How Long Does It Take to Get an Insurance Offer in a Case With a Pedestrian Hit by a Car?

It happens in an instant. One moment you’re picking up coffee, and the next, first responders surround you. Unfortunately, recovering insurance compensation after a pedestrian accident is far from as instantaneous.

Negligent drivers may flee the scene, deny liability, or blame the victim. Insurers often demand extensive medical records and delay payment during pedestrian accident investigations before denying or shifting liability onto innocent claimants. Unrepresented pedestrians seldom obtain reasonable insurance settlement offers after car accidents without dedicated legal counsel.

Injured pedestrians should expect insurance pushback after being hit by cars, but the right pedestrian accident lawyer may help claimants overcome these common delaying tactics and recover the compensation they need.

Common Causes of Pedestrian Car Accidents in the United States

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC), car accidents injure over 100,000 pedestrians and kill another 6,000 each year. Most pedestrian fatalities occur in urban areas at night, with nearly one in five deaths attributed to driver intoxication.

Additional factors contributing to pedestrian crashes include:

Excessive speeding often causes life-altering or fatal injuries following pedestrian accidents. Pedestrian deaths and serious injuries increase by six percent for every additional one mile per hour vehicles travel before impact. Pedestrians have a 90 percent chance of surviving crashes at 20 miles per hour but only a 20 percent chance of surviving impacts above 30 miles per hour.

Higher speeds also reduce the driver’s peripheral vision—exactly what operators need to spot pedestrians entering and exiting roadways. Abiding by local speed limits, especially in school zones and business districts, can prevent or mitigate many pedestrian injuries and deaths. In fact, speed limits exist for this purpose, yet drivers continue to ignore them.

Serious Injuries Sustained When Vehicles Strike Pedestrians

Pedestrians frequently suffer from more serious injuries than vehicle occupants following accidents. Even slow-moving vehicles often cause primary and secondary impact injuries to innocent walkers.

Primary impact injuries, or those caused directly by the car’s impact, often include broken hips, contusions, broken ribs, tendon damage, and spinal disc herniations. High-speed impacts cause substantial damage when the crash force results in major chest cavity trauma. This immediate trauma may result in punctured lungs and traumatic heart attacks, and even four minutes without enough oxygen can cause permanent brain damage.

The impact angle and height differential between vehicles and pedestrians often dictates the type of direct-impact trauma sustained. For example, children more often suffer from fatal chest and head injuries following pedestrian accidents due to their height.

In many cases, secondary impact injuries cause the most serious pedestrian trauma. Additional injuries often occur when the impact force propels pedestrians onto the pavement. Head-on pavement impacts often result in serious or fatal traumatic brain injuries, especially when cars suddenly push pedestrians backward.

Secondary-impact trauma may include:

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) – TBI often occurs when pedestrians’ heads smack the hard pavement following vehicle impact. Unlike cyclists, pedestrians do not have the added protection of helmets. Brain hemorrhaging and skull fractures may also occur following traffic accidents involving walkers and runners.
• Vision loss – This condition occurs when the brain’s occipital lobe, located at the back of the head, sustains serious trauma. Double vision, difficulty processing visual stimuli, and blindness might all occur after pedestrian accidents.
• Burns—Both friction and thermal burns may occur if the impact pushes pedestrians across rough pavement or traps them under hot vehicles. Burns are extremely painful injuries that frequently necessitate multiple surgeries and infection management.
• Compression fractures and amputations—Bone crushing injuries, such as compression fractures, often occur when the negligent driver runs over the pedestrian or the crash force propels the pedestrian in front of another vehicle. Serious leg and arm fractures may permanently damage the limb’s bone marrow, muscles, and blood vessels. As such, doctors must sometimes perform life-saving amputations.
• Spinal cord damage – A combination of primary and secondary impacts may herniate pedestrians’ spinal discs, damage delicate spinal nerves, and fracture essential vertebrae. Most pedestrians suffer from some level of spinal trauma following the collision. These injuries may vary from whiplash after low-speed impacts to paralysis if negligent drivers irreparably damage pedestrians’ spinal cords.

In most cases, careless drivers must compensate injured pedestrians for all foreseeable injuries stemming from the initial impact. This liability often includes injuries sustained when one vehicle pushes the pedestrian into oncoming traffic and a second impact occurs.

Filing Auto Insurance Claims following Pedestrian Injuries

Approximately 90 percent of pedestrian-car accident cases settle with liable auto insurers within fourteen months. Most claimants have 30 to 90 days to file bodily injury claims with the negligent driver’s insurance policy, which triggers the liability review process. The driver’s insurance adjuster may contact unrepresented claimants directly or wait for claimants to file insurance claims.

The accident review process can take anywhere from one to six months, depending on the claimant’s injuries and available evidence. Injured pedestrians should not accept any money offered from liability insurers during this period without speaking with local pedestrian accident lawyers.

Unfortunately, some insurance companies trick unrepresented claimants into unwittingly settling their injury claims for nominal sums shortly after the crash. These settlements often don’t come close to covering a claimant’s injury-related losses.

Allowing an attorney to gather and submit the following initial evidence for liable insurers could expedite the claims review and settlement process:

• Certified police report
• Witness statements and contact information
• Certified emergency room and ambulance records
• Medical records from any treating physicians or therapists
• Photographs of the accident scene and injuries
• Video evidence from traffic cameras, dash cams, and private security systems
• Statements from the victim, friends, and family about the impact of the accident on the claimant’s daily activities
• Pay stubs and evidence of lost income

Liable insurance adjusters typically ask for these records during the claims process. They may also request the claimant’s prior medical records to compare with post-accident medical claims. With legal assistance, claimants finished with their medical treatment may settle their pedestrian accident cases within six months. Pedestrians suffering from life-altering injuries, continuing pain, and potential accident-related disabilities should not settle their cases without seeking professional legal and medical advice.

Average Settlement Timeline After Pedestrian Accidents

Most viable pedestrian accident claimants obtain reasonable settlement offers take time to resolve. However, numerous factors affect settlement timelines for pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions. Add three to six months following medical recovery or maximum medical improvement certification to approximate your claim’s settlement time frame.

Following the end of your treatment protocol, attorneys and adjusters can request finalized copies of medical records, bills, and lost earning statements. Claimants can also prepare statements about their injuries’ impact on their daily activities, previous enjoyments, career, and social lives.

Attorneys and adjusters typically calculate the claim’s overall value based on your records and state law before negotiating reasonable settlements. The following factors commonly impact the time frame and value associated with pedestrian accident settlement offers.

Injury Type

The more serious the claimant’s injuries, the longer it often takes to settle pedestrian accident cases. Lawyers and insurance adjusters need to estimate the claim’s overall value before making settlement demands and offers. Claimants must finish treating or obtain a reasonable prognosis to calculate their damages accurately.

These calculations often require economic experts with experience determining claimants’ anticipated losses based on their recovery timeframe. Make precise demands, because insurers issue lump-sum settlements that waive future compensation rights. Pedestrians demanding early settlements risk losing their right to demand additional damages for sudden medical complications and job loss.

Disabilities & Career Impact

Viable pedestrian injury claims give rise to liability. This civil liability allows claimants to demand compensatory damages, which is direct compensation for losses stemming from the injuries. These losses commonly include medical bills and lost wages.

However, damages also cover lost career opportunities and employment benefits. Claimants with physically demanding careers may require alternative employment following pedestrian accidents, and some traumatic brain injuries can prevent claimants from ever working in their professional capacities again. In such cases, experienced pedestrian accident lawyers frequently retain occupational experts to analyze the claimant’s lost career value. This analysis takes time and often involves Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) evaluations.

Claims involving career-ending disabilities often take between two and three years to settle. Insurers often fight these high-value claims by demanding injured pedestrians obtain new careers or apply for SSDI benefits. In many disabling injury cases, attorneys must file litigation and obtain liability judgments before insurers make reasonable settlement offers. The parties may agree on liability but disagree on the nature of the claimant’s lost income and career value.

Insurance Limits

All car accident claims have maximum insurance values. While injured pedestrians could sustain over $300,000 in damages, the negligent driver may only carry $50,000 in liability insurance. Insurers might offer quick policy payouts in these high-value cases, but accepting these offers often means waiving any future compensation rights against negligent drivers.

Your attorney may recommend filing litigation in such cases to demand compensation directly from the negligent defendants. Claimants might also recover additional damages from their underinsured motorist policies, even after pedestrian accidents, depending on state law.

Attorneys often recommend accepting insurance settlement offers for numerous reasons. Unlike most negligent drivers, insurers offer quick and certified lump-sum payments. Injured claimants also risk forcing defendants without substantial assets into federal bankruptcy proceedings. Bankruptcy petitions automatically stop ongoing litigation and could clear the defendant’s unpayable judgments. Bankruptcy proceedings might also take years to finalize, leaving claimants desperate for needed compensation.

In some cases, experienced attorneys may recommend accepting insurance payouts and applying for private benefits following serious pedestrian accidents. However, this is not the case in every situation, and you want an attorney who will advise the best course of action based on your specific circumstances.

Damages Recoverable Following Pedestrian-Motor Vehicle Accidents

After pedestrian crashes, injured claimants may demand financial compensation for their direct economic losses and mental suffering. These demands may include past damages, such as overdue medical bills, and future anticipated losses related to the crash. Maintaining clear records of the following compensable damages could expedite the pedestrian injury settlement process:

• Ambulance and emergency room bills
• Doctors and specialist expenses, including any coinsurance or copays
• Physical therapy
• At-home or in-patient nursing care
• Specialized medical transportation and equipment
• Medications and pharmacy costs
• Invoices for necessary household help, such as cooking and cleaning services
• Lost income
• Lost career opportunities, including advancements and promotions
• Lost job benefits, including retirement contributions, paid vacation, and healthcare premium payments

Additionally, claimants may demand non-economic damages for losses without direct monetary value.

These pain and suffering damages may include financial demands for:

• Lost enjoyment of previous activities, such as cooking, traveling, painting, and exercising
• Physical pain and limitations, including difficulties sitting, standing, or sleeping without aggravation
• Natural frustrations associated with lost independence, pain, and fatigue
• Mental suffering, including developing PTSD, depression, and related conditions linked to the accident
• Lost spousal companionship (loss of consortium damages available to claimants and spouses in some states)

The amount of non-economic damages you can recover will depend on the severity of your injury. Injured pedestrians may get more from disabling injuries, especially when the accident sent them from active to sedentary lifestyles. Certain aggravating factors, such as driver intoxication and excessive speeding, might also result in quicker and higher settlement offers.

The Benefits of Obtaining Legal Counsel to Negotiate Pedestrian Accident Settlements

Some injured pedestrians file insurance claims without legal assistance. However, this seldom results in reasonable settlement offers. Most insurers take advantage of unrepresented claimants by offering only nominal settlements, blaming victims, and devaluing the nature of their injuries. Retaining counsel may substantially increase the claimant’s settlement offer overnight and expedite the claim’s process.

Pedestrian accident lawyers frequently help claimants gather necessary records to challenge insurers demanding excessive evidence designed to frustrate claimants into accepting lowball offers. Consult the best pedestrian accident attorney near you today for more information.