If a car hit you while you were on foot in Massachusetts, the size of your claim is set less by "what's fair" and more by a short list of state rules: who pays first, whether you can sue for pain and suffering at all, how much insurance sits behind the driver, and how much of the blame lands on you. This page covers what those rules say here, with the statute sections and the numbers.
Massachusetts is not a quiet-roads state. Police logged 128,769 crashes statewide in 2025,1 and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety counted 76 pedestrian deaths in Massachusetts in 2024 out of 363 traffic deaths that year.2 Boston alone recorded 451 crashes in April 2026.3 Getting struck on foot is not rare, and the rules below decide what a claim is worth.
One thing to settle up front: there is no meaningful "average" pedestrian settlement. Two people with identical injuries can walk away with very different amounts depending on the driver's policy limits and each person's share of fault. What follows is the machinery that produces the number.
PIP pays first, up to $8,000, no matter who was at fault
Massachusetts is a no-fault state for the first layer of costs. Every auto policy issued here carries Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, which pays medical bills and part of any lost wages regardless of who caused the crash.4 For a pedestrian this matters more than you'd expect. If you own a Massachusetts auto policy, you claim PIP from it even though you were on foot. If you don't, you can claim from the policy on the vehicle that struck you.5
The catch is the ceiling. PIP tops out at $8,000 per person.5 Bills from a pedestrian crash, an ambulance, an ER visit, imaging, and a few weeks of follow-up, pass $8,000 fast. Once you hit the cap, PIP stops, and the rest has to come from the at-fault driver's liability insurance or your own health coverage.
PIP also runs on a clock. Once a treating physician sends notice of your injury, the insurer has ten days to start paying or to send written notice explaining why it won't.4 Unpaid bills and blown deadlines are worth flagging.
The $2,000 threshold that decides whether you can sue for pain and suffering
This is the most important number in a Massachusetts pedestrian claim, and it's the one people miss. Because of no-fault, you generally cannot sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering, the noneconomic damages that make up the largest part of most settlements, unless your reasonable and necessary medical expenses top $2,000.6
There are five exceptions. You clear the threshold automatically, whatever your bills total, if the injury caused death, a fracture, permanent and serious disfigurement, loss of a body member, or loss of sight or hearing.6 Pedestrians hit by cars often meet one of these on the spot. Broken bones are common in these crashes, and a single fracture opens the door to a pain-and-suffering claim no matter the dollar amount.
Clear the threshold and your settlement can include the pain and the lasting effects of the injury. Fall short and you're limited to out-of-pocket economic losses. Whether a claim is worth four figures or six often turns on this one line in chapter 231, section 6D.
What actually caps the payout
Massachusetts puts no cap on compensatory damages in a pedestrian case. There's no ceiling on medical bills, lost earnings, or pain and suffering. The $500,000 cap people sometimes cite covers only medical malpractice suits against health care providers, and it does not reach a car-versus-pedestrian crash.7
So what limits the money? Usually the driver's insurance. As of July 1, 2025, the minimum bodily injury liability limits in Massachusetts rose to $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, up from the old 20/40 floor.85 Many drivers carry only the minimum. If the person who hit you has a 25/50 policy and your injuries are serious, that $25,000 can be the real ceiling on what their insurer pays, even when your damages are worth far more.
That's where your own coverage comes in. If the driver had no insurance or too little, you can turn to the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy, and it applies even though you were walking rather than driving. Uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory in Massachusetts at the same limits as your bodily injury liability.9 Underinsured coverage is optional, so check whether you actually bought it.9
Your share of the blame reduces the number
Massachusetts uses modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar. You can recover as long as your own negligence was not greater than the driver's, and your award is cut by your percentage of fault.10 Cross against the signal or step out mid-block and an insurer will argue you share the blame. Found 30 percent at fault on a $100,000 claim, you collect $70,000. Found 51 percent or more, you collect nothing.
The crosswalk rules feed straight into that fight. When no signal is present, a driver must yield to a pedestrian crossing in a marked crosswalk who is on the driver's half of the road or within ten feet of it, and a driver who fails to yield can be fined up to $200.11 A citation like that is strong evidence the fault was the driver's, not yours.
The deadlines that can end a claim before it starts
You have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in Massachusetts.12 The same three-year clock covers property damage claims.12 Miss it and the strongest case in the world is worth nothing.
Fatal pedestrian crashes run on a separate track. A wrongful death action is brought by the executor or administrator of the estate, generally within three years of the death.13 Massachusetts is one of the few states that allows punitive damages in a death case: if the driver's conduct was grossly negligent or malicious, willful, wanton, or reckless, a drunk driver who blew a red light for example, the estate can recover punitive damages of at least $5,000 on top of compensatory damages.13
Before you accept an offer
A few things protect the value of a pedestrian claim from the first day. Pull the Massachusetts crash report and check it for errors. Keep every medical record, because clearing the $2,000 threshold is a documentation exercise. And because the pieces that set the number, the policy limits, the fault split, whether you cleared the threshold, are negotiated rather than fixed, it's worth talking to a lawyer who handles pedestrian cases before you accept an insurer's first offer. You can find a Massachusetts attorney through the directory.
This article is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice for your situation.
Sources
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thatcarhitme.com, Massachusetts statewide year-over-year crash report, 2025 (128,769 crashes). https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/statewide/2025-annual-report
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Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Fatality Facts 2024, Massachusetts (76 pedestrian deaths; 363 total traffic deaths). https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state
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thatcarhitme.com, Boston crash report, April 2026 (451 crashes). https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/massachusetts/boston/april-2026-report
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 34M (PIP mandate; ten-day pay-or-deny rule). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section34M
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 34A ($8,000 PIP benefit; pedestrian coverage; 25/50 minimum liability limits). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section34A
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 6D ($2,000 tort threshold and its exceptions). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter231/Section6D
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 60H ($500,000 noneconomic damages cap, medical malpractice only). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter231/Section60H
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Acts of 2024, ch. 275 (raising minimum liability limits, effective July 1, 2025). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2024/Chapter275
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 175, § 113L (mandatory uninsured and optional underinsured motorist coverage). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXII/Chapter175/Section113L
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 231, § 85 (modified comparative negligence, 51 percent bar). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter231/Section85
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 89, § 11 (driver duty to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks; up to $200 fine). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter89/Section11
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 2A (three-year statute of limitations for tort and property claims). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleV/Chapter260/Section2A
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Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 229, § 2 (wrongful death; minimum $5,000 punitive damages). https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter229/Section2