California Pedestrian Accident Laws [2026 Updated]

You were walking. Then you weren’t. One second you had somewhere to be, and the next you were on the ground wondering what to do next.

If you weren’t in a marked crosswalk when it happened, or you’re not sure you did everything right, you might already be bracing for someone to blame you. Don’t. California’s pedestrian accident laws are built around a simple idea. Drivers carry more responsibility than the people they can hurt by making a mistake. Even when you share some fault, you may still be able to recover money for what happened to you.

The Law Offices of Christian J. Amendt has spent years untangling exactly these cases for people across Pomona and the surrounding San Gabriel Valley. Here’s what California law says, and what it means for your claim.

Key Takeaways

• Drivers must yield to you in every marked and unmarked crosswalk in California, not just the ones with painted lines.
• You can still recover damages even when you’re partly at fault, though your award drops by your percentage of fault.
• You generally have two years to file a lawsuit, but only six months to notify a government agency if one was involved.
• Jaywalking by itself may no longer wreck your case under the Freedom to Walk Act.

If a driver hit you anywhere in the Pomona area, reach out to our team before you talk to the insurance company.

Who Has the Right of Way

Drivers, not pedestrians, carry the legal duty to stop. Under California Vehicle Code § 21950, a driver has to yield to anyone crossing within a marked crosswalk or an unmarked one, which exists at nearly every intersection whether or not the city painted lines on the pavement.

That duty starts the moment you step off the curb, and it doesn’t end just because the car has a green light. A driver turning left on green still has to let you finish crossing. However, there is one exception. You can’t dart into the street when a car is already too close to stop, since the law expects some caution from pedestrians too.

California’s Pure Comparative Negligence Rule

California doesn’t use an all-or-nothing rule. If you were 20% responsible for what happened, an insurance company doesn’t get to deny your claim over it. They just cut your payout by that same 20%.

How Fault Gets Divided

A jury, or more often an adjuster working from the same standard, weighs what each side did wrong. Speeding, a broken taillight, or texting behind the wheel all count against the driver. Crossing mid-block without checking traffic counts against you too, but only in proportion to how much it contributed to the crash.

Why Insurers Push Back Hard on This Number

Every point of fault they can pin on you is money they don’t have to pay. A driver’s insurance company routinely inflates a pedestrian’s percentage of blame. This is exactly the kind of dispute where a California pedestrian accident attorney pulls traffic camera footage, canvasses nearby businesses, and brings in an accident reconstruction expert before the insurer’s version of events becomes the only version.

The Daylighting Law Changing These Cases

Since January 2025, California has banned parking within 20 feet of any crosswalk (or 15 feet of a curb extension) under Assembly Bill 413. This rule is called daylighting. It’s meant to prevent vehicles from blocking a driver’s sightline of pedestrians stepping off a curb. If a parked vehicle blocked a driver’s sightline then the owner or operator of the parked vehicle may be partly responsible for your accident injuries.

What Causes Most Pedestrian Crashes in California

Three factors turn up again and again in California crash data and the police reports lawyers pull for these cases:

• Speed. The faster a vehicle is going, the longer it takes to stop. Additionally, a pedestrian hit at 40 mph faces a dramatically higher chance of death or catastrophic injury than one hit at 20 mph.
• Darkness. Many fatal pedestrian crashes in California happen at night, when a driver may have more difficulty seeing a pedestrian.
• Distraction. A glance at a phone for even a few seconds is enough time to miss someone standing in a crosswalk.

Of course, other factors like drinking and driving or fatigue may also cause dangerous pedestrian accidents.

How Long You Have to File Your Claim

California’s statute of limitations generally gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit under Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 335.1. Miss it, and the court will likely dismiss your case regardless of how clearly the driver was at fault.

That deadline comes even faster if a government vehicle, like a city bus or a Pomona Unified School District van, caused the crash, or if defective road design contributed to it. State law requires you to file a government tort claim with the public entity within six months under Government Code § 911.2.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pedestrian Accident Law

What if the driver who hit me left the scene?

Hit-and-run pedestrian crashes happen often enough in California that most policies plan for it. You’ll usually file with your own uninsured motorist coverage. Calling police right away may help investigators track the driver down before evidence disappears.

Do I need a police report to file a claim?

It’s not legally required, but skipping it can hurt you. Adjusters lean heavily on the report’s account of who did what, so without one you’re relying on memory and whoever happened to stick around.

What if I was crossing outside a marked crosswalk?

You still have a case. Under the Freedom to Walk Act, you can’t be cited just for crossing mid-block when it’s safe to do so, and you can still recover damages even if a court finds you partly responsible.

How much is my case worth?

It depends on your medical bills, lost income, and how the injury affects your daily life going forward. Cases with clear liability and well-documented injuries tend to settle for more than ones where fault is contested.

The Law Offices of Christian J. Amendt: Your Pomona Pedestrian Accident Law Firm

Getting hit as a pedestrian upends more than your body. It changes your schedule, your income, and how safe you feel walking. California law gives you real tools to hold a careless driver accountable.

The Law Offices of Christian J. Amendt has represented pedestrians across Pomona and the San Gabriel Valley. Part of our work includes digging into the medical side of a case as closely as the legal one, since insurance adjusters count on injured people not knowing either. Contact our firm today and let’s look at what happened to you.