Las Vegas Pedestrian Accident Lawyers

Where Pedestrians Are Hit in Las Vegas

Boulder Highway. One of the deadliest corridors in the valley for people on foot. Wide lanes built for speed, long distances between marked crosswalks, and heavy nighttime traffic produce a recurring toll of pedestrian strikes.

The Las Vegas Strip. Las Vegas Boulevard packs tourists on foot, valet and hotel entrances, and rideshare pickups into a few resort miles, with high DUI exposure on weekend nights. Mid-block crossings and turning traffic drive the collisions here.

The valley's wide arterials. Charleston Boulevard, Sahara Avenue, Flamingo Road, and Tropicana Avenue carry high-speed traffic through dense intersections with inconsistent crosswalk spacing, a recurring setting for serious strikes.

Downtown and Fremont. Nightlife foot traffic mixed with late-night drivers leaving bars and the casino corridor raises the risk after dark.

If a driver hit you in a crosswalk, the right of way was almost certainly yours. A driver who failed to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk breached a basic duty, and "I never saw them" is an admission they were not watching, not a defense. Signal timing, intersection cameras, and witness accounts fix what happened.

If you were crossing outside a crosswalk, you can still recover. Under Nevada's modified comparative negligence rule in NRS 41.141, you can recover as long as your share of fault is 50 percent or less, reduced by your percentage.^[2] The adjuster's whole play is to push your share over the line, and the investigation answers it with the driver's speed, attention, and the seconds they had to stop.

If an RTC transit bus or a city vehicle hit you, different rules apply. A claim against a government entity is capped at 200,000 dollars under NRS 41.035 and carries a written claim requirement, which makes finding every other available policy critical after a catastrophic injury.^[3]

If the driver was drunk leaving the Strip, punitive damages apply with no cap. Nevada removes the usual punitive cap for an intoxicated driver, which changes the value of the claim from the day it is filed.

If the driver fled or was uninsured, your own coverage can pay. Hit-and-run pedestrian strikes are common on the Strip and Boulder Highway, and your own uninsured motorist coverage can apply even though you were on foot.

You have two years to file. The deadline runs two years from the date of the strike under NRS 11.190, and two years from the date of death for a fatal case.

A pedestrian hit by a vehicle has nothing between them and the impact, so the injuries are severe and the medical record becomes the case.

University Medical Center is Nevada's only Level I trauma center and the primary destination for the most seriously injured pedestrians in Clark County. The trauma evaluation on arrival, including imaging, surgical notes, and diagnostic findings, ties your injuries to the strike. Sunrise Hospital and the valley's other trauma receiving hospitals also take serious pedestrian cases depending on location.

A pedestrian strike often involves three separate impacts: the bumper striking the legs, the body hitting the hood or windshield, and the fall to the pavement. Each produces its own injuries, which is why these cases so often involve permanent harm or death.

If you were not transported by ambulance, see a doctor right away anyway. Adrenaline masks serious injuries, and every day without a medical record is a gap the defense will use.

• Traumatic brain injuries. Head strikes on the hood, windshield, or pavement produce concussions through severe brain damage. A normal CT scan does not rule one out.
• Spinal cord and back injuries. High-energy strikes cause herniated discs, vertebral fractures, and paralysis.
• Pelvic and leg fractures. The bumper strikes the lower body first, producing complex fractures that often require surgery.
• Internal organ damage. Blunt-force trauma to the torso causes internal bleeding that can be life-threatening.
• Road abrasion and degloving. Contact with the pavement causes severe skin and soft-tissue injuries.
• Fatal injuries and wrongful death. Clark County's pedestrian death toll is among the highest in the nation, and surviving families can pursue a wrongful death claim.