What are my rights after being hit by a car as a pedestrian in Arizona?

Some of the deadliest streets in the country

Wide, fast arterials, long blocks between signals, desert sun and darkness: the Phoenix and Tucson metros consistently rank among the nation's worst for pedestrian deaths. Insurers know the pattern and have a script ready that blames the person on foot. Arizona law is considerably more protective than that script.

Crosswalk rules, marked and unmarked

Drivers must yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks, and, what most people never learn, in unmarked ones too: at intersections, the crosswalk legally exists whether or not paint does. Turning drivers must yield to people crossing with the signal. A driver who accelerates through a turn into someone lawfully in the crosswalk has a liability problem no adjuster script can fix.

"They were jaywalking" ends nothing

Crossing mid-block outside a crosswalk means yielding to traffic, and the defense treats that word like a verdict. It is not, twice over. Drivers owe a duty of care to every pedestrian, everywhere, including the one crossing badly; a motorist who had time to see and avoid a person and did not remains at fault. And Arizona's pure comparative fault means a pedestrian assigned a share of blame recovers the rest: blamed 40 percent, recover 60. There is no cutoff bar like the one Texas applies. Jaywalking is a percentage argument, and percentage arguments get negotiated and tried, not surrendered to.

The insurance surprise: your own auto policy covers you on foot

Pedestrian cases collide with a brutal fact: the drivers who hit people are too often uninsured or carrying Arizona's $25,000 minimum, and hit-and-run drivers are common in these crashes. The answer most people do not know exists is their own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which follows the person, not the car. Walking, jogging, in a wheelchair: if an uninsured, underinsured, or unidentified driver hits you, your own UM and UIM coverage, or a household family member's, can pay. It is the first policy question we run in every Arizona pedestrian case.

Building the case before it evaporates

Pedestrian impacts leave severe injuries, and the proof is perishable: intersection and business cameras that overwrite in days, vehicle data recording speed and braking, skid and debris fields, lighting conditions that must be documented at the same hour, witnesses who scatter. A crash on a city street or involving a government vehicle can also trigger the 180-day government claim clock. The cases are winnable, but they are won early.

Related: Arizona Fault Rules · Arizona Insurance Minimums · Arizona Government Claims · All Common Questions

Injured in Texas? Texas applies different rules to many of the topics on this page. See Texas Pedestrian Claims or all Texas answers.

This page is general information about Arizona law, not legal advice about your specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes depend on facts; talk to a lawyer about yours.