Birmingham Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Pedestrian accidents occur when a vehicle strikes a pedestrian when they’re crossing the road, exiting a vehicle, or even standing on the sidewalk. These accidents can cause traumatic and life-threatening injuries, making seeking compensation through a personal injury lawsuit essential for pedestrians who need to cover their medical bills and other losses.

If you were struck by a vehicle in Birmingham, Alabama, you can file a pedestrian accident claim to recover compensation for your injuries. Attorney April H. Collins and her dedicated team at Collins Law, LLC are ready to assist you with all your legal needs.

Contact Attorney Collins today for a free consultation about your case. During your initial meeting, you’ll learn how our Birmingham personal injury lawyer combines integrity, honesty, empathy, and compassion to seek the compensation you deserve.

What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Birmingham Pedestrian Accident Lawyer?

Hiring a lawyer to handle your case comes with many benefits. Your pedestrian accident attorney will investigate the accident, assist you with filing your lawsuit, negotiate with the insurance companies, and represent you in court. A local attorney also knows the area, including where the accident occurred, and will be familiar with the local court procedures.

In addition to these benefits, Attorney Collins goes above and beyond for every one of her clients by:

• Working to reduce their clients’ accident-related medical bills upon the resolution of their cases
• Never taking home more money than her accident victim clients when reaching a settlement or getting a victory in court for their cases
• Empowering accident victims who feel marginalized by providing dedicated representation and seeking the compensation they need
• Providing compassionate emotional support to accident victims and their families

What Should You Do After a Pedestrian Accident?

After a pedestrian accident injury, it’s vital that you take certain steps to protect your legal right to seek compensation. The most important steps to take include:

• Continuing Medical Treatment – While seeking immediate medical treatment is essential after an injury, continuing your treatment until you recover or reach maximum medical improvement (MMI) is just as essential. By continuing your medical treatment, you’re showing the insurance company that you took your injuries seriously.
• Keeping Your Medical Bills – Retain all medical invoices you receive for your treatments, prescriptions, and medical devices. Your Birmingham pedestrian accident attorney will rely on these bills when calculating your losses. Ultimately, you will seek reimbursement or payment for these bills through your injury lawsuit.
• Recording Your Memory of the Incident – While your memories of the accident are still fresh, write them down. A fully litigated injury lawsuit can take a year or more to conclude, so these notes will serve as a crucial reminder of specific details you may need to recall.
• Avoiding Giving a Statement – Insurance adjusters may wish to speak to you shortly after the incident. It’s in your best interest not to provide them with a statement about the accident or your injuries until after consulting a pedestrian accident lawyer. These insurance adjusters want you to say something they can use to harm your case, and your lawyer will coach you through what to say to avoid that.
• Contacting a Pedestrian Accident Lawyer – One of the best things you can do for your case is to contact an experienced pedestrian accident law firm like Collins Law. Having a knowledgeable lawyer on your side can increase your odds of receiving a favorable outcome in your case.

Who Can Be Held Liable for a Pedestrian Accident?

When a pedestrian is hit by a car, there are typically two primary parties who could be held liable for the resulting injuries. These parties are:

• Drivers – The most common liable party in a pedestrian accident is the driver of the vehicle that struck the pedestrian. Drivers are responsible for paying attention to the road and being prepared to stop if a pedestrian is in the road. Unfortunately, driver negligence often results in severe or even fatal injuries to pedestrians.
• Employers – If the driver who struck you was performing job-related tasks at the time of the accident, their employer may also be liable. This is especially true if your attorney can prove that the employer’s business practices, such as pressuring drivers to speed to make more deliveries, contributed to the collision.

Something to keep in mind is that Alabama follows the common law rule of contributory negligence for injury lawsuits. Under this rule, if you share any degree of fault for the accident, you cannot recover compensation for any of your accident-related losses.

Understanding contributory negligence is important because the driver’s insurance provider will likely argue that you were partly at fault for the incident. They may claim that you were looking at your phone instead of checking for traffic or that you “suddenly appeared” in the road. Part of your attorney’s job is to fight back against these claims to protect your right to obtain compensation for your injuries.

What Compensation Can You Recover After a Pedestrian Accident?

Victims can recover pedestrian accident compensation for a variety of accident-related losses, including:

• Medical expenses for your hospital stays, surgeries, medical treatments, medical devices, prescription medications, and physical therapy
• Lost wages due to being off work while you recover from your injuries
• Loss of future earning potential if your injuries impact your ability to work into the future
• The physical pain and emotional suffering you experience due to your injuries
• Funeral and burial costs if a loved one died as a result of their injuries

How Long Do You Have to File a Pedestrian Accident Lawsuit in Alabama?

According to Alabama’s personal injury statute of limitations, you have two years from the date of your accident to file a pedestrian accident lawsuit. If you fail to file your lawsuit within this period, you may be barred from seeking compensation in court. A Birmingham pedestrian accident attorney understands the process of filing your lawsuit within this period.

How Many Pedestrians Are Killed in Birmingham and Alabama Each Year?

According to Smart Growth America, about 25 pedestrians die in accidents in the Birmingham metro area each year, making it the 39th most dangerous metro area in the country for pedestrians.

Statewide, the picture is more concerning. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that Alabama had 114 pedestrian deaths in a recent year, ranking it 18th most dangerous among states when adjusted for population (fatalities per 100,000 people). Raw fatality counts also place Alabama high nationally — it ranked 9th in the nation for total pedestrian deaths in recent data.

Pedestrian-Car Accidents: More Common Than You Know

Even if you drive daily, you also spend part of your day as a pedestrian — walking through neighborhoods, crossing streets, or moving through parking lots. That’s why pedestrian safety matters to everyone.

Nationally, the most recent NHTSA statistics show that in 2019, pedestrians accounted for 17% of all traffic fatalities — one pedestrian killed every 85 minutes. The problem worsened in 2020, with pedestrian deaths rising more than 20% even as overall traffic decreased due to stay-at-home orders.

The trend in Alabama mirrors the national increase. According to a 2019 Alabama Department of Transportation report, pedestrian-involved traffic fatalities nearly doubled from 63 in 2010 to higher numbers by 2019, contributing to the state’s elevated national ranking.

What Are the Main Causes of Pedestrian Accidents?

The main causes of pedestrian accident cases all have to do with driver negligence. Some of the most common are:

• Distracted Driving – Drivers who are texting, talking on the phone, eating, or being distracted in some other way may fail to see pedestrians in the road.
• Speeding – Drivers who are speeding may not be able to stop in time if a pedestrian enters the road. Speeding decreases a driver’s reaction time and increases their vehicle’s stopping distance.
• Drunk Driving – Intoxicated drivers may not notice pedestrians in the road or may strike pedestrians who are on the sidewalk. These drivers may also be more likely to flee the scene of an accident.
• Failure to Yield – When a driver fails to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians in a crosswalk, it can lead to an accident.
• Blind Spots – Drivers who don’t check their blind spots before turning or backing up could strike a pedestrian hidden by part of their vehicle.

Pedestrian-Car Accidents: Why They’re So Dangerous

The average sedan weighs about 3,500 pounds. The average person weighs about 180 pounds. When you add in the fact that cars are covered in metal and people are not, humans are at a distinct disadvantage in pedestrian-car accidents.

In addition, cars move much faster than people. When a car is moving quickly, it takes force to stop it. (Imagine slamming on your brakes.) However, all the energy that the car has built up has to go somewhere. (Imagine being thrust forward after you hit those brakes.) When a car hits something, it will transfer this energy to the hit object. Cars are built to absorb this impact. Humans are not.

When a 3,500-pound metal car hits a human body at a high speed, nothing good happens. The most common injuries in pedestrian-car accidents occur to the lower body (legs, knees, ankles), the head and neck, or the upper extremities (arms, elbows, wrists). Injured pedestrians can suffer broken bones or serious injuries to the neck, brain, or spine. However, because cars are so dangerous, accident injuries in any contact between a car and a human have the potential to be life-threatening or fatal.

Pedestrian-Car Accidents: Causes and Risk Factors

Any pedestrian can be hit by a car at any time. However, certain factors do seem to increase the risk of a collision.

• Time of Day
  Pedestrian-car accidents are far more common at night. In fact, nearly 80 percent of these impacts occur during nighttime hours.
• City vs. Country
  Over 80 percent of pedestrian-car crashes happen in cities.
• Parking Lots
  Drivers tend to be distracted in parking lots, leading to increased accident risk.
• Jaywalking
  Nearly 75 percent of pedestrian-car accidents happen outside of intersections.
• Left Turns
  Roughly 25 percent of all crashes involving pedestrians occur when a driver is making a left turn.
• Alcohol and Drug Use
  In almost half of pedestrian-car crashes, either the driver or the pedestrian had been recently drinking.

How an Attorney Can Help When a Pedestrian Is Hit by a Car

A pedestrian-car crash can lead to serious injuries, piles of medical bills, and lost income. But an attorney can help you with these issues.

First, a personal injury attorney can help you deal with insurance companies. If you’re hit by a car while walking, you’ll likely need to speak to the driver’s insurance company as well as your own medical insurer. An experienced accident attorney can help you talk to these companies without harming your recovery.

Second, a car crash attorney can help you with legal issues. For instance, the driver might argue that the accident was your fault. Under Alabama law, this could keep you from recovering anything. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you respond to these arguments.

Third, a lawyer can help you maximize your damages. In addition to your physical injuries and medical bills, you might be entitled to recover for other things like pain and suffering. An injury lawyer knows how to make these arguments.

Contact a Birmingham Pedestrian Accident Attorney Today

Have you suffered an injury in a Birmingham, Alabama pedestrian accident? If so, contact Collins Law today for a free consultation. Our team will review your case, explain your legal options, and walk you through what to expect from the personal injury lawsuit process.

We are ready to help you seek the compensation you deserve for your injuries. Reach out to us today to get started.