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Arizona Pedestrian Accident Lawyers
For People Hit While on Foot
If a driver hit you or killed someone you love in a crosswalk or on an Arizona street, you are facing severe injuries and an insurer already arguing the pedestrian was to blame.
Our Arizona pedestrian accident lawyers represent people struck by vehicles across the state, and we know how hard the defense fights to shift fault onto the person on foot.
Arizona is one of the deadliest states in the country for pedestrians, and the roads here were built in a way that makes these crashes both common and severe.
Arizona law protects you in ways the insurer will not mention: a driver owes pedestrians the right-of-way in a crosswalk, you can recover even if you were partly at fault, and the state caps nothing on what a serious injury is worth.
A pedestrian has no protection in a collision, so the injuries are catastrophic and the claims are serious.
You pay nothing unless we win. Call (888) 713-6653 for a free, confidential review of your Arizona pedestrian accident claim.
- $100M+ recovered with a 98% recovery rate across 40,000+ injury cases
- We take on the blame-the-pedestrian defense and keep the case on the driver
- You Win or It's Free: no fee unless we recover for you, free 24/7 review
Why Arizona Is So Dangerous for Pedestrians
Arizona is one of the most dangerous states in the country to be on foot. Its pedestrian fatality rate runs at close to twice the national average, placing Arizona among the five deadliest states for pedestrians in recent Governors Highway Safety Association data.[1] Phoenix, Tucson, and Mesa recur on national lists of the deadliest large cities for people walking.
The danger is built into the roads. The Phoenix metro was laid out for cars: wide multi-lane arterials, high posted speeds, long gaps between signals, and stretches with thin sidewalk coverage and few safe places to cross. Roads like Van Buren Street, Baseline Road, and Speedway Boulevard in Tucson move traffic at speed through areas with heavy foot traffic.
Add year-round walking weather and the result is a steady stream of high-speed crashes between a vehicle and a person with nothing to protect them. The injuries are severe, the deaths are frequent, and the cases are serious from the moment they happen.
In Arizona, the fight is often bigger than the driver. These roads were built to move cars fast through places people walk, and that design can be part of why the crash happened and part of what a jury needs to understand.
Arizona Pedestrian Right-of-Way Law
Most pedestrian cases turn on right-of-way, and Arizona's statutes set it out clearly. The insurer's job is to argue you were where you should not have been; the law is often on your side.
Drivers must yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. Under A.R.S. § 28-792, a driver must yield the right-of-way, slowing or stopping if needed, to a pedestrian crossing within a crosswalk.[2] This applies at marked crosswalks and at the unmarked crosswalks that exist at most intersections. A driver who hits a pedestrian lawfully in a crosswalk has usually breached this duty.
Pedestrians crossing outside a crosswalk must yield. Under A.R.S. § 28-793, a pedestrian crossing somewhere other than a crosswalk must yield to vehicles.[3] This is the statute the defense reaches for. But yielding is not the same as being the sole cause of a crash, and a driver who was speeding, distracted, or not looking still bears fault.
Even a pedestrian with some fault recovers. Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state under A.R.S. § 12-2505, so a pedestrian assigned a share of fault still recovers the rest.[4] A person hit while crossing mid-block is not barred from recovery; their award is reduced by their percentage, and that percentage is worth fighting. See how Arizona comparative negligence works.
How Insurers Blame the Pedestrian
The defense in a pedestrian case has one favorite move: make it the pedestrian's fault. The argument is almost always the same, that the person stepped out, crossed against the signal, wore dark clothing, or was not in a crosswalk.
The counter is the driver's conduct. A driver who was speeding, looking at a phone, or failing to scan the road had the time and the duty to avoid the crash. The evidence that proves it, the vehicle's speed and the driver's attention, the sight lines, the point of impact, surveillance and signal-timing data, is what answers the blame argument before it takes hold.
Under pure comparative negligence, even if a pedestrian carries some fault, every point shifted onto them comes off the recovery. Driving that percentage down with evidence is a large part of what these cases require.
Common Injuries When a Pedestrian Is Hit by a Vehicle
A pedestrian absorbs the full force of a collision with nothing in between. The same impact that leaves a car dented puts a person in the trauma unit, which is why these injuries are among the most catastrophic in personal injury law.
- Traumatic brain injury. Head strikes against the vehicle or the pavement cause concussions through severe, permanent brain damage.
- Spinal cord injuries and paralysis. High-energy impacts fracture the spine and cause lifelong disability.
- Broken bones and crush injuries. Legs, pelvis, and arms take the first impact; some injuries require multiple surgeries.
- Internal organ damage. Bleeding and organ injury that may not be obvious at the scene.
- Fatal injuries. Arizona's high pedestrian death toll means many of these cases become wrongful death claims for the family left behind.
If the driver fled, a hit-and-run, the injured pedestrian's own auto policy may still provide recovery through uninsured motorist coverage, even though they were on foot.
What Is an Arizona Pedestrian Accident Case Worth?
There is no honest average. A pedestrian case is built from the severity of the injuries, the available insurance, the fault split, and the lifetime cost of the harm. What helps a serious Arizona case is that the state caps nothing, so a catastrophic injury is valued on the actual harm, not a statutory ceiling. See our breakdown of Arizona damage caps.
Recoverable damages include past and future medical care, lost income and earning capacity, pain and suffering, disfigurement, and the cost of long-term care. Where a drunk or reckless driver caused the crash, punitive damages are available with no statutory cap. Coverage often comes from the driver's policy, the pedestrian's own UM coverage in a hit-and-run, and any commercial policy if a work vehicle was involved.
How Long Do You Have to File in Arizona?
Most Arizona pedestrian injury claims must be filed within two years, and a wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death. If a government vehicle or a dangerous road or crosswalk design contributed to the crash, a written notice of claim is due within 180 days, far sooner than the two-year deadline. See the Arizona statute of limitations, and act early, because video and scene evidence in a pedestrian case disappears quickly.