Available 24/7If you or a loved one was struck by a vehicle while you were walking, your life as you once knew it may never be the same. You may be struggling to cope with medical bills while you’re worried about missing work, all while you’re trying to recover from serious injuries.
The aftermath of a pedestrian accident can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to deal with it alone. Our Idaho pedestrian accident lawyers can handle your legal claim to take the burden off of your family. We negotiate with insurance companies so you can focus on what is really important – your health.
The Idaho personal injury lawyers at Sargent Law Firm Injury Lawyers can provide you with the legal support you need to move forward after a pedestrian accident. Call 844-SARGENT or fill out our contact form to get started.
Damages You Can Recover If You Were Injured in a Pedestrian Accident
After suffering injuries because of a negligent party, you should not have to pay for the losses associated with your accident. At Sargent Law Firm Injury Lawyers, we will work to help you recover a settlement that pays for all your economic and non-economic losses. These may include:
- Your accident-related medical expenses
- Property damage expenses you suffered, if applicable
- Lost income
- Reduced earning capacity
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Reduced quality of life
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Emotional distress
- Physical pain and suffering
We aim to help you recover fair compensation for what you’ve been through. Our personal injury lawyers will fight for the justice you deserve.
How Our Idaho Pedestrian Accident Lawyer Can Help You After a Wreck
Our Idaho pedestrian accident lawyer can provide you with invaluable guidance after a pedestrian accident in the following ways:
Conducting Accident Investigation
Our lawyers will launch an independent investigation by interviewing witnesses, gathering police reports, obtaining video footage, visiting the accident scene, etc. These efforts are critical to uncover evidence, establish fault, and build a strong case for your compensation after an accident.
Handling Insurance Negotiations
Your lawyer will handle complicated negotiations and communications with insurance providers, including both your own insurer and the at-fault party’s insurer. This includes submitting claim paperwork, valuing the wrecked vehicle/medical bills/lost income, and fighting for a fair settlement.
Filing a Claim Against the At-Fault Driver
At any point in your case, your lawyer can file a civil lawsuit on your behalf. This legal action would seek to recover financial damages to cover all of your losses.
Navigating the Legal Process
By leveraging their knowledge of personal injury law and legal procedures, your lawyer handles complex legal filings, court deadlines, trial preparation, and presentation of evidence on your behalf during litigation. This removes a substantial legal burden from you as the victim.
Providing Accountability & Justice
Beyond financial compensation, a lawyer will fight relentlessly to deliver justice and accountability to negligent drivers who cause pedestrian accidents. This sends an important message to drivers to always be aware of the rights of the pedestrians who share the road.
Call 844-SARGENT or fill out our contact form to learn more about how we can help you.
Victims of Idaho Pedestrian Accidents Face a Long Road to Recovery
When a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle, they are often left with devastating injuries that can upend every aspect of their lives. If you are a pedestrian who was the victim of a driver’s negligence, some things you may be experiencing right now include:
- Severe physical pain, difficulty moving around, and needing assistance with basic tasks as you recover
- Financial stress from mounting medical bills and lost wages due to missing work
- Mental and emotional trauma, shock, fear, anxiety, sadness, and anger
- Frustration and impatience with the recovery process
- Isolation if your mobility is limited during recovery
- Disruption to your daily routines and a loss of independence
- Fatigue from the recovery process and medications
- Stress navigating legal processes if you are seeking compensation
The entire experience is likely profoundly life-altering and challenging. Support from family, friends, doctors, therapists, and Idaho personal injury attorneys could help greatly with the burden.
Can You Sue After a Pedestrian Accident in Idaho?
Yes, you can sue after a pedestrian accident. Idaho gives people who are injured as a result of negligence the right to seek justice through a personal injury lawsuit. If a driver is careless and hits you, they may be responsible for your accident-related expenses.
If you can prove that the driver owed you a duty of care, they breached that duty, you were injured as a result, and you have damages from the injuries, you may be entitled to financial compensation.
How Negligence Causes Idaho Pedestrian Accidents
Pedestrian crashes often happen in Idaho because someone acts carelessly. The legal term for carelessness is “negligence.” When people make mistakes and poor choices that put others in danger, they are negligent.
Common negligent actions that cause pedestrian collisions in Idaho include:
- Speeding: When drivers exceed the speed limit, they have less time to brake for walkers.
- Distraction: Texting, eating, or changing the radio station takes focus off the road. Drivers can easily miss seeing people crossing the street.
- Ignoring the right of way: Failing to yield where walkers have the crossing priority shows negligence.
- Drunk driving: Choosing to drive drunk severely dulls reaction time and awareness of pedestrians.
- Recklessness: Making illegal driving moves like rapid acceleration or ignoring signals or signs also demonstrates driver negligence.
In many crashes, negligent actions directly violate Idaho traffic laws. Lawyers use these violations to establish fault. Holding liable drivers accountable is important to prevent future negligence. When drivers make better choices, fewer preventable pedestrian collisions occur.
You Can File an Idaho Pedestrian Accident Claim for These Injuries
There are many different types of injuries pedestrians suffer in preventable accidents. If you have suffered from these or any other type of injuries as a result of driver negligence, you may be able to demand compensation:
- Head and brain Injuries: When a fast-moving vehicle hits a pedestrian, the impact often leads to serious head trauma including skull fractures, bleeding in the brain, and damage to brain tissue. These require immediate emergency care and can cause permanent disabilities or death.
- Broken bones: Pedestrians suffer broken hips, spines, arms, legs, ankles, facial bones, and ribs from the initial crash and hitting the ground. Broken bones lead to surgeries, casts, wheelchairs, therapy, and extended healing time.
- Road rash: If a pedestrian slides across the pavement after impact, it scrapes off skin causing major skin abrasions called road rash. Infections are common and skin grafting procedures are often needed.
- Organ damage: Internal organs like the liver, kidneys, and lungs can be lacerated, ruptured, or severely bruised after pedestrian collisions. This requires invasive surgeries and impacts health long-term.
- Psychological harm: Many pedestrians develop PTSD, depression, or anxiety disorders after this trauma. Mental health treatment plans are often necessary for coping.
The unprotected human body sustains incredible damage when a vehicle forcefully strikes it. Peace of mind, mobility, and proper functionality may never fully return after severe pedestrian crash injuries. Our Idaho pedestrian accident attorneys can fight to get the full value of your claim so you can cover the treatments you need now and in the future.
How Our Idaho Pedestrian Accident Attorney Proves Negligence in a Claim
Proving negligence is key to winning these cases. The victim must show the driver had a duty to drive carefully but failed in that duty. Here is how lawyers prove negligence:
- Investigating: Lawyers gather police reports, speak to witnesses, photograph accident scenes, and inspect vehicles involved. This creates a detailed sequence of events.
- Determining fault: Next, they analyze factors causing the collision to establish fault. Did the driver speed, ignore signs, or get distracted? Did the pedestrian jaywalk or act unpredictably?
- Proving negligence: If driver error caused the crash, lawyers can demonstrate negligence. For example, did they operate unsafely and violate traffic laws? Evidence must confirm their choices directly led to hitting the pedestrian.
- Establishing liability: With investigative findings, pedestrian actions, and driver duty failures, legal liability can usually be determined.
- Seeking damages: Finally, lawyers calculate and claim compensation for client injuries, losses, and suffering.
We know how to gather evidence that proves driver negligence caused the victim harm. This process takes patience and resources, but it establishes the true at-fault party under the law. Strong demonstration of negligence and liability is the key basis for seeking justice in your pedestrian injury claim.
Who Can File a Claim in a Fatal Idaho Pedestrian Accident?
When a pedestrian is killed in a traffic accident in Idaho, two types of claims can potentially be filed on behalf of the victim.
First, the personal representative of the pedestrian’s estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit. This lawsuit seeks compensation for losses the pedestrian’s family members have suffered, such as loss of financial support, companionship, guidance, and more. Money from a wrongful death settlement typically goes to the deceased victim’s spouse and children first then to other parties according to Idaho Code § 15-1-201.
Second, if the pedestrian survived for even a short time after the crash before passing away, a personal injury lawsuit may also be filed by their estate. This lawsuit would seek compensation for expenses and suffering that occurred between the time of the crash and the time of death, such as medical bills or pain and suffering. Our Idaho wrongful death lawyer can advise which specific family members may be eligible to recover damages.
Why You May Want to Consider Filing an Idaho Pedestrian Accident Claim
Filing a personal injury lawsuit allows pedestrians who have been harmed by irresponsible drivers to demand accountability and receive rightful compensation. The legal process formally establishes who was at fault based on investigating all contributing factors.
A successful claim requires the at-fault driver to pay damages to help cover major medical bills, income loss from missed work, pain and suffering due to injuries and trauma, and other expenses stemming from the crash. While money can’t undo the harm caused, fair payouts reduce the financial strain you may be feeling.
Justice is served when the at-fault party must take accountability for their poor decisions, which forever impact the life of the pedestrian. When you take legal action, it shifts the burden off of you so you can focus your energy on healing physically and emotionally.
The Time Limit to File a Pedestrian Accident Lawsuit in Idaho
If you are hit by a vehicle as a pedestrian in Idaho, you have a limited window to sue, as outlined in the statute of limitations. According to Idaho Statutes § 5-219, state law generally gives injury victims two years to file claims from the date of the accident.
Why two years? Victims need adequate time to recover, complete treatment, calculate losses from missed work, and investigate who is at fault. Rushing isn’t in a victim’s best interests, but waiting too long isn’t good, either. Over time, legal evidence like witness memories and surveillance footage can disappear.
To ease some of the stress associated with the legal process, contact a pedestrian accident lawyer in Idaho right away. We can help take witness statements, photograph the accident scene, preserve evidence, and work within Idaho’s statute of limitations.
Get a Free Consultation With a Pedestrian Accident Law Firm in Idaho
You can call the Idaho pedestrian accident lawyers at Sargent Law Firm Injury Lawyers 24/7 at 844-SARGENT or reach out to us online by filling out our contact form. We are here to answer your questions, whether you’re ready to file a claim or you simply need more information to make important decisions about your future.
We are committed to seeing that justice is served on behalf of all Idahoans who are injured by negligence. Learn more about how we can help you move on from your pedestrian accident.
