Hit by a car
Hit by a car while walking or biking.
The short answer
- Drivers must yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, marked or unmarked, in all three states. Washington requires the driver to stop and stay stopped.
- Crossing outside a crosswalk is not the end of the claim. Drivers still owe due care to anyone on the road. It becomes a fault percentage, which is fatal only in Texas above 50 percent.
- Your own auto policy may pay even though you were on foot. Uninsured motorist and personal injury protection coverage usually follow the person, not the car.
- The driver who fled is covered by your uninsured motorist coverage in each state, with rules about contact, reporting and proof set out below.
- A crash at a badly designed crossing may be partly the city’s fault, which starts the short government claim clock.
In the crosswalk, and out of it
In all three states an intersection has crosswalks whether or not lines are painted there, with narrow exceptions. In California a driver must yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk or an unmarked one at an intersection. In Washington a driver must stop and remain stopped for a pedestrian who is on, or within one lane of, the driver’s half of the road. In Texas, where there is no working signal, a driver must stop and yield to a pedestrian on the driver’s half of the road or close enough to be in danger.
Outside a crosswalk the pedestrian must yield to traffic in Texas and Washington, and the California rules on crossing remain in force even though police there may no longer stop a pedestrian for it unless a collision is imminent. In every state the driver keeps a duty of due care toward anyone on the road. A driver who hits a visible pedestrian in the middle of a block has not been excused by the pedestrian’s mistake; the two mistakes are weighed against each other.
That weighing is comparative fault. In California and Washington it reduces the recovery and never eliminates it. In Texas a pedestrian found more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing, which is why the crosswalk question is argued so hard there.
Where the money comes from
The driver’s liability policy pays first, and the minimums are low: $30,000 per person in California and Texas, $25,000 in Washington. Most pedestrian injuries exceed that. Then your own auto insurance comes into play even though no car of yours was involved. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is written to protect the people on the policy, not only the car, and it often applies when an insured person is hit on foot; the same is often true of personal injury protection in Texas and Washington. Whether yours does depends on its words. If you have no auto policy, a policy held by a relative you live with may cover you. A lawyer reads the policies; many people are covered and do not know it.
Health insurance pays the hospital in the meantime and expects to be repaid from any recovery. The who pays the bills page explains that order.
When the road itself is part of the problem
A crossing with no signal where one was warranted, a crosswalk faded to nothing, a bus stop that puts people in the roadway, a sidewalk that ends: these are decisions a city or state agency made, and in some cases they share responsibility. The price of making that claim is a very short clock. California and Texas require a written claim within six months, and a Texas city’s charter may set less. Washington requires a tort claim form and a sixty day wait before suit. If the crossing looked wrong to you, say so to a lawyer in the first weeks.
The ordinary deadline against the driver is two years in California and Texas and three in Washington. The deadlines page lays them out.
The rules, with their sources
These are the rules of law this page relies on. Each one is a general statement with exceptions that are not shown, and each links to the statute, regulation or court decision it comes from.
| Topic | California | Texas | Washington |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pedestrians in a crosswalk | A driver must yield to a pedestrian crossing in a marked crosswalk or in an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. [1] | Where there is no working traffic signal, a driver must stop and yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk who is on the driver’s half of the road or close enough to be in danger. [2] | A driver must stop and stay stopped for a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk who is on, or within one lane of, the driver’s half of the road. [3] |
| Crossing outside a crosswalk | Since 2023 police may stop a pedestrian for crossing outside a crosswalk only when there is an immediate danger of a collision. The crossing rules themselves remain, and pedestrians still have to use due care for their own safety. [4] | A pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk must yield to vehicles. Drivers still have to use due care to avoid hitting anyone on the road. [5] | A pedestrian crossing anywhere else must yield to vehicles. Drivers still have to use due care to avoid hitting anyone on the road. [6] |
| If you were partly at fault | California reduces your damages by your percentage of responsibility. There is no cutoff: you can recover something even if you were mostly at fault. [7] | Texas reduces your damages by your percentage of responsibility. If you are found more than 50 percent responsible, you recover nothing. [8] | Your share of fault reduces your damages by that percentage but does not bar your claim. One exception: an injured person who was under the influence can be barred entirely if that was a cause of the injury and they were more than 50 percent at fault. [9] |
| Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage | Every auto liability policy includes uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless the insurer and a named insured removed or reduced it in a signed written agreement. [10] | An auto policy in Texas must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless a named insured rejected it in writing. If you never signed a rejection, you may have this coverage without knowing it. [11] | A new auto policy must include underinsured motorist coverage, which in Washington also covers uninsured, hit and run and phantom vehicles, unless the named insured or spouse rejected it in writing. [12] |
| Coverage for your own medical bills | California does not require drivers to carry coverage for their own medical bills. Medical payments coverage is optional. Where a policy has it, it can pay for immediate medical care no matter who was at fault. [13] | Personal injury protection (PIP) is part of every auto policy unless it was rejected in writing. The statute does not require an insurer to provide more than $2,500 per person, and PIP pays no matter who was at fault. [14] | Insurers must offer personal injury protection (PIP) with every auto policy, and it can only be declined in writing. The minimum benefits are $10,000 for medical and hospital care, plus limited amounts for lost income, household services and funeral costs. [15] |
| Deadline to sue for an injury | Generally two years for an injury caused by someone else’s wrongful act or carelessness. [16] | Two years from the day the claim arises. For most crashes and falls that is the day of the injury. [17] | Three years for most injury claims. [18] |
| Claims against a government agency | A written claim must be presented to the city, county, state agency or other public entity within six months. If the entity sends a proper written rejection, a lawsuit generally has to be filed within six months of that notice. A request to file late must be made within a reasonable time, not to exceed one year after the claim arose. The statute leaves a few narrow kinds of time out of that year. [19] | A city, county, school district or state agency must receive notice of the claim within six months of the incident. The notice describes the injury or damage, the time and place, and what happened. A city’s charter can set its own notice period, which may be shorter, so do not assume you have the full six months. [20] | Before suing a city, county or other local government, you must present a tort claim form to its designated agent and then wait 60 calendar days. Claims against the State go to the Office of Risk Management with the same 60 day wait. The form has to be presented within the normal limitation period, and that period is paused during the 60 days. [21] |
Sources
- Cal. Veh. Code § 21950
- Tex. Transp. Code § 552.003
- RCW 46.61.235
- Cal. Veh. Code §§ 21954, 21955
- Tex. Transp. Code §§ 552.005, 552.008
- RCW 46.61.240; RCW 46.61.245
- Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804; CACI No. 405
- Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 33.001, 33.012
- RCW 4.22.005; RCW 5.40.060
- Cal. Ins. Code § 11580.2(a)
- Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101
- RCW 48.22.030
- California Department of Insurance, Automobile Insurance Information Guide
- Tex. Ins. Code §§ 1952.152, 1952.153, 1952.155
- RCW 48.22.085; RCW 48.22.095
- Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1
- Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a)
- RCW 4.16.080(2)
- Cal. Gov. Code §§ 911.2, 911.4, 945.6
- Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101
- RCW 4.96.020; RCW 4.92.100; RCW 4.92.110
The rules on this page were last checked against these sources on October 3, 2026. Laws change, so follow the link before you rely on a rule.
Attorney review in progress. Responsible attorney: Emery Brett Ledger. Page last updated October 26, 2026.