Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
in Cleveland, OH

Common Causes of Pedestrian Accidents

In nearly every pedestrian case, the central question is the same: what could the driver have done differently? The most common causes we see include:

• Distracted driving, including phone use, texting, and making GPS adjustments
• Drunk and drugged driving (OVI), including prescription-medication impairment
• Speeding, especially through residential streets and school zones
• Failure to yield to pedestrians in marked or unmarked crosswalks
• Running red lights or stop signs
• Improper left and right turns through pedestrian crossings
• Backing accidents in parking lots and driveways
• Poor visibility due to low light, lake-effect snow, freezing rain, or fog
• Inadequate streetlighting and missing or worn crosswalk markings
• Drowsy driving on long commutes and shift schedules
• Aggressive driving and road rage
• Drivers ignoring stopped school buses or school zone speed limits

When we take on a pedestrian case, we work to lock down the evidence before it disappears. Police reports, traffic and surveillance camera footage, RTA video, witness statements, vehicle data, and phone records all help establish exactly what happened and who's responsible.

Pedestrian Injuries We Work With

Pedestrians don't have airbags, seat belts, or a steel frame around them. Even a low-speed impact can cause serious injuries, and the long-term consequences often don't show up for days or weeks. We represent clients dealing with:

• Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), concussions, and brain bleeds
• Spinal cord injuries and partial or complete paralysis
• Broken bones, including legs, hips, pelvis, arms, ribs, and skull fractures
• Internal organ damage and internal bleeding
• Neck and back injuries, including herniated and bulging discs
• Severe road rash, deep lacerations, and degloving injuries
• Soft tissue, tendon, and ligament damage
• Joint injuries to the knees, shoulders, and hips
• Disfigurement and permanent scarring
• Amputations and crush injuries
• Burns from contact with vehicles or roadway
• Emotional trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and depression
• Wrongful death

Compensation You Could Get After a Pedestrian Accident in Cleveland

What a pedestrian claim is worth comes down to four things: how badly you were hurt, who was at fault, what insurance is on the table, and how the crash has reshaped your day-to-day life. Ohio law gives pedestrian victims four categories of damages to pursue:

Economic Damages

The losses with a paper trail of bills, paystubs, and receipts. For pedestrian cases, they reach further into the future than most injury claims, including:

• Emergency medical care, hospital stays, and surgeries
• Physical therapy, occupational therapy, and rehabilitation
• Future medical care for long-term or permanent injuries
• Prosthetics, wheelchairs, and other assistive devices
• In-home nursing or long-term care after catastrophic injuries
• Home and vehicle modifications for accessibility
• Lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and vocational rehabilitation
• The cost of household services you can no longer perform, such as childcare, cleaning, and yard work

Non-Economic Damages

A pedestrian crash reshapes your life in ways no receipt can capture. Ohio law recognizes those losses, too:

• Physical pain you've endured and will continue to endure
• Emotional distress, PTSD, and fear of crossing streets again
• Loss of mobility, independence, and overall quality of life
• Scarring and disfigurement from impact with the vehicle or pavement
• Loss of enjoyment of life because of the inability to participate in hobbies, sports, and family activities
• Strain on your marriage (loss of consortium)

Wrongful Death Damages

When a pedestrian crash ends in a fatality, surviving family members may bring a wrongful death claim under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 2125. Damages can cover funeral and burial costs, the financial support the deceased would have provided, the household services they used to handle, lost companionship and guidance, and the family's emotional loss.

Punitive Damages

Some pedestrian crashes involve more than negligence. They involve drivers who knowingly disregarded everyone else's safety. In cases like these, Ohio courts can award punitive damages on top of compensatory damages. They're not meant to replace your losses — they're meant to make the consequences match the conduct. Ohio caps punitive damages at twice the compensatory award in most cases.

#cta_start

Crossing Wasn't a Crime. Don't Let an Adjuster Tell You Otherwise.

Ohio law puts a duty of due care on every driver, even when a pedestrian crosses outside a crosswalk. Tell us what happened. We'll tell you straight what your case is worth. Get your free consultation. There’s no fee unless we win.

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What to Do After a Pedestrian Accident in Cleveland

A pedestrian crash isn't a fender-bender. You won't be standing on the curb exchanging insurance cards. You may be on the pavement, in shock, or already on a stretcher. The steps below are written with that reality in mind, in roughly the order they actually matter.

1. Stay still and accept medical transport: Spinal and internal injuries can be made worse by moving. Wait for paramedics, and let them take you to the hospital. Refusing the ambulance is one of the most common pedestrian case mistakes.
2. Identify the driver, but don't engage about fault: Get their name, contact info, and license plate, but don't apologize, don't say "I'm fine," and don't try to piece together what happened with them on the spot. Their version of the story tends to get more favorable to them with every retelling.
3. Get witnesses identified before they leave: Witnesses are the single most important piece of a pedestrian case. If you can, ask bystanders for their names and phone numbers, or ask the responding officer to handle it.
4. Preserve what you were wearing: Don't wash, throw out, or repair the clothing or shoes you had on. They can be forensic evidence, especially in disputed-fault and hit-and-run cases.
5. Follow every medical recommendation and save the paperwork: Keep appointments, and save medical bills, EOBs, paystubs reflecting missed work, and out-of-pocket receipts. Adjusters look hard for treatment gaps to argue your injuries aren't serious.
6. Don't give a recorded statement, and stay off social media: The driver's adjuster will call, sounding friendly, asking for a "quick recorded statement." Decline politely until you've spoken to a lawyer. The same goes for posting about anything during your case — "feeling great today" can become Exhibit A.
7. Talk to a pedestrian accident lawyer early: Surveillance footage from gas stations, RTA buses, businesses, and city traffic cameras often gets overwritten within days. The earlier we're involved, the more we can preserve.

Ohio Pedestrian Laws You Should Know

Ohio's pedestrian statutes can decide an entire case. Here's what shapes most Cleveland pedestrian claims.

Pedestrian Right of Way at Crosswalks (ORC §4511.46)

Drivers must yield to pedestrians lawfully within a crosswalk when traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation. A clear failure to yield at a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection is strong evidence of driver negligence.

Crossing Outside a Crosswalk (ORC §4511.48)

When pedestrians cross outside of a crosswalk, they're required to yield to oncoming traffic. But Ohio law also imposes a duty of due care on every driver to avoid hitting a pedestrian, regardless of where the pedestrian is. Someone crossing mid-block doesn't automatically lose the right to a recovery if the driver was speeding, distracted, or otherwise negligent.

Statute of Limitations (ORC §2305.10)

In most Ohio pedestrian accident cases, you have two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. Wrongful death claims have their own two-year window starting from the date of death. Claims against government entities, such as RTA, the City of Cleveland, ODOT, or municipal road departments, can have much shorter notice deadlines, sometimes as little as 180 days. Missing the deadline can end your case before it begins.

Modified Comparative Negligence (ORC §2315.33)

Ohio follows a modified comparative negligence rule. If you're found partially at fault, for instance, if you were crossing mid-block or looking at your phone, your compensation is reduced by your share of fault. If your share is more than 50%, you may be barred from recovering at all. 

Don't assume you don't have a case because someone told you were partly to blame. Fault is rarely as clear-cut as adjusters claim, and we regularly represent clients who were initially told they had no case.