Hit by a Car While Walking in Alabama: What to Do and Who Pays
If you’re hit by a car while walking in Alabama, call 911, get medical care the same day, and get the police report number before you leave the scene. The driver’s liability insurance is usually the first place to look for payment, and your own uninsured motorist coverage may pay if the driver left the scene or has no insurance. Because Alabama bars recovery when the injured person is even slightly at fault, the evidence gathered in the first few days often decides whether a pedestrian claim can go forward.
October is National Pedestrian Safety Month. Alabama pedestrian deaths fell to 100 in 2025, down from 125 in 2024, according to preliminary state data compiled by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). That’s real progress, but it still means nearly two people killed on foot in Alabama every week.
What should you do right after being hit by a car?
Call 911, get medical care the same day, and collect the driver’s information, photos, and witness names before you leave the scene. Here’s the order that protects both your health and a possible claim:
- Get out of the roadway if you can do it safely. If moving causes neck or back pain, stay still and wait for paramedics.
- Call 911 and ask for police and medical help. Alabama law requires a driver to stop after a crash that injures someone, and the officer’s report becomes the record insurers rely on. Ask for the report number.
- Get the driver’s name, phone number, license plate, and insurance company. If the driver leaves, write down everything you remember: color, make, direction of travel, any part of the plate.
- Photograph the spot where you were hit, the crosswalk or the lack of one, traffic signals, streetlights, the vehicle, and your injuries.
- Get names and phone numbers from anyone who saw it. Look for cameras on nearby businesses, homes, and buses, since footage is often recorded over within days.
- See a doctor that day, even if you walked away. Head and internal injuries can take hours to show up, and a same-day record ties the injury to the crash.
- Keep the shoes and clothes you were wearing, unwashed. They can show where and how the vehicle hit you.
- Tell your own auto insurer about the crash promptly, even though you weren’t driving. Your policy may cover you as a pedestrian, and most policies require quick notice.
- Don’t give a recorded statement to the driver’s insurer before you understand your rights. What you say about where you were walking can be used to argue you were at fault.
Who has the right-of-way in Alabama, the pedestrian or the driver?
In a crosswalk, the pedestrian usually has the right-of-way. Alabama Code § 32-5A-211 requires drivers to yield, slowing down or stopping if needed, to a pedestrian crossing in a marked or unmarked crosswalk where there’s no working traffic signal. Drivers also can’t pass a car that has stopped at a crosswalk to let someone cross.
Outside a crosswalk, the rule reverses. Under § 32-5A-212, a pedestrian crossing anywhere other than a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection must yield to vehicles. Between two intersections that both have working signals, pedestrians may cross only in a marked crosswalk. Crossing an interstate or expressway on foot is the deadliest choice of all: GHSA found that more than half of pedestrian crashes on expressways from 2019 to 2024 were fatal.
Two other rules come up in nearly every case. Section 32-5A-211(b) says a pedestrian can’t suddenly leave a curb and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that’s too close to stop. And § 32-5A-213 requires every driver to use due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian, to sound the horn when necessary, and to take extra care around children and anyone who appears confused or incapacitated. That duty applies even when the pedestrian doesn’t have the right-of-way.
Can you still recover if you weren’t in a crosswalk?
Sometimes, but it’s harder in Alabama than in most states. Alabama follows contributory negligence: if a jury finds the injured person was even partly at fault, that person generally recovers nothing on a negligence claim. Insurers know this, and in pedestrian cases they often argue the person crossed in the wrong place or wore dark clothing at night.
Three parts of Alabama law can still keep a claim alive:
- The last clear chance doctrine. If the driver saw the pedestrian in danger with enough time to avoid the crash and failed to act, the pedestrian’s earlier mistake may not bar recovery.
- Wantonness. Contributory negligence isn’t a defense to a wantonness claim, which requires proof that the driver acted with reckless or conscious disregard for the safety of others.
- Young children. Alabama law conclusively presumes that a child under seven can’t be contributorily negligent.
Each of these depends on proof: how fast the driver was going, what the driver could see, and how long the pedestrian was visible before impact. That’s why video, lighting conditions, and witness accounts carry so much weight in pedestrian cases.
Who pays if the driver left the scene?
Your own uninsured motorist coverage may pay. Alabama Code § 32-7-23 requires auto insurers to include uninsured motorist (UM) coverage unless the policyholder rejects it in writing, and Alabama treats an unidentified hit-and-run driver as uninsured for UM purposes. UM coverage on a household auto policy often protects the policyholder and relatives who live in the home even when they’re on foot. Check your policy’s definition of “insured” and its notice requirements, and report the crash to police and your insurer quickly.
Hit-and-runs are common in pedestrian deaths. GHSA’s analysis of federal crash data found that drivers fled the scene in 23.8% of 2024 pedestrian deaths, and in more than one in four of those that happened at night. For more on how this coverage works, see our guide to uninsured motorist coverage in Alabama.
What if you were hit in a parking lot?
The same driver duties apply in a parking lot. A driver backing out of a space or cutting across rows has to watch for people on foot. In some cases the property owner may share responsibility, for example where lighting is broken or the lot’s layout forces shoppers to walk through traffic lanes. Those claims turn on the specific facts and fall under premises liability law. Call police even though the crash happened on private property, and photograph the lighting, signs, and walkways.
What happens when a pedestrian is killed?
The family can bring a wrongful death claim through the personal representative of the person’s estate. Alabama’s wrongful death law is unusual: damages are punitive, based on the wrongfulness of the defendant’s conduct rather than the family’s financial losses. The claim generally must be filed within two years of the death. For more, see our wrongful death page.
How long do you have to file a pedestrian injury claim in Alabama?
You generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in Alabama (Ala. Code § 6-2-38), and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim (Ala. Code § 6-5-410). Insurance notice deadlines are much shorter and are set by each policy, so report the crash to your insurer right away.
Why do pedestrian crashes increase in the fall?
Darkness is the biggest factor. Federal crash data shows 76.5% of 2024 pedestrian deaths with known lighting conditions happened after dark. Daylight saving time ends Sunday, November 1, 2026, which moves sunset about an hour earlier and puts more people walking home from work, school, and bus stops after dark. Some states told GHSA they see pedestrian crashes rise once daylight saving time ends. Vehicle size plays a part too: SUVs, pickups, and vans were the striking vehicle in about half of 2024 pedestrian deaths where the vehicle type was known.
Quick reference: pedestrian crashes in Alabama
| Situation | Main legal question | Where payment usually comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Hit in a crosswalk | Did the driver yield as § 32-5A-211 requires? | Driver’s liability insurance |
| Hit crossing mid-block | Contributory negligence; did the driver have the last clear chance? | Driver’s liability insurance, if an exception applies |
| Hit-and-run | Can the crash be proven and was it reported promptly? | Your own or a household member’s UM coverage |
| Driver has little or no insurance | Is there uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage? | Your own UM coverage |
| Hit in a parking lot | Driver negligence and possible property-owner responsibility | Driver’s insurance; possibly the property owner’s liability coverage |
| Pedestrian killed | Wrongful death claim through the estate’s personal representative | Driver’s insurance; UM coverage may also apply |
Talk with an injury lawyer in Mobile or Birmingham
If you or someone in your family was hit by a car while walking, you can talk with an attorney at Greene & Phillips Injury Lawyers about what happened and what coverage may apply. Our Mobile office is at 51 N Florida St, Mobile, AL 36607, and the phone number is 251-478-1115. Our Birmingham office is in the Watts Building, 301 20th St N, Birmingham, AL 35203, and the phone number is 205-918-7800.
Sources
- Governors Highway Safety Association, Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2025 Preliminary Data (July 2026), including its analysis of 2024 NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System data
- Code of Alabama §§ 32-5A-211, 32-5A-212, 32-5A-213, 32-7-23, 6-2-38, 6-5-410
