Being hit while walking leaves you with injuries, bills, and questions no one prepared you for. If you are the one recovering, or the one making calls for a family member who cannot, an Oklahoma City pedestrian accident lawyer can take the next steps off your plate.
Graves McLain Injury Lawyers represents people hit while walking and families who lost someone in those crashes. Our Tulsa office serves clients across Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City, and we take the serious-injury and wrongful-death cases that can follow a pedestrian crash. Pedestrians accounted for 18 percent of all traffic deaths in the United States in a recent year, according to federal crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Consultations are free. You pay nothing unless we recover for you. Call (918) 359-6600 to talk with our team.
In an Oklahoma City pedestrian accident, the right-of-way depends on where and how the pedestrian crossed. State law requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks where no traffic signal is working, under Okla. Stat. tit. 47, § 11-502, and to pedestrians crossing on a Walk signal, while pedestrians crossing outside a crosswalk yield to vehicles.
Oklahoma’s rules of the road give pedestrians and drivers separate duties. The main rules work like this:
These rules frame the fault questions in a pedestrian claim, and each answer turns on the facts. Our team starts with where the crash happened, what the signal showed, and how well the area was lit.
Oklahoma law requires every driver to use due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian on any roadway, and that duty applies regardless of the right-of-way rules, under Okla. Stat. tit. 47, § 11-504. The driver’s duty stays in place even where the pedestrian was supposed to yield.
The same law requires drivers to sound the horn when necessary and to take proper precaution on seeing a child or a confused or incapacitated person on the road.
A pedestrian who crossed mid-block or stepped out between parked cars may share the fault, but the driver’s duty of care did not disappear. The question becomes how Oklahoma divides fault.
As Oklahoma City grows, more cars, pedestrians, and bicyclists share the same streets, a point behind the city’s Watch for Me OKC street safety campaign. We look at what the driver could see and do before impact, not only at where the pedestrian stood.
A pedestrian who was partly at fault for an accident in Oklahoma can still recover compensation under the state’s comparative negligence law, Okla. Stat. tit. 23, § 13. Recovery stays available as long as the pedestrian’s share of fault is not greater than the driver’s, or than all the drivers’ combined. A separate Oklahoma law then reduces any recovery in proportion to the pedestrian’s own share.
That means a pedestrian found more than half at fault recovers nothing, while a pedestrian found 20 percent at fault sees any award reduced by 20 percent.
Fault in a pedestrian case turns on questions the evidence must answer, including:
We gather crash reports, video, and witness accounts early so the fault picture rests on facts.
When more than one driver shares the blame, Oklahoma law makes each driver pay only the damages assigned to that driver’s share of fault, so we look at every driver who played a part.
Protect your financial future by understanding how to recover full compensation for every dollar lost following a pedestrian accident.
In Oklahoma City pedestrian accidents, a driver who leaves the scene or carries little insurance changes where compensation comes from, and both situations fall under Oklahoma’s uninsured motorist law, Okla. Stat. tit. 36, § 3636.
Nearly one in four pedestrians killed in traffic crashes were struck by hit-and-run drivers, according to the same federal data. Oklahoma law requires a driver in a crash that injures or kills someone to stop at the scene, or as close to it as possible, and remain there.
Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is part of Oklahoma auto policies unless the policyholder rejects it in writing. It protects people insured under the policy who are legally entitled to recover damages from uninsured and hit-and-run drivers. Oklahoma’s required UM disclosure form states that, unless the policy provides otherwise, this coverage protects the policyholder and family members living with them “while riding in any vehicle or while a pedestrian.”
A person hit while walking may be able to turn to their own auto policy, or that of a relative they live with, when the driver fled or had no insurance. We review every policy that may apply and handle notice to each insurer.
When a driver who hits a pedestrian in Oklahoma has too little insurance to cover the claim, Oklahoma’s uninsured motorist law can still apply. The law treats an insured vehicle whose liability limits are less than the amount of the claim as uninsured for UM purposes, which can include a driver carrying only Oklahoma’s minimum coverage.
The injured person’s own UM coverage can become a second source of payment, subject to the policy’s terms. When the vehicle was a commercial truck, the claim can add a motor carrier and its insurer, and people hurt in those crashes can work with Oklahoma City truck accident lawyers at the same firm.
When a City of Oklahoma City vehicle, signal, or street is involved in a pedestrian accident, the claim falls under Oklahoma’s Governmental Tort Claims Act. That law requires written notice to the city within one year of the loss before any lawsuit, under Okla. Stat. tit. 51, § 156.
The claim must be in writing, and for Oklahoma City it goes to the City Clerk’s Office through the city’s tort claim filing process. The city then has 90 days to act, and a claim not approved in full within that time is treated as denied.
After a denial, a lawsuit must be filed within 180 days, and we track each deadline from day one.
The Act also shields a city from some claims, including those tied to a missing, damaged, misplaced, or malfunctioning traffic sign or signal. That protection falls away if the city had notice of the problem and did not correct it within a reasonable time. The Act bars punitive damages against a city and limits what a city can pay.
Oklahoma City is home to the District Court for Oklahoma County and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. A fall on a broken sidewalk with no vehicle involved is a premises claim rather than a pedestrian crash, and people hurt that way can speak with Oklahoma City slip and fall lawyers at our firm.
Graves McLain Injury Lawyers represents pedestrians and families across Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City, in serious-injury and wrongful-death cases. In one year of federal crash data, Oklahoma recorded 77 pedestrian deaths out of 645 traffic deaths.
Nationwide, 84 percent of pedestrian deaths happened in urban areas and 76 percent in the dark. That year, 7,080 pedestrians were killed and more than 71,000 were injured across the country, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Founding attorneys Daniel B. Graves and W. Chad McLain built the firm around serious cases for seriously injured people. For a pedestrian client, that means building the fault picture from signal, lighting, and witness evidence and identifying every insurance policy that may apply, including the client’s own UM coverage. When the city is involved, we handle the notice deadlines under the Governmental Tort Claims Act.
Clients in Tulsa, Broken Arrow, and Owasso reach our Oklahoma pedestrian accident attorneys through our Tulsa office, which also serves families in Oklahoma City. You pay nothing unless we recover for you. Call (918) 359-6600 for a free consultation.
These answers cover common questions in Oklahoma City pedestrian cases.
A pedestrian hurt in Oklahoma has two years to file a personal injury lawsuit under Oklahoma’s statute of limitations, Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95. A claim against the City of Oklahoma City has an earlier first step, since written notice must reach the city within one year of the loss.
A driver who hits a pedestrian in Oklahoma must give a correct name, address, and vehicle registration number, and on request must show a driver license and security verification form, the state-approved proof of insurance. The driver must also give reasonable assistance to anyone injured, including arranging transport for treatment when it is clearly needed or requested.
The minimum car insurance in Oklahoma is liability coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage. When a pedestrian’s claim runs higher than those limits, the injured person’s own UM coverage can come into play.
When a pedestrian is killed in Oklahoma, the personal representative of the person’s estate can bring a wrongful death action within two years under Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 1053. Recoverable categories include medical and burial expenses, the person’s own mental pain and anguish, and the survivors’ financial loss.
Damages can also cover the surviving spouse’s grief and loss of consortium, meaning the loss of the marriage relationship, along with the grief and lost companionship of the person’s children and parents. If a city vehicle or street was involved, the personal representative can give the city notice within one year after the death.
Oklahoma’s pedestrian rules apply to people using wheelchairs, including motorized wheelchairs. A person operating a wheelchair has all the rights and duties of a pedestrian under the state’s rules of the road, except provisions that by their nature cannot apply.
Oklahoma drivers have an added duty around children: a driver who sees a child on a roadway must take proper precaution. That duty applies regardless of the right-of-way rules and whether the child was in a crosswalk.
Graves McLain Injury Lawyers represents pedestrians hurt in Oklahoma City and their families from our Tulsa office. A consultation with an Oklahoma City pedestrian accident lawyer on our team is free. You pay nothing unless we recover for you.
We can review the crash, the insurance that may apply, and any deadline tied to a city claim. Call (918) 359-6600 to speak with our team.
