Miami Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Who Pays When a Pedestrian Is Hit in Miami

This is the question that trips up almost every injured pedestrian, because Florida's no-fault system was designed around drivers, not people on foot. The key rule: PIP (Personal Injury Protection) follows the person, not just the car. Coverage is layered:

• Your own auto PIP first — even though you were walking. If you own a car, your own PIP (up to $10,000, paying 80% of medical bills and 60% of lost wages) covers you when you're struck as a pedestrian. If you don't own a car but live with a relative who does, that relative's PIP covers you.
• The striking vehicle's PIP if you have none. If you don't own a vehicle and have no resident relative with auto coverage, the PIP of the car that hit you pays your no-fault benefits.
• Seek treatment within 14 days. Florida PIP benefits generally require initial medical care within two weeks of the crash — a deadline that traps people who try to "walk it off."

Once your injuries meet the serious-injury threshold in Florida Statute §627.737(2) — a permanent injury, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or a permanent loss of an important bodily function — you can pursue the at-fault driver's bodily-injury (BI) liability coverage for everything PIP doesn't cover. And if that driver has too little insurance or none, your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage can step in. Identifying every layer of coverage is one of the most valuable things we do early in a motor-vehicle case.

The Toll of Pedestrian Accidents in Miami-Dade

Pedestrians have nothing to protect them in a collision, so the injuries are often catastrophic — traumatic brain injuries, spinal-cord damage, multiple fractures, and internal injuries requiring surgery and long-term care. Florida is consistently one of the deadliest states in the nation for people on foot: in 2023, the state recorded roughly 10,290 pedestrian crashes and 778 pedestrian deaths, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles — and Miami-Dade routinely records more pedestrian crashes and fatalities than any other county in Florida. When a pedestrian does not survive, surviving family members may have a wrongful-death claim.

Common Causes of Miami Pedestrian Crashes

Most pedestrian collisions in Miami-Dade happen at crosswalks, intersections, and parking lots when a driver breaches the duty of care the law imposes. The failures we see most often are:

• Distracted driving — texting or phone use that causes a driver to miss a pedestrian entirely.
• Failure to yield — ignoring a signal or a pedestrian's right of way at a crosswalk.
• Speeding and reckless driving on fast urban arterials like Biscayne Boulevard, Calle Ocho, Kendall Drive, and Collins Avenue.
• Left- and right-turn collisions — drivers watching for a gap in traffic instead of for people crossing.
• Impaired driving and poor nighttime visibility, especially on wide, poorly lit corridors.

We move quickly to obtain the crash report, canvass for surveillance and dashcam footage, and lock down witness statements to establish exactly how the collision happened.

Common Pedestrian Accident Injuries

Because nothing separates a pedestrian from a vehicle, injuries range from serious to life-altering: traumatic brain injuries and concussions, spinal-cord injuries and paralysis, broken bones and crush injuries, internal bleeding and organ damage, and permanent scarring. These injuries drive exactly the costs — future medical care, lost earning capacity, and lasting pain and limitation — that fall well outside a $10,000 PIP policy, which is why the liability and UM/UIM layers matter so much in a pedestrian case.

Fault, Comparative Negligence, and Why Insurers Deny Claims

Insurers routinely try to shift blame onto the injured pedestrian — alleging you crossed outside a crosswalk, entered against the signal, or "darted out." That's not just an excuse; under Florida's comparative-negligence law, fault assigned to you reduces your recovery. And since House Bill 837 (2023), Florida uses a modified standard: a person found more than 50% at fault recovers nothing. That makes early, independent investigation critical — because the insurer's version of events, left unchallenged, can wipe out an otherwise strong claim.

Even when a pedestrian bears some responsibility, the driver almost always shares fault too — a motorist who is speeding, distracted, or fails to keep a proper lookout does not escape liability simply because a pedestrian was mid-block. We build the evidence to keep fault where it belongs.

Florida's Two-Year Deadline

Under HB 837, the statute of limitations for a negligence-based injury or wrongful-death claim is two years from the date of the accident. (This was reduced from four years for older claims — a change that catches many people off guard, so do not rely on the old four-year figure.) Waiting costs more than time: surveillance footage is recorded over, vehicles are repaired, and witnesses' memories fade.

Why Miami's Streets Are Especially Dangerous for Pedestrians

Miami-Dade combines dense traffic, year-round visitors, and wide, high-speed arterials with stretches of poor lighting and long gaps between crosswalks. Tourist-heavy areas like Miami Beach and Brickell mix heavy foot traffic with congested roads, while suburban corridors in Hialeah, Kendall, and along US-1 see frequent high-speed collisions. Knowing how a specific intersection or corridor tends to fail pedestrians helps us reconstruct what happened and hold the responsible driver accountable. For broader injury help across the county, see our Miami personal injury team.

What to Do After a Pedestrian Accident in Miami

The steps you take in the first hours and days can make or break a claim:

• Get medical care immediately — even if you feel "okay." It protects your health, preserves your PIP eligibility (14-day rule), and documents the injury.
• Report the crash so an official police report is created and the driver's information and insurance are recorded.
• Document the scene — photos of the location, the vehicle, your injuries, crosswalks and signals, plus witness names and numbers.
• Don't give a recorded statement to the driver's insurer before speaking with a lawyer — those calls are used to build the comparative-fault argument against you.

We coordinate with authorities, gather the evidence, and deal with the insurance companies so you can focus on recovering.

Frequently Asked Questions