Syracuse Pedestrian Accident Lawyers

If a vehicle struck you or someone in your family while you were walking anywhere in New York, you are dealing with injuries a car’s frame would otherwise have absorbed, and with an insurance company already looking for a reason to blame you. Pedestrian crashes are not fender benders. The body takes the full energy of the impact, then takes a second impact against the hood, the windshield, or the pavement. New York law places real obligations on drivers around people on foot, and it gives an injured pedestrian access to insurance benefits from the moment of the collision.

Porter Law Group represents injured pedestrians across New York State, from Syracuse and Central New York to Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and New York City. We file the no-fault application, chase down video before it is overwritten, handle the adjuster who wants a recorded statement, and litigate when the carrier will not pay what the injury is worth. Consultations are free, and we take pedestrian accident cases on a contingency fee basis, so there is no fee unless we win.

Why Choose Porter Law Group for a New York Pedestrian Accident Claim

Pedestrian cases look like clear liability from the outside and rarely resolve that way. The driver’s carrier will often concede its insured made contact while disputing everything that decides the claim. Those disputes are won with video, vehicle data, and witnesses located early, not with argument at the adjuster’s desk months later.

When a Pedestrian Accident Case Needs a Lawyer

Not every contact between a vehicle and a person on foot turns into litigation. You should speak with an attorney when any of the following applies:

• The injuries required an ambulance, a hospital admission, surgery, or imaging that showed a fracture or head injury.
• The driver, the police report, or the adjuster suggests you were outside a crosswalk, crossing against the signal, or otherwise responsible.
• The vehicle left the scene, the driver was uninsured, or nobody got a plate number.
• A commercial truck, delivery van, rideshare vehicle, transit bus, school bus, plow, or government vehicle was involved.
• An adjuster has asked for a recorded statement or pushed a quick settlement before your treatment is finished.
• Your no-fault benefits were denied or cut off, or the crash is approaching 30 days old with no application filed.
• The person struck was a child, an older adult, or someone who did not survive.

Statewide Reach With a Syracuse Base

Porter Law Group is headquartered in Syracuse and maintains six offices across New York State. That matters because the useful evidence in a pedestrian case is local and it perishes fast. Signal timing belongs to a municipal traffic department. Video sits on a business owner’s recorder, a doorbell app, or a transit agency’s server. Knowing who to ask, and how many days a given agency keeps recordings before overwriting them, is often what separates a documented case from a swearing contest.

How We Handle Pedestrian Accident Cases

We move on evidence before we negotiate. That means preservation letters to whoever holds footage, an early demand for the vehicle’s crash data, a canvass for witnesses who stopped at the scene and gave their name to nobody, the complete no-fault file, and medical documentation that keeps pace with the injury instead of describing it as it looked on day one. You work directly with the attorney handling your case. Read our client testimonials, review our case results, and meet the team on the Attorneys and Staff page.

Meet Some of Our Attorneys

Michael S. Porter

Founder, Managing Partner

Eric C. Nordby

Co-Founder, Partner

Mary E. Langan

Partner

View all of our attorneys →

How New York Pedestrian Accident Law Works

A pedestrian claim runs on two tracks. One is insurance benefits that pay medical bills and lost earnings without anyone proving fault. The other is a negligence claim against the driver for the harm caused. Both begin with the duties the Vehicle and Traffic Law imposes on drivers around people on foot. Because most pedestrian crashes involve an ordinary passenger vehicle, the insurance framework overlaps closely with the one described on our New York car accident practice page.

The Right of Way in a Crosswalk

New York Vehicle and Traffic Law 1151 gives pedestrians the right of way in a crosswalk. Where signals are not in place or not operating, a driver must yield to a pedestrian crossing within a crosswalk on the roadway the vehicle is traveling on, slowing or stopping if that is what yielding requires.

Two features surprise people. The protection is not limited to painted crossings, because an unmarked crosswalk exists at most intersections where sidewalks meet, which defeats the argument that someone crossing at a corner without paint was somewhere they should not have been. And the statute forbids a driver approaching from behind to overtake a vehicle stopped at a crosswalk to let someone cross, which is the entire liability case in a familiar pattern where one lane stops, the pedestrian steps out, and the next lane comes through without slowing.

The statute also has a limit carriers quote often, because a pedestrian may not suddenly leave a place of safety and move into the path of a vehicle so close the driver cannot practically yield. That is where the “he stepped right out in front of me” defense comes from.

The Duty of Due Care Everywhere Else

Right of way is not the end of the analysis, and a driver does not get a free pass because someone was crossing mid-block. Under Vehicle and Traffic Law 1146, every driver must exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian on any roadway, and must sound the horn as a warning when necessary. The duty follows the vehicle everywhere, not just to intersections and painted lines.

That statute does quiet work in the strongest pedestrian cases. A driver who was speeding for conditions, looking at a phone, turning without clearing the crosswalk, or driving with a windshield they had not fully scraped in January can breach the duty even where the pedestrian had no right of way at all. Where the driver was impaired, the failure is starker still, and our page on drunk driving accident claims covers what that adds.

Crossing Outside a Crosswalk

Pedestrians carry obligations too. Vehicle and Traffic Law 1152 requires a pedestrian crossing at any point other than a marked crosswalk, or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, to yield the right of way to vehicles. Separate provisions expect pedestrians to use a sidewalk where one is provided, and where none exists, to walk on the shoulder facing oncoming traffic.

What that does not do is automatically end the claim. Failing to yield is evidence of comparative fault rather than a defense in itself, and it never cancels the driver’s duty of due care. In many New York communities, crossings are spaced so far apart or lit so poorly that walking to the nearest signal is not a realistic option.

What a Pedestrian Claim Has to Prove

Stripped to its elements, a negligence claim against the driver requires four showings: that the driver owed you a duty of care, which every driver owes to people on and near the roadway; that the driver breached it by failing to yield, speeding, driving distracted or impaired, or failing to see what was there to be seen; that the breach caused the collision; and that the collision caused injuries the law can compensate.

No-Fault Benefits When a Vehicle Strikes a Pedestrian

One of the most useful and least understood features of New York law is that a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle is a covered person under that vehicle’s no-fault coverage. You do not have to own a car, carry insurance, or prove the driver did anything wrong. Benefits come from the policy on the vehicle that hit you.

Injured people routinely assume their own health insurance is all that stands between them and the hospital bill. The driver’s no-fault carrier is the first payer for crash-related treatment, which protects your health coverage, avoids copays, and keeps the bills from becoming a lien fight later. One gap matters. New York’s no-fault system does not extend to motorcycles, so a pedestrian struck by one usually looks elsewhere for first-party benefits.

What Basic Economic Loss Covers

New York Insurance Law 5102 defines what no-fault pays as basic economic loss, with a standard limit of $50,000 per person unless additional coverage was purchased. Within that amount it covers reasonable and necessary medical, hospital, surgical, and rehabilitation expenses, prescriptions, and ambulance charges. It replaces a portion of lost earnings, subject to a monthly limit the statute sets, and reimburses a modest daily allowance for necessary household expenses.

Basic economic loss does not compensate pain, suffering, disfigurement, or the loss of what you used to be able to do, and for a badly injured pedestrian the statutory amount is often consumed within the first weeks of hospitalization. No-fault is a floor for immediate bills, not a resolution of the claim.

The 30-Day Application Deadline

No-fault benefits are not automatic. A written application has to reach the insurer within 30 days of the crash, and providers face their own short deadlines for submitting bills. This is the most common way an injured pedestrian loses money they were entitled to, because the deadline runs while the person is still in a hospital bed and unaware there is paperwork at all. Nobody from the insurance company will call to remind you.

Late applications are sometimes excused where there is reasonable justification, but that turns a straightforward entitlement into an argument. If benefits were denied or terminated after an insurance medical examination, that decision can and should be challenged, because a no-fault cutoff is routinely recycled later as an argument that you had recovered.

The Serious Injury Threshold

Because no-fault pays regardless of fault, New York limits when an injured person can also sue the driver for pain and suffering. That claim requires a serious injury as Insurance Law 5102 defines it. The statutory categories are death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, a fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system, permanent consequential limitation of use, and significant limitation of use of a body function or system. A further category covering injuries that kept someone from their usual activities for 90 of the first 180 days was repealed in 2026 and is no longer a route through the threshold.

Pedestrian cases clear this bar more readily than most, because a person struck by a vehicle frequently sustains exactly what the statute lists, and a fracture alone satisfies it. The categories turning on limitation of use are proven with objective medical findings, imaging, and a treating physician’s opinion, and gaps in treatment are the tool insurers use to attack them. Our page on fracture and broken bone claims covers how these are documented.

Hit-and-Run Drivers and Uninsured Vehicles

A significant share of pedestrian crashes involve a driver who does not stop. Leaving the scene of an incident involving personal injury is a crime in New York, and it changes what the case looks like without ending it. Our page on hit-and-run accident claims covers the investigation side in more detail.

New York law created the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, generally known as MVAIC, a nonprofit corporation funded by auto insurers, for exactly this situation. It exists as a source of recovery for people injured by drivers who cannot be identified, who were uninsured, or whose insurer denied coverage, and pedestrians are among those it protects. MVAIC runs on its own unforgiving timetable. Qualifying depends on prompt police reporting, on filing the required notice within a window measured in months rather than years, and on showing no other coverage is available. The trigger date differs depending on whether the driver was unidentified, uninsured, or covered by an insurer that later denied the claim, and eligibility generally requires New York residency.

MVAIC is not the only route. If you or a household family member carries auto insurance, the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on that policy can apply to you as a pedestrian, even though your own car was parked at home. Underinsured coverage matters where the driver carried only minimum limits, which serious injuries exhaust quickly. Our page on uninsured and underinsured motorist claims explains how that coverage is triggered and why consent must usually be obtained before settling with the at-fault driver.

Identifying an unknown driver is also more achievable than people assume. Debris left at the scene can be traced to a make and model year, area body shops can be canvassed for matching repairs, and a vehicle not recorded at the point of impact was very likely recorded a few blocks earlier.

Comparative Fault When the Driver Blames You

Assume the driver’s insurer will argue you were partly responsible. It is the default strategy in pedestrian claims, and the accusations are predictable. You were outside the crosswalk, crossing against the signal, wearing dark clothes at dusk, on your phone, or stepping out from between parked cars.

New York answers with comparative fault, on a rule that changed in 2026. Under CPLR 1411, in a crash case commenced on or after the law took effect in May 2026 a pedestrian whose share of fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone sued recovers nothing, so these accusations have to be answered with evidence. Below that line your own negligence does not bar recovery. It reduces the award in proportion to the share of responsibility assigned, so a pedestrian found 25 percent at fault still recovers 75 percent of the damages found.

That is why blame-shifting is worth fighting rather than conceding. Every percentage point the defense hangs on you comes out of the recovery, so an offhand apology at the scene or a recorded statement given while medicated can cost real money later. These arguments are answered with evidence. Signal timing data can establish you had the walk phase, vehicle crash data can show the driver never braked, and sight line measurements can demonstrate that an attentive driver had time to stop.

Where Pedestrian Crashes Happen in New York

Pedestrian crashes cluster in recognizable settings, and the setting tends to determine which evidence matters and who else may share responsibility. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pedestrians account for roughly 17 percent of all traffic fatalities in the United States.

Intersections and Turning Vehicles

The left turn across a crosswalk is one of the most dangerous movements in traffic for someone on foot. The driver is watching for a gap in oncoming traffic, the vehicle’s roof pillar can hide a person for the length of the turn, and the pedestrian is lawfully in the crosswalk with a walk signal. Right turns on red repeat the pattern, with the driver’s head turned left while the vehicle moves right into the crossing.

Parking Lots, Driveways, and Backing Vehicles

Shopping center lots, apartment complexes, hospital garages, and school pickup lines mix constant foot traffic with vehicles moving unpredictably. Backing crashes are frequently more serious than the low speed suggests, particularly for small children and older adults who go under the vehicle rather than over the hood. These claims raise questions beyond the driver, because striping, lighting, sight line obstructions, missing walkways, and traffic flow design are the property owner’s responsibility, which brings in our premises liability practice.

School Zones, Bus Stops, and Children

Children are struck disproportionately near schools, at bus stops, and on residential streets, and the law responds with heightened rules. Passing a stopped school bus with red lights flashing is prohibited on both sides of an undivided road, school zone speed limits apply during posted hours, and a driver who sees a child near the roadway is expected to anticipate that the child may do something unpredictable. Claims involving a school bus or a contracted transportation company carry their own procedural requirements, covered on our page for school bus accident claims.

Buses, Trucks, and Commercial Vehicles

A pedestrian struck by a transit bus, box truck, tractor trailer, or delivery vehicle faces both worse injuries and a more organized opponent. Large vehicles have extensive blind zones, and their turning geometry sweeps the rear wheels through the crosswalk well inside the path the cab took, while the defendant typically dispatches an investigator within hours. These cases also open theories including negligent hiring, inadequate training, and hours of service violations. See our pages on truck accident claims, bus accident claims, and MTA bus accident claims.

Winter Conditions and Upstate Roads

Central and Western New York add a seasonal dimension. Snowbanks at corners eliminate sight lines, unshoveled sidewalks push pedestrians onto the roadway, and darkness arrives before the evening commute for months. None of that excuses a driver, because due care is measured against the conditions actually present, so driving 30 miles per hour on a slick, dark Syracuse street can be negligent even where the posted limit is higher. Where an uncleared walk forced a pedestrian into traffic, the property owner or municipality responsible may share liability.

Injuries in Pedestrian Crashes

The mechanics of a pedestrian impact explain the injury pattern. The bumper strikes the legs and pelvis, the body loads onto the hood and windshield, and the person is then thrown to the pavement for a second impact that is often the one causing the head injury. Vehicle height matters, because a taller front end strikes higher and pushes the person down and under rather than up and over.

• Traumatic brain injury, from concussion through severe permanent cognitive impairment.
• Fractures of the leg, knee, hip, and pelvis, and of the arm and wrist from bracing on impact.
• Spinal fractures, disc injuries, and spinal cord damage.
• Internal organ damage and internal bleeding with little external sign.
• Crush injuries, degloving, and traumatic or surgical amputation.
• Road rash, lacerations, permanent scarring, and disfigurement.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and lasting fear of crossing the street.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Head injury is the signature pedestrian injury, because nothing sits between the skull and the windshield or the pavement. Severe cases are obvious at the scene. The difficult ones are injuries that do not appear on an initial scan, where someone is discharged the same night and then finds over the following weeks that they cannot hold a thought, tolerate noise, or manage the job they held for years. Those cases are proven with neuropsychological testing and testimony from people who knew the person before, because family and coworkers notice the change more reliably than any single test. See our New York brain injury practice page.

Orthopedic and Spinal Injuries

Lower extremity and pelvic fractures dominate the orthopedic picture. Many require surgical fixation, leave permanent hardware, and produce post-traumatic arthritis years later. Hip fractures in older adults are particularly serious, because the surgery, the immobility that follows, and the loss of independence combine into a decline reaching well beyond the broken bone. Spinal injuries range from disc herniations through vertebral fractures and cord damage causing paralysis. Where a spinal cord injury results, the case becomes a lifetime care question involving equipment, home modification, attendant care, and vocational loss. See our pages on paralysis and spinal cord injury claims and amputation injuries.

Psychological Injury

Being struck by a vehicle is a sudden, violent event many people relive for years. Post-traumatic stress disorder, panic at intersections, avoidance of routes that used to be routine, and depression tied to lost independence are recognized consequences and all compensable. They are also the damages insurers discount most aggressively, which is why a documented course of treatment carries far more weight than a description of how someone feels.

What to Do After Being Struck by a Vehicle

If you are reading this on behalf of someone in a hospital bed, the items below are the ones worth handling for them.

Get Medical Care the Same Day

Accept the ambulance if it is offered, and go to an emergency department the same day even if you got up and walked away. Adrenaline masks a great deal, and the two injuries pedestrians most often underestimate at the scene, internal bleeding and brain injury, are the two that most need ruling out promptly. Same-day treatment also ties the injuries to the crash in a way no later explanation replicates. Then follow the plan, attend the follow-ups, and report every symptom rather than the worst one, because gaps in treatment become an attack on the serious injury threshold itself.

Make Sure the Crash Is Reported

Call 911 from the scene, or have someone call. A police response produces an accident report, records the driver’s identity and insurance, and fixes an official account before recollections drift. Get the driver’s name, phone number, plate, and insurance information. If the driver leaves, write down whatever you or a bystander saw immediately, including partial plates and direction of travel. Ask for the report number before you leave, and know that a wrong report can often still be corrected.

Protect the Evidence and Your Own Words

Photograph what you can, or ask someone to, and get names and numbers from witnesses before they disperse, because police reports frequently list none. Keep the clothing and shoes you were wearing, unlaundered. Then two cautions. Do not give a recorded statement to the driver’s insurer before speaking with an attorney, and do not post about the crash on social media, because an ordinary photograph of you at a family gathering becomes an exhibit arguing your injuries were not serious.

Evidence That Strengthens a Pedestrian Accident Claim

The most persuasive evidence is also the most perishable. Bring whatever you have to the consultation, even if incomplete.

Camera footage

• Municipal traffic and red light cameras, and department of transportation roadway cameras.
• Security cameras on nearby businesses, gas stations, banks, apartment buildings, and schools.
• Transit and school bus onboard cameras, and dash cameras in passing vehicles. Most of these systems overwrite on a cycle measured in days or a few weeks, so written preservation requests are urgent.

Vehicle and roadway data

• The event data recorder in the striking vehicle, which commonly captures speed, throttle, braking, and steering in the seconds before impact.
• Telematics and fleet monitoring data where a commercial, rideshare, or municipal vehicle was involved.
• Whether the vehicle had pedestrian detection or automatic emergency braking, and whether it engaged.
• Signal timing and walk phase data, streetlight outage records, and prior complaints about the intersection.
• Scene measurements supporting reconstruction, including throw distance and vehicle damage patterns.

Witnesses and official records

• A canvass of nearby residents, employees, and regular passersby, which regularly turns up people who saw the crash and were never interviewed.
• The police accident report, any reconstruction file, body camera and dispatch audio, and the 911 call.
• The driver’s insurance information and the complete no-fault file, including denials and examination reports.

Medical proof and life impact

• Ambulance, emergency department, hospital, surgical, and rehabilitation records, plus imaging and specialist reports. See our guide on obtaining medical records in New York.
• Dated photographs of visible injuries from the day of the crash through healing and scar maturation.
• Proof of lost wages, reduced hours, and out-of-pocket costs including transportation and home help.
• A dated journal of pain, sleep, cognitive difficulty, mood, and the activities you have had to give up.

Damages Available in a New York Pedestrian Accident Case

What a pedestrian claim is worth depends on the facts, and no lawyer can responsibly quote a figure before reviewing the medical evidence. What can be described is which categories of loss New York recognizes and what each requires.

Economic Damages

Economic damages are the documented financial consequences of the crash. They include care already provided and care medically expected in the future, surgery, rehabilitation, assistive equipment, home modification, and attendant care. They also include lost earnings, diminished earning capacity where an injury permanently limits the work a person can do, and replacement services for tasks the injury prevents. Where no-fault has already paid part of the medical and wage loss, the claim against the driver reaches the amounts beyond what it covered.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages compensate the human consequences, which for a pedestrian are usually the larger part of the harm. They cover physical pain, permanent scarring and disfigurement, cognitive and emotional change after a brain injury, loss of independence, and the activities, work, and relationships the injury took away. New York does not cap these damages, and a spouse may bring a derivative claim for loss of services and companionship. Because they are proven through testimony, photographs, and records, the journal and dated photographs described above do far more work than they appear to.

Claims When a Pedestrian Does Not Survive

Where someone does not survive, the claim splits in two. A survival claim covers the conscious pain and suffering experienced between impact and death. A wrongful death claim belongs to the estate for the benefit of distributees and compensates their pecuniary losses, including lost financial support, lost parental guidance for children, and funeral expenses. It must be brought by a personal representative appointed by the Surrogate’s Court. Our New York wrongful death practice page explains the process. The 2026 change to the comparative fault rule described above does not reach claims arising from a death, so shared fault reduces a recovery here rather than barring it.

How Long You Have to File a Pedestrian Accident Claim

In New York, the statute of limitations for a personal injury action, including a claim by an injured pedestrian, is three years from the date of the crash under CPLR 214. Miss it and the claim is barred no matter how strong the evidence is. Several qualifications shorten that window. Our page on the statute of limitations in New York motor vehicle cases covers the exceptions.

• The 30-day no-fault application. Entirely separate from the lawsuit deadline and far shorter. Missing it puts your medical and wage benefits at risk while treatment is still underway.
• Claims against a public entity. Against a city, county, town, village, school district, or transit authority, a notice of claim generally must be served within 90 days of the crash, with a shortened period to sue afterward. This applies when a municipal vehicle, transit or school bus, plow, or a roadway design or maintenance failure is involved.
• MVAIC claims. Hit-and-run and uninsured driver claims through MVAIC carry their own short notice requirements, and the date they run from depends on the situation.
• Injured children. The limitations period is generally tolled during childhood, so a child’s own claim typically remains available until three years after their eighteenth birthday. A parent’s separate claim for the child’s medical expenses is not tolled the same way.
• Wrongful death. Under EPTL 5-4.1, a wrongful death action generally must be brought within two years of the death, shorter than the personal injury deadline.
• Practical deadlines. Surveillance video is overwritten in days, vehicles are repaired and their data lost, and witnesses move. The legal deadline is rarely the one that decides a pedestrian case.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a New York pedestrian accident lawyer cost?

Porter Law Group handles pedestrian accident cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront and nothing unless we win your case, and the initial consultation is always free. Having a lawyer review what happened before you decide anything costs you nothing.

Am I covered by no-fault insurance if I was walking when I was hit?

Yes. A pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle in New York is a covered person under the striking vehicle’s no-fault coverage, which pays medical expenses and a portion of lost earnings regardless of who was at fault. You do not need to own a car or carry insurance yourself. The written application generally has to reach the insurer within 30 days of the crash, and that deadline runs whether or not anyone tells you about it. New York’s no-fault system does not extend to motorcycles, so if a motorcycle struck you, first-party benefits usually have to come from another source.

What if the driver who hit me left the scene?

A hit-and-run does not eliminate your right to compensation. New York’s Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, known as MVAIC, exists to provide a recovery source for people injured by unidentified or uninsured drivers, and pedestrians are among those it is designed to protect. Uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy, or on a household family member’s policy, may also apply even though your car had nothing to do with the crash. Both routes carry short notice deadlines and require that the crash was reported to police promptly, so act quickly.

Does it hurt my case if I was not in a crosswalk?

It is a factor, not an ending. Vehicle and Traffic Law 1152 requires a pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk to yield to vehicles, so the insurer will raise it. But Vehicle and Traffic Law 1146 independently requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian anywhere on the roadway, and comparative fault reduces a recovery by your share of responsibility, though in a crash case commenced on or after the law took effect in May 2026 a pedestrian more at fault than everyone sued recovers nothing. Many New York streets also space crossings so far apart, or light them so poorly, that walking to the nearest signal was not a realistic option.

The driver says I stepped out in front of them. Can I still recover?

It is an argument, not a verdict. That defense comes from the part of Vehicle and Traffic Law 1151 saying a pedestrian may not suddenly leave a place of safety and move into the path of a vehicle so close the driver cannot yield. Whether that describes what happened is a factual question answered by evidence rather than by the driver’s account. Vehicle crash data showing no braking, signal timing showing you had the walk phase, sight line measurements, and witnesses who were never interviewed all speak to it. Under CPLR 1411, a share of fault reduces your award in proportion, though in a crash case commenced on or after the law took effect in May 2026 a pedestrian more at fault than everyone sued recovers nothing, which is why these accusations are worth contesting.

What is the serious injury threshold and why does it matter?

Because no-fault pays medical bills and wage loss without regard to fault, New York allows a claim against the driver for pain and suffering only where the injury qualifies as a serious injury under Insurance Law 5102. The categories are death, dismemberment, significant disfigurement, a fracture, loss of a fetus, permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system, permanent consequential limitation of use, and significant limitation of use. The separate 90/180 day category was repealed in 2026. Pedestrian injuries frequently satisfy the threshold, and a fracture alone is enough, but the limitation of use categories require objective medical proof and consistent treatment.

What if a city bus or a government vehicle hit me?

You can still bring a claim, but the timeline compresses sharply. Claims against a city, county, town, village, school district, transit authority, or other public entity generally require a notice of claim within 90 days of the crash, followed by a shortened period in which to file suit. The same requirement can apply where a roadway defect, a missing or malfunctioning signal, or a snow removal failure contributed. Because the deadline is measured in weeks rather than years, these are the cases where waiting to see how the injury develops causes the most damage.

Where We Serve Pedestrian Accident Clients in New York

Porter Law Group is based in Syracuse and represents injured pedestrians throughout Onondaga County, including Liverpool, Cicero, DeWitt, Camillus, Manlius, North Syracuse, Baldwinsville, Fayetteville, Solvay, and Clay, along with the city neighborhoods of Downtown, Eastwood, Strathmore, Tipperary Hill, and University Hill. We also work with clients across Central New York in Auburn, Cortland, Oswego, Ithaca, Utica, and Rome.

We maintain offices throughout New York State and take pedestrian cases statewide, from downtown crosswalks and campus corridors upstate to the dense intersections of the five boroughs. See our location pages for Syracuse, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and New York City, along with Saratoga Springs and the surrounding Capital Region. Browse all of our New York offices, review related claims involving bicycle accidents and distracted driving, or read the latest updates on the Porter Law Group blog.

Contact a New York Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

If a vehicle struck you or someone you love anywhere in New York, the sooner someone starts building the record, the better your position will be. Footage can be preserved before it is overwritten, the vehicle’s crash data secured before repairs erase it, witnesses found while they still remember the sequence, and the no-fault application filed inside the 30-day window. The driver’s insurer begins working the file the day it is reported, and there is no reason to start later than they do.

Our Syracuse office is at 100 Madison Street, Suite 1500, Syracuse, NY 13202. If you cannot come to us, we will come to you at your home, a hospital room, or a rehabilitation facility. We also meet clients at our Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Saratoga Springs, and New York City offices.

Call 833-PORTER9 or email info@porterlawteam.com for a free, no-obligation consultation. We handle pedestrian accident cases on a contingency fee basis, so you pay nothing unless we win.

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