more.
Hit-and-Run
Leaving the scene of a crash with an injured pedestrian is a felony in most states, with prison terms commonly running from one to 15 years, fines of $5,000 to $20,000 or higher, mandatory license revocation, and a separate civil claim. Juries treat fleeing as evidence of consciousness of guilt, which poisons the rest of your defense.
Protecting Yourself in the Days After
Preserve the Evidence
Evidence deteriorates fast. Skid marks wash away, traffic camera footage gets overwritten, and witnesses forget. If you can do so safely, photograph the scene from multiple angles: the pedestrian’s position, traffic signals, road markings, weather, and vehicle damage. Note the time, visibility, and road surface. Get names and phone numbers from any witnesses.
Think Before You Give a Statement
Talk to an attorney before giving any recorded statement to the pedestrian’s insurance company or lawyer. This isn’t evasion. It’s about not inadvertently creating evidence that gets used against you later. If the pedestrian’s injuries are serious, if criminal charges are possible, or if the likely damages exceed your policy limits, having your own lawyer is the difference between a manageable outcome and a devastating one. Your auto policy may provide a defense attorney for the civil claim, though that attorney represents the insurer’s interests as well as yours, and those interests can diverge once damages threaten to exceed your coverage.
Cooperate With Your Insurer, Carefully
Your policy requires you to cooperate with your insurer’s investigation, including giving a statement and sitting for depositions. Refusing cooperation can void coverage and leave you personally on the hook for the whole claim. Cooperate, but let your own attorney guide what you say when the numbers get large.