New York Pedestrian Accident Lawyers

A pedestrian struck by a car in New York is entitled to no-fault benefits from the vehicle that hit them, even though they were on foot and carried no auto policy of their own.

That pays the hospital. It does not pay for the injury.

Everything else, the pain, the permanent limitation, the earnings the $50,000 no-fault cap will not reach, comes from a liability claim against the driver.

And in May 2026 New York rewrote the rules that decide whether that liability claim survives at all.

Fault is now a cliff in motor vehicle cases. Cross it and the claim pays nothing.

Which is why the fight over who had the right of way is no longer a haggle over percentages. It is the case.

Call (888) 713-6653 for a free review of your New York pedestrian accident claim. You Win or It's Free.

New York City recorded 205 traffic deaths in 2025, the fewest since record-keeping began in 1910, and 111 of them were pedestrians.^[1] Child deaths fell from 16 to 6. The Bronx improved most, Staten Island did not improve at all.

The trend is real. It does not help the person reading this page.

What the borough numbers are actually useful for is understanding the defense you are about to meet, because a city that has spent a decade redesigning intersections produces drivers and insurers who argue that the street was safe and the pedestrian was careless.

Those are all traffic deaths, not pedestrian deaths alone. The pedestrian share moved from 122 to 111.

The insurer of the vehicle that struck you. New York treats an injured pedestrian as a covered person under the no-fault law, which means up to $50,000 per person in medical expenses and partial lost earnings flows from the driver's policy without anyone proving fault first.

Two deadlines govern that money and almost nobody hears them in a hospital bed. Written notice of the claim is due within 30 days of the crash. Medical providers have 45 days from the date of service to bill. The mechanics are laid out on our page explaining how New York no-fault coverage works.

Then the $50,000 runs out, which in a serious pedestrian case happens during the first hospitalization. Everything after that point, surgery two, the rehab, the year of lost income, the permanent limp, is recoverable only from the driver and only through a liability claim.

The Hit-and-Run Problem

Roughly one pedestrian case in every intake cycle starts with a driver who left. That is not a dead end. A police report filed within 24 hours plus a timely notice of intention opens a claim through New York's Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, and our page on MVAIC claims after a hit-and-run walks through the 90-day window that decides whether that door stays open.

Two separate bodies of law govern whether the driver answers for hitting you, and they carry different weight in a courtroom.

State law comes first. Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1151 requires a driver to yield to a pedestrian crossing within a crosswalk, and § 1146 requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid a collision with a person on foot. A violation of a state statute that imposes a specific duty is negligence in itself, not merely evidence of it.

New York City's own Right of Way Law is the second layer. Administrative Code § 19-190 makes it an offense for a driver to fail to yield to a pedestrian or cyclist with the right of way, and where the vehicle makes contact and causes physical injury the driver faces a misdemeanor charge in addition to the civil penalty. A summons or conviction under it is powerful, and it is worth knowing exactly what it is worth: because the Administrative Code is a local enactment rather than a state statute, its violation is evidence of negligence for a jury to weigh, not automatic liability.^[2]

That distinction is the kind of thing that separates a demand letter from a case file. We plead both, and we do not let the driver's insurer treat the Right of Way summons as the end of the fault inquiry when it is the beginning.

Struck in the Crosswalk With the Signal

The strongest posture available. The evidence work is the signal timing, the walk phase, and the vehicle's path, and the argument we expect back is that you entered late or against the countdown. Intersection camera footage and the driver's own phone records settle that faster than testimony does.

Turning Vehicles and the Left-Turn Sweep

A driver turning left across a crosswalk on a green has a duty to yield to the person already in it. These cases turn on sight lines, A-pillar obstruction, and whether the driver ever stopped. Delivery vans and box trucks turning in Manhattan produce a disproportionate share of them, and a commercial vehicle brings both larger coverage and the federal record-keeping our New York truck accident lawyers go after first.

Hit Outside a Marked Crosswalk

Being outside the lines is not a defense on its own, and it is not the end of the claim. A pedestrian crossing mid-block still has rights, the driver still owes due care under § 1146, and the honest question becomes how the comparative share divides. After the 2026 reform that question carries far more weight than it used to, which is the subject of the next section.

New York was a pure comparative negligence state for fifty years. A pedestrian found 80% at fault still collected 20% of the damages. That is no longer true in a motor vehicle case.

CPLR § 1411(b), added by the reform that took effect May 26, 2026, bars recovery entirely where the injured person's culpable conduct is greater than the defendant's, or greater than the combined conduct of all the defendants actually sued.^[3] An even split still recovers half. Fifty-one percent recovers nothing.

Three consequences follow, and they all land on pedestrians harder than on drivers.

• The distraction argument became existential. Every insurer in these cases already argues that the pedestrian was looking at a phone. Under the old rule that argument shaved a percentage. Under the new rule it is a defense that can end the case
• Who you name as a defendant now changes whether a claim exists. The bar measures your conduct against the combined conduct of the defendants sued, so leaving a liable party out of the complaint can shrink the denominator that keeps the claim alive
• The filing date decides which rule applies. The statute governs actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, not crashes occurring after that date. Two people hurt in the same collision can be under different law depending on when their lawyers filed

We never let an adjuster's fault number stand as a finding. The insurance company hopes nobody questions it. It's an argument, not a finding. Fault belongs to the evidence, not the adjuster. The cost of getting fault wrong has never been higher. What once reduced a client's recovery can now jeopardize the entire claim.

The bar applies only to claims subject to Insurance Law Article 51, meaning motor vehicle claims. Pure comparative negligence still governs New York premises, construction, and malpractice cases, which is a distinction the defense will not volunteer.

The pain and suffering gate tightened in the same act. Eight categories of serious injury remain and the 90/180-day category is gone, so a pedestrian whose injuries were disabling but temporary now has to be documented into permanent or significant limitation of use.

Three years from the date of the collision to sue a private driver, under CPLR § 214(5). Two years from death for a wrongful death claim.

The exception is the one that catches people. If the vehicle belonged to the City, a city bus, the MTA, a school district, or any other public entity, a notice of claim is due within 90 days, and the lawsuit itself within one year and 90 days. Our page on the 90-day notice of claim identifies which defendant puts you on which calendar.

The evidence deadline is shorter than either one. Store and building cameras overwrite on cycles measured in days. The full deadline map is on our page covering New York injury filing deadlines.