Pedestrian accident settlement amounts in Maryland

If you were hit by a car while walking in Maryland, the first thing you want to know is what your claim is worth. There's no single answer, and any site that quotes you an "average Maryland pedestrian settlement" is guessing. What actually sets the value is Maryland law: how fault gets decided, what the state caps, what insurance is required to pay, and how long you have to act. A few of those rules are harsher here than almost anywhere else in the country.

The stakes are not abstract. In 2023, 160 pedestrians were killed on Maryland roads, 25.8% of all traffic deaths in the state that year, well above the 17.9% national share, at a rate of 2.59 deaths per 100,000 residents against 2.18 nationwide.¹ The pattern repeats locally month after month: thatcarhitme.com logged 898 crashes in Montgomery County alone in May 2025.² Behind numbers like those are the injury claims this page is about.

The rule that can reduce your settlement to zero

Start with the fact that changes everything in a Maryland pedestrian case: contributory negligence. Maryland is one of a small number of U.S. jurisdictions that still follows the pure contributory negligence rule. If you are found even 1% at fault for the collision, you recover nothing, no matter how careless the driver was. The state's highest court reaffirmed this in Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia in 2013, declining to move to the comparative-fault system most states use.³

For a pedestrian, that puts your own conduct in the seconds before impact at the center of the case. Maryland gives you the right of way in a crosswalk, and a driver must stop when you're crossing on their half of the road or approaching from the adjacent lane.⁴ But the same statute says you may not "suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle" that's too close to stop.⁴ Cross somewhere other than a crosswalk and you have to yield the right of way to traffic.⁵ Insurers know this. An adjuster will comb the police report and any dashcam or surveillance video for a reason to say you contributed, a step against the signal or a mid-block crossing, and owe you nothing. The facts of how you were struck often matter more to the final number than the size of your medical bills.

The cap on pain and suffering

Maryland limits noneconomic damages, the money for pain, suffering, disfigurement, and loss of quality of life. For a claim arising on or after October 1, 2025 and through September 30, 2026, the cap is $965,000. It rises to $980,000 on October 1, 2026, one step in a $15,000 annual increase the legislature built into the statute back in 1995.⁶

Two things about that cap matter in pedestrian cases, which tend to involve severe injuries. It does not touch economic damages, so medical bills, future care, and lost earnings are recovered on top of it, and in a serious pedestrian claim those are usually the biggest piece.⁶ And in a wrongful death case with two or more beneficiaries, the cap is 150% of the base figure: $1,447,500 now, $1,470,000 after October 1, 2026.⁶ A 2026 bill to repeal the cap, HB 476, did not pass, so it stands.⁶

What the insurance actually has to pay

A settlement is only as large as the coverage behind it. Maryland requires every driver to carry at least $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident in bodily injury liability, plus $15,000 in property damage, minimums that haven't gone up since 2011.⁷ When injuries are catastrophic, that liability minimum is often the practical ceiling on what the at-fault driver's own policy will pay.

Two other coverages can add to a pedestrian's recovery. Every Maryland auto policy has to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage equal to the policy's liability limits, unless the named insured waived or reduced it in writing.⁸ If you own a car, or live with a relative who does, that household UM/UIM coverage can pay when the driver who hit you had no insurance, carried too little, or fled the scene. Maryland policies also carry personal injury protection, or PIP. Insurers must offer at least $2,500 of it, though a named insured can waive it in writing.⁹ PIP covers medical bills, lost wages, and related costs no matter who was at fault, which is valuable in a state where contributory negligence can otherwise wipe out a liability claim. The insurer has to pay a PIP claim within 30 days of proof, and a policy can require you to file it within 12 months of the crash.¹⁰

Punitive damages are rarely on the table

People assume a drunk driver means a bigger payout. For punitive damages in Maryland, that's usually wrong. The state's highest court held in Owens-Illinois v. Zenobia that punitive damages require clear and convincing evidence of "actual malice," a deliberate intent to injure, not recklessness or even gross negligence.¹¹ Drunk driving on its own doesn't clear that bar. Maryland also doesn't recognize dram shop liability, so you generally can't sue the bar that over-served the driver who hit you.¹¹ The driver's intoxication still matters. It helps prove ordinary negligence, but it seldom multiplies the award.

The deadline that can end your case

Maryland gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit.¹² Miss it and the claim is barred, however strong it was. Three years sounds like plenty until treatment drags on and the insurer stalls, and then the date arrives faster than anyone expects. If a government vehicle or a public agency was involved, shorter notice requirements can apply, so those cases need attention early.

You'll want the official crash report to anchor the facts. It's written by the responding officer and held by the Maryland State Police Central Records Division.¹³ Our Maryland crash reports page covers how to request yours. Because the contributory negligence rule is so unforgiving, most people with a serious pedestrian injury do better letting a lawyer run the fault fight and stack the available coverage; you can find one through our Maryland legal directory.

Here's the honest version. A Maryland pedestrian settlement is shaped less by any formula than by four questions: can the insurer pin any share of fault on you, how large are your economic losses, where does the noneconomic cap fall, and how much coverage exists to pay it. Document the facts, watch the three-year clock, and treat the details of how you were hit as worth fighting over, because in Maryland they decide whether you collect anything at all.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. NHTSA, Pedestrians: 2023 Data, Traffic Safety Facts (DOT HS 813 727), Table 7. https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813727.pdf

2. thatcarhitme.com, Montgomery County, MD Crash Report, May 2025. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/maryland/montgomery-county/may-2025-report

3. Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia, 432 Md. 679 (2013). https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2013/9a12.pdf

4. Md. Code, Transportation Section 21-502 (pedestrians' right-of-way in crosswalks). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=21-502&enactments=false

5. Md. Code, Transportation Section 21-503 (crossing outside a crosswalk; duty to yield). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=21-503&enactments=false

6. Md. Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings Section 11-108 (noneconomic damages cap); Department of Legislative Services Fiscal Note, HB 476, 2026 Session. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/fnotes/bil_0006/hb0476.pdf

7. Md. Code, Transportation Section 17-103 (required minimum security). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=17-103

8. Md. Code, Insurance Section 19-509 (uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-509&enactments=false

9. Md. Code, Insurance Section 19-505 (personal injury protection). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-505&enactments=false

10. Md. Code, Insurance Section 19-508 (PIP payment and filing deadlines). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-508&enactments=false

11. Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. Zenobia, 325 Md. 420 (1992); Warr v. JMGM Group, LLC, 433 Md. 170 (2013). https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2013/57a12.pdf

12. Md. Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings Section 5-101 (three-year statute of limitations). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=5-101&enactments=false

13. Maryland Department of State Police, Central Records Division. https://mdsp.maryland.gov/community-services/request-police-reports