Pedestrian Accident Lawyer in Missouri

Who pays after a pedestrian accident in Missouri?

The driver who hit you pays, through that driver's liability insurance. Missouri has no personal injury protection and no no fault benefits for a pedestrian, so no policy opens automatically to cover your bills. The driver's insurer pays only when fault is shown, which is why proof matters from the first day. Meanwhile your health insurance covers treatment and is reimbursed from the settlement, and if you have no coverage, many providers will treat under an agreement to be paid from the recovery.

The driver is not always the only one who pays. If the vehicle belonged to someone else, the owner's policy is usually the one that responds. If the driver was working, delivering food, driving a rideshare trip or operating a company van, the employer's commercial policy is on the line. If a RideKC or Metro Transit bus, a police car or a city truck struck you, the claim runs through Missouri's sovereign immunity rules and their exceptions, covered below.

RSMo 303.025 requires every Missouri driver to carry liability insurance, and every policy sold in the state includes uninsured motorist coverage. That coverage follows you on foot. If the driver who hit you had no insurance, your own auto policy, or a household relative's policy, responds even though you were not in a car. Underinsured motorist coverage, which pays when the driver's limits are too low, is optional in Missouri, so we read every declarations page in your home.

Hit and run is the pedestrian's particular problem. A driver who leaves the scene commits a crime under RSMo 577.060, and finding that driver is the first job, through cameras, witnesses, paint transfer and the police investigation. If the driver is never found, uninsured motorist coverage on a household policy usually responds to a promptly reported hit and run. Missouri has no public fund for a pedestrian whose household carries no auto policy, so the search for the driver is the priority.

How much is a Missouri pedestrian accident claim worth?

A claim is worth what the crash took from you, added up one category at a time. Economic damages are the measurable losses: emergency and hospital bills, surgery, the physical therapy and future care your doctors expect, lost wages, lost benefits, the drop in what you can earn if you cannot return to your job, and out of pocket costs like rides to appointments and help at home. Non economic damages cover pain, scarring, the activities you have lost and the strain on your marriage and family.

Pedestrian injuries run serious because nothing stands between you and the vehicle. Fractures of the lower leg, pelvis and hip from the bumper, head injuries from the windshield or the pavement, and spinal injuries from the fall are the pattern. A fracture that heals in a cast sits at the low end. A fracture fixed with plates and screws, or a head injury with lasting memory problems, sits well above it. A spinal cord injury, an amputation or a death is valued in its own category.

Two things set the practical ceiling. The first is the share of fault assigned to you, because the insurer will argue you were outside the crosswalk to shrink it. The second is insurance. A driver with a state minimum policy cannot pay for a surgical injury, so we look for the vehicle owner, an employer, a rideshare company's commercial coverage and your own household underinsured coverage before we accept that the limit is the limit.

We do not quote a number on the first call. A figure offered before your doctors know how you will heal is a guess, and the insurer is counting on you to accept one. We explain the categories, gather the records and, once the medical picture is clear, put a demand on paper backed by evidence. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is decided on its own facts.

What if the insurance company denies or lowballs your Missouri pedestrian claim?

Expect it. The pedestrian claim is where adjusters lean hardest on fault, because the person on foot cannot point to a second car. The script is familiar: you darted out, you crossed against the signal, you were mid block, you wore dark clothing, you were on your phone. A denial or a low first offer built on that script is where the insurer starts, not where it ends.

The goal of every one of those arguments is a percentage. Because RSMo 537.765 reduces your recovery by your share of fault, an adjuster who cannot deny the claim will try to push your share as high as possible, and the recorded statement requested in the first days is where the number is built. A sentence like "I thought I had time to cross" becomes a 40 percent argument. Do not give that statement. Once you retain us, every call comes through our office.

We answer fault with evidence. The height of the damage on the vehicle and the distance you were thrown say a great deal about speed. Skid marks, lighting, weather and parked cars fix the sightlines. Signal timing records from the city's traffic engineers show whether you had the walk signal. Footage from storefronts, doorbells, traffic cameras and RideKC and Metro Transit buses shows what happened, and the driver's phone records show where the driver's eyes were. Where the physics are disputed we retain a reconstruction engineer.

The second line of attack is medical. The insurer will point to age related findings on an MRI, an old back complaint or a gap between the crash and your first doctor visit, then send you to a physician it chooses. We answer with your treating doctors, objective imaging and, where needed, a report tying each injury to the impact. A negligent driver is responsible for aggravating a condition you already had, so a prior history does not defeat the claim, it just requires careful documentation.

If the insurer will not pay a fair number once treatment is complete, we file suit in the circuit court for the county where you were hurt and put the driver, the footage and the medical experts on the record. Most Missouri pedestrian cases settle before trial. They settle for more when the insurer knows a jury will hear how fast the driver was going.

How long do you have to file a pedestrian accident claim in Missouri?

Five years from the date of the crash, under RSMo 516.120. That deadline protects your right to sue and nothing else. A pedestrian case is proved with footage that is overwritten within days, witnesses who were waiting at a bus stop and cannot be found a month later, and skid marks that wash away in the next rain. Five years to file is not five years to investigate.

A wrongful death claim runs on a shorter clock: three years from the date of death under RSMo 537.100. When a family member survives for days or weeks before passing, the two dates differ and we calendar both. Missouri lets the spouse, children or parents bring the claim directly and allows recovery for the loss of the person's companionship, comfort, guidance and support, for the pain the person suffered before death, and for funeral costs and lost financial support.

Pedestrian cases often involve a public defendant, and those claims follow different rules. A RideKC or Metro Transit bus, a City Utilities bus in Springfield, a police cruiser or a city truck brings in Missouri's sovereign immunity rules and their exception for the operation of motor vehicles. A failed crosswalk signal, an unmarked crossing or an unlit city street can bring in the exception for dangerous conditions of public property. Some cities require short written notice, so we identify every government defendant at intake.

Insurance deadlines run separately and sooner. Your own auto policy requires prompt notice of the crash even though you were on foot, and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage usually requires that you notify your carrier and get its consent before settling with the driver. Settling without that consent can forfeit the coverage. Reporting a hit and run to the police right away also matters, because insurers require a prompt report before they will pay an uninsured claim.

What should you do in the first 72 hours after a Missouri pedestrian accident?

Get medical care the same day, even if you walked away. A concussion, a hairline fracture or internal bleeding does not always show at the scene. University Health Truman Medical Center and Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Mercy Hospital Springfield and CoxHealth, and University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia are the state's Level I trauma centers. Children's Mercy and St. Louis Children's Hospital treat children. Tell every provider you were hit by a car.

Make sure police respond and a report is written, and get the report number. Inside the cities that is the Kansas City Police Department, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the Springfield Police Department or the Columbia Police Department; on the highways it is the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Photograph the spot where you were struck, the crosswalk or the lack of one, the signal, the lighting, the vehicle and its damage, any skid marks and your injuries. Get the driver's name, license, plate and insurance card.

Find the witnesses before they leave. Pedestrians are hit in front of stores, bus stops and schools where people saw what happened, and those people are gone within minutes. Then look for cameras: storefronts, gas stations, doorbells, traffic signals and RideKC and Metro Transit buses record the street, and most of that footage is overwritten within days. Tell us the location so preservation letters go out. If the driver seemed impaired, tell the officer. Driving while intoxicated is a crime under RSMo 577.010, and a conviction can be used in your civil case.

Notify your own auto insurer, if you have one, that you were hit as a pedestrian; that call preserves your uninsured motorist coverage. Do not give a recorded statement to the driver's insurer, do not sign anything from them and do not accept an early check. Keep a simple file of every bill, every appointment, every missed day of work and a short daily note about pain and what you could not do.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Medical benefits from the driver's policy where no fault applies
• Full pain and suffering claims for serious injuries
• Fault rules explained for people on foot
• Claims against city agencies for dangerous crossings
• Hit and run recovery through uninsured motorist coverage