Wilkes-Barre Pedestrian Accident Lawyers

Get out of the roadway if you can and let the ambulance take you — a pedestrian absorbs the vehicle's full force with no protection, and internal injuries and head trauma often surface hours later. Have police respond so a crash report is filed, and get the driver's license, plate and insurance details plus witness contacts if you're able. Say nothing about fault, to the driver or anyone's insurer. The emergency-room record made that day becomes the foundation of the claim.

Surprisingly, often your own car insurance — Pennsylvania's first-party medical benefits follow the person, not the vehicle, so your auto policy's medical coverage (minimum $5,000) applies even though you were on foot. Without a policy of your own, coverage may come through a relative in your household or the striking vehicle's insurer, with health insurance behind that. The larger claim — lost wages, pain and suffering, future care — runs against the driver's liability coverage. We sort the priority of coverage at the free consultation.

Yes. Pennsylvania law requires drivers to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk on their half of the roadway or approaching it (75 Pa. C.S. § 3542), and that includes unmarked crosswalks at intersections — a point insurers hope you don't know. Turning drivers who cut across a crosswalk while watching traffic instead of the walk signal cause a large share of downtown injuries. We pull signal-timing records, intersection camera footage and the police report to establish exactly who had the right of way.

Being outside a crosswalk does not bar your claim. Pennsylvania's modified comparative negligence rule (42 Pa. C.S. § 7102) reduces your recovery by your share of fault and cuts it off only above 50% — and drivers always owe a duty of care toward pedestrians, wherever they cross. Adjusters lead with "jaywalking" because it shifts blame cheaply; speed, distraction, and failure to keep a proper lookout usually matter far more. We reconstruct the crash rather than accept the insurer's version of it.

Very possibly. Report it to police immediately — hit-and-run investigations move fastest in the first days, when storefront and doorbell camera footage still exists. If the driver is never found, uninsured motorist (UM) coverage on your own auto policy, or a household relative's policy, can compensate you as if the fleeing driver's insurer were paying. Many injured pedestrians never realize they have this coverage. Bring us your declarations page and we will find every policy that applies.

Often not. Limited tort (75 Pa. C.S. § 1705) restricts pain-and-suffering claims for non-serious injuries, but the law contains exceptions — including for serious injuries, for crashes caused by DUI-convicted drivers, and in certain circumstances for people struck while not occupying a vehicle. The injuries a pedestrian suffers when hit by a car frequently meet the serious-injury threshold on their own. We review your declarations page and the exception that fits your facts before the insurer tells you what you supposedly can't claim.

Two years from the date you were struck (42 Pa. C.S. § 5524); for a child, the period generally does not begin until age 18 (§ 5533(b)). If a government vehicle or a dangerous public road condition is involved, written notice is due within six months (§ 5522). Suit is filed where the crash happened — the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre or the Lackawanna County courthouse in Scranton for most of our clients. The practical deadline is shorter: camera footage and witness memories rarely survive a month.

Pedestrian cases are valued on the medical record: the cost of treatment past and future, lost wages and earning capacity, and the permanence of what the vehicle did to an unprotected body. Because pedestrians tend to suffer the most serious injuries in any category of traffic crash, these claims are often substantial — but no lawyer can honestly quote a figure before reading your records. The consultation is free and the fee is a written contingency: nothing unless we recover for you.