This guide will provide you with information about pedestrian accident claims. If you have suffered an injury because a driver breached their duty of care, you could be eligible for personal injury compensation.
Pedestrian Accident Claims – When Can You Seek Compensation?
Later in our guide, we explain the duty of care road users owe one another, and provide examples of how a pedestrian accident could occur if this isn’t upheld.
Additionally, we discuss the road traffic accident claims process, including the criteria that need to be met in order to have valid grounds to pursue your case, as well as the evidence you may need to collect.
In addition, you may like to know how much your settlement could be worth. We take a look at how compensation is awarded in successful personal injury claims.
If you have valid grounds for a road accident claim, you may wish to instruct a solicitor to support your case. This guide concludes with a look at the advantages of having a No Win No Fee solicitor represent your claim.
If you have any questions or would like to get your potential claim for a pedestrian accident started while reading this guide, please talk to an advisor from our team. To do so, you can:
- Fill in our ‘Contact us’ form for a call back.
- Call 0113 460 1216
- Connect via our live chat.
Browse Our Guide
- Pedestrian Accident Claims – When Can You Seek Compensation?
- How Could A Pedestrian Accident Occur?
- Calculating Compensation For Pedestrian Accident Claims
- What Evidence Could Help You Claim For Driver Negligence?
- Make A Pedestrian Accident Claim On A No Win No Fee Basis
- Learn More About Pedestrian Claims
Pedestrian Accident Claims – When Can You Seek Compensation?
In order to be eligible to make a personal injury claim for a road traffic accident, you must be able to prove:
- A driver owed you a duty of care.
- They breached this duty.
- You suffered injuries as a result.
The three criteria above lay the foundation of negligence in claims for a personal injury. If this can be proven, you may have valid grounds to proceed with your case.
Road users need to adhere to the rules laid out in the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code to uphold their duty of care. The duty they owe is to prevent injury and damage to themselves and others when navigating the roads.
Rule 204 of the Highway Code states that there are certain road users more at risk from road traffic, including pedestrians, particularly children, older adults and those with disabilities. The rule also sets out that those in charge of vehicles that can cause the greatest damage have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger they pose.
If there is a failure on the part of driver or rider to uphold their duty of care, and this causes you to become injured as a pedestrian in an accident, you may be able to claim.
Find out more about the eligibility for pedestrian accident claims by calling the number above.
How Could A Pedestrian Accident Occur?
Below, you can find examples of how a pedestrian accident could occur.
- You may be left with severe injuries, such as a traumatic amputation, from a hit and run accident caused by a driver speeding through a red light.
- A driver may lose control of the vehicle and swerve into you because they are distracted by their phone while driving. As a result, you sustain a severe head injury.
- If a driver fails to look before reversing into a side road or turning a corner, you may be run over. This could result in facial injuries, such as scarring, loss of teeth and broken bones.
- A driver may fail to stop at a zebra crossing you are walking on which can result in a pedestrian crossing accident. This leads to you sustaining a severe back injury leading to paralysis.
If you need to know more about pedestrian accident claims, please speak to one of our advisors. They can assess the circumstances that led to your injuries for free and if it seems like you might have an eligible claim, they could pass you onto one of the road traffic accident solicitors from our panel.
Calculating Compensation For Pedestrian Accident Claims
If your pedestrian accident claim against a driver is successful, your award could consist of two heads of loss: general and special damages.
General damages compensate for the physical pain and mental suffering caused by the injuries you sustained in the accident. Legal professionals refer to the compensation brackets found in a document titled the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) for guidance when valuing injuries.
We’ve included a table below with a few figures from the 16th edition of the JCG. However, it is only intended as guidance due to the unique circumstances of each case.
Compensation Table
| Injury | Notes | Compensation Bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Brain Damage - Very Severe | The person requires full-time nursing care. | £282,010 to £403,990 |
| Paralysis - Paraplegia | Paralysis of the lower limbs. | £219,070 to £284,260 |
| Back - Severe (iii) | This bracket covers soft tissue injuries that lead to chronic conditions. | £38,780 to £69,730 |
| Neck - Severe (iii) | The claimant suffers a permanent disability from injuries such as fractures, dislocations or soft tissue damage of a severe nature or tendons that have ruptured. | £45,470 to £55,990 |
| Leg - Severe (iv) | Moderate injuries such as complicated or multiple fractures affecting a single limb. | £27,760 to £39,200 |
| Elbow - Less Severe | Found in this bracket are injuries causing function impairments without resulting in major surgery or significant disability. | £15,650 to £32,010 |
| Ankle - Moderate | The claimant experiences less serious disabilities, such as difficulty standing for a long period of time from fractures or ligamentous tears. | £13,740 to £26,590 |
| Wrist - Less Severe | The claimant will have some permanent disability, such as a level of pain and stiffness. | £12,590 to £24,500 |
| Arm - Simple | A simple fracture to the forearm. | £6,610 to £19,200 |
| Foot - Modest | Simple metatarsal fractures, ruptured ligaments or puncture wounds. | Up to £13,740 |
Claiming Financial Losses After A Road Traffic Accident
Some settlements for pedestrian accident claims may also consist of special damages to compensate for financial losses caused by the injuries. If you are claiming for special damages, you should submit evidence of your costs. For example, invoices, bank statements and receipts can prove your financial losses.
Examples of some of the losses you could recover include:
- Costs related to mobility aids, such as wheelchair rental.
- Medication expenses, such as prescription costs.
- Your loss of earnings if you needed time off work to recover.
Our advisors can discuss personal injury settlements in more detail if you call on the number above.
What Evidence Could Help You Claim For Driver Negligence?
If you are seeking compensation, your personal injury claim must be supported with evidence. This needs to prove your injuries as well as the breach of duty that caused them.
Some examples of evidence that could prove useful for a personal injury claim include:
- The contact information from any witnesses so they can provide a statement later in the claims process.
- Any photographs or video footage of the accident, such as from a dashcam. Photographs of your injuries could also be useful.
- A copy of your medical records that state the nature of the injury along with the treatment needed.
- The police report, if applicable.
A solicitor from our panel with experience in handling pedestrian accident claims could help you collect supporting evidence. Find out if you could benefit from their services by calling an advisor. They could assess your case to determine whether you’re eligible to seek compensation, and connect you with a solicitor if you are.
Make A Pedestrian Accident Claim On A No Win No Fee Basis
If you are eligible to seek compensation for the injuries you suffered as a pedestrian, you may like to instruct a solicitor to work on your claim. One of the pedestrian accident claims solicitors from our panel could support your case. Their services are typically provided using a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a kind of No Win No Fee arrangement.
Solicitors that provide their services under a CFA won’t ask for upfront or ongoing payments to cover the work on your case. You also won’t be obliged to pay a fee for their services if your claim fails.
If your claim has a successful outcome, your solicitor will take a success fee out of your award. This fee is a percentage of your compensation and is subject to a legal cap.
Our advisors can answer any questions about pedestrian accident claims that you might have. They can also assess whether you have valid grounds for a claim and if you do, you could be connected to one of the solicitors from our panel.
To talk to an advisor:
- Fill in our ‘Contact us’ form for a call back.
- Call 0113 460 1216
- Connect via our live chat.
Learn More About Pedestrian Claims
Additional personal injury guides:
External resources that may help you:
- Highway Code – Rules for Pedestrians.
- Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) – Pedestrian Policy.
- NHS – When to Call 999.
If you have any further queries regarding pedestrian accident claims, or would like to find out if you are eligible for compensation, please get in touch with our advisors.
Writer Danielle Blythe
Editor Meg McConnell