Insurance Claims After a Pedestrian Accident
Pedestrian accidents involving motor vehicles lead to a disproportionate number of fatalities when compared to accidents involving solely vehicles. The reasoning behind this is clear. In a car, you have a seatbelt, airbags, and thousands of pounds of steel surrounding your body. But when you are a pedestrian, you have none of these things. Your most protective gear is a large, puffy coat if it is frigid outside. Thus, it is no wonder why pedestrian accidents make up about a third of motor vehicle-involved fatalities. This makes insurance claims for a DC pedestrian accident vital.
This page is designed to demystify the insurance process associated with pedestrian accidents. The insurance process drums up a lot of confusion. Perhaps the biggest reason for this in a pedestrian accident context is that you are not in a motor vehicle. You may think that this fact precludes you from making a claim with your insurance or the adverse driver’s insurance. But the reality is you still have plenty of options.
Understanding Your Coverage: Pedestrian Accidents
In a pedestrian accident, you have a few different coverage options. We will examine the two most common options.
Adverse Driver’s Insurance
The negligent driver’s insurance will be primary in your insurance claim for a pedestrian accident. If we can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the driver was negligent in causing your injuries, then he is legally liable. This is true regardless of whether he has an active insurance policy. If he does, we may proceed with the claim under his policy. In this instance, we proceed as we would if you were in a car at the time of the accident. Your lack of safety equipment as a pedestrian has no bearing on liability. In personal injury law, the defendant takes the pedestrian as he finds him.
This is known as the eggshell plaintiff rule. In other words, if you were an elderly adult, and the defendant tapped you with their car at five miles her hour, but that tap causes you to fall over and pass away due to a broken hip, they are responsible for your death.
Whether your injury is a broken hip or a fractured elbow, the rules regarding liability remain the same. Your recovery will then depend on how much we can prove you suffered as a result of the accident. If the adverse driver’s insurance policy does not cover your injuries, you may be able to use your underinsured coverage or UIM. However, you are not permitted to use your liability coverage if you discover that the adverse driver does have insurance and you record their policy information. You will run into trouble with your insurance carrier if you fail to record their information regardless.
Your Insurance
You use your insurance in two scenarios.
- The first is if the adverse driver performs a hit-and-run. If the driver hits you and flees the scene, you probably cannot get their insurance information. While performing a hit-and-run is a crime in DC, it happens with unfortunate regularity. Hopefully, there will be other people on the scene to capture the car’s tag number that hit you, and we can track down the vehicle’s owner. Although, in our experience, drivers who perform a hit-and-run turn out to have stolen it. Thus, the car’s owner would not be liable for your injuries. This leaves you to make an uninsured motorist claim. In almost all scenarios, you can do this despite not being in a car yourself.
- The second scenario is if the adverse driver stops to exchange information with you, and it turns out that they do not have insurance. In this instance, I still get his name and car information. We must do our due diligence to ensure he is missing coverage. If it eventually turns out that the driver has no insurance coverage, you may make an uninsured motorist claim (UM) on your policy. While never primary when you are at fault, it becomes primary when no other coverage exists.
Personal Injury Protection (PIP)
When discussing insurance claims for a pedestrian accident, we must briefly address PIP. PIP is a form of no-fault coverage covering lost wages and medical expenses before settlement. Not every insurance policy has PIP, as it costs extra to have it on your policy, and it is largely ineffective in DC. While it is a massive advantage if you live in Maryland, rules restricting PIP usage in DC make it almost worthless. However, if your accident is particularly bad, it may become necessary.
Here is what you need to know about PIP for a DC pedestrian accident.
First, there is a very short statute of limitations in DC for PIP. In Maryland, you have one year to file a PIP application. However, in DC, you have just 60 days from the accident date to file your PIP application. Moreover, in most cases, you may only make a PIP or bodily injury claim. A bodily injury claim is the claim you make to cover your medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Accordingly, you almost always should choose to make the bodily injury claim when forced to choose between the two.
However, you may make both if medical expenses exceed the liability policy available. This highlights the complexity of the DC PIP statute. This is why speaking with a DC pedestrian accident lawyer is imperative to discuss your insurance claim immediately.
Making an Insurance Claim After a Pedestrian Accident
Immediately after your pedestrian accident, we advise taking the following steps.
- Ensure your own safety and seek immediate medical attention if necessary. In the several hundred pedestrian accident cases we have handled, we know firsthand that the injuries can be gruesome. If your health is at risk, that should be your number one focus.
- Collect evidence. If you are able to, collect as much evidence as you can. Insurance companies are willing to negotiate a settlement if we can make our case with facts. Take pictures, gather insurance information, and take a picture of the car that hit you, including its license plate.
- Call a pedestrian accident lawyer. The steps to take following a pedestrian accident case are varied. There are deadlines that may or may not apply to your case. This makes time of the essence. Your best plan is to conduct a free, no-obligation consultation with an attorney like the ones our firm offers.
Toward the end of your case, our attorneys will negotiate a settlement for a fair and amicable resolution. When making an insurance claim, it is typically in the best interest of both parties to settle prior to litigation. Litigating a case is more expensive for both parties. It is also not ideal for you because, especially in Washington, D.C., it can extend the timeline of your case by years. Our personal injury lawyers have decades of experience negotiating pedestrian accident cases as part of your insurance claim. We are happy to help you, even if that does not mean taking your case to trial.
Set up a Free Consultation
Our skilled team of attorneys at Gelb & Gelb, P.C. is happy to answer any questions you have regarding the insurance claim process for a DC pedestrian accident. Call our office anytime at (202) 331-7227 for any questions.