Pedestrian accident settlement amounts in South Dakota

If a driver hit you while you were walking in South Dakota, the hardest question to answer honestly is usually the first one you ask: what is my case worth? Nobody can give you a real "average" pedestrian settlement, because no such statewide table exists, and the number for your case turns on facts nobody can see yet: how badly you were hurt, and how much insurance stands behind the driver who hit you. What we can do is lay out the South Dakota rules that actually decide those pieces. The national hub for this site covers the general concepts, so everything below is specific to South Dakota law.

The fault rule that can shrink or erase your recovery

South Dakota does not use the 50/51 percent comparative fault line that most states use. It is the only state still running a "slight/gross" system. Under SDCL 20-9-2 you recover only if your own contributory negligence was "slight in comparison with the negligence of the defendant," and even then your damages are reduced by your share of fault.¹ There is no fixed percentage cutoff. A jury decides, as a question of degree, whether your fault was slight next to the driver's, so a pedestrian can be barred from recovery at well under 50 percent fault.

That rule matters more for people on foot than almost anyone, because insurers routinely argue the pedestrian darted out, crossed against the signal, or wore dark clothing at night. South Dakota's own crossing rules feed straight into that argument. A driver in a business or residence district must yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk (SDCL 32-27-1).² A pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk or intersection has to yield to traffic (SDCL 32-27-4), and each violation is a petty offense an adjuster will point to as proof of fault.³ Where the crash happened, in the crosswalk or mid-block, often moves the settlement more than any other single fact.

How much insurance is actually there to pay

A settlement is usually limited by the insurance available rather than by what your injuries are "worth." South Dakota's minimum liability limits run low: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $25,000 for property damage (SDCL 32-35-70).⁴ A pedestrian with a fractured pelvis and a few days in the hospital can exhaust $25,000 almost immediately.

Your own auto policy matters here even though you were on foot. South Dakota requires uninsured motorist coverage on every policy issued in the state at limits equal to your bodily injury coverage (SDCL 58-11-9), and underinsured motorist coverage on the same terms (SDCL 58-11-9.4), both capped at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident unless you bought higher limits.⁵⁶ The state Division of Insurance confirms UM coverage pays you, your resident family members, and occupants of your car for injuries caused by an uninsured or hit-and-run driver.⁷ So if a hit-and-run driver struck you and left, or the at-fault driver carried only the state minimum, your household's UM or UIM coverage is often the real source of money. One catch: South Dakota does not let you stack your UM and UIM limits together for a single accident (SDCL 58-11-9.7), so you cannot simply add the two figures.⁸

South Dakota also has no personal injury protection requirement, and Medical Payments coverage is sold only as an optional add-on.⁷ Unlike a no-fault state, there is no built-in medical fund unless you or a household member chose to buy MedPay, so early medical bills usually ride on health insurance until the claim resolves.

The deadline that ends the claim

You generally have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in South Dakota (SDCL 15-2-14(3)).⁹ Miss it and the claim is gone, however strong it was. If the person hit was a child, the deadline is paused while they are a minor, but South Dakota caps that pause: being a minor cannot extend the deadline by more than five years, and in no case beyond one year after the child turns 18 (SDCL 15-2-22).¹⁰ That is narrower than many families assume, so a child's claim still needs attention early.

Your property runs on a longer, separate clock. Damage to personal property, including a phone, a bike, or anything you were carrying, falls under South Dakota's six-year limit for injuring goods and chattels (SDCL 15-2-13(4)), twice the personal injury deadline.¹¹ If your case also involves vehicle damage or a diminished-value claim, we handle that separately for South Dakota.

Distracted driving, drunk driving, and punitive damages

Fault evidence drives value, and two driver behaviors come up constantly. Since 2020, SDCL 32-26-47.1 has made it a Class 2 misdemeanor to operate a vehicle while using a handheld mobile device to text, browse, or watch video; a driver can still make a call or use hands-free and GPS features.¹² A citation under that statute is strong evidence of negligence when a distracted driver hits someone in a crosswalk.

Drunk-driving cases work differently from what many people expect. South Dakota has no dram shop liability. A bar or liquor store that kept serving an obviously intoxicated person is shielded by statute from suit by the people that person later injures (SDCL 35-4-78), even in a wrongful-death case.¹³ Your recovery runs against the driver and the driver's insurer, not the business that overserved.

Punitive damages are available against a driver whose conduct was willful, wanton, or malicious, but South Dakota gates them. Under SDCL 21-1-4.1 the judge must first find, on clear and convincing evidence at a pretrial hearing, a reasonable basis to believe the conduct was willful, wanton, or malicious before the claim can reach a jury.¹⁴

No cap on what a jury can award

Some states cap noneconomic damages. South Dakota does not, in an ordinary crash case. The one statutory cap the state had, a limit on damages in medical malpractice suits (former SDCL 21-3-11), was struck down as unconstitutional in Knowles v. United States, 1996 SD 10, 544 N.W.2d 183, where the South Dakota Supreme Court held it violated the right to a jury trial because the amount of damages is a question for the jury.¹⁵ For a pedestrian case that means your pain, disfigurement, and lost future earnings are not artificially limited by statute. The real ceiling is the insurance behind the crash.

The bigger picture in South Dakota

Pedestrian crashes are relatively rare here, which cuts both ways: fewer collisions, but drivers and juries less used to sharing the road with people on foot. State highway safety officials reported 15 pedestrian deaths in South Dakota in 2023 and a preliminary 9 in 2024, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.¹⁶ Serious but non-fatal pedestrian injuries never show up in those counts, and they are the ones that produce most claims.

If you were hit, get the official crash report early, since it anchors the fault fight; we explain how to pull a South Dakota crash report on its own page. Because the slight/gross rule is unusual and unforgiving, and because the money often sits in UM or UIM coverage rather than the driver's thin liability limit, most seriously injured pedestrians talk to a South Dakota attorney before signing anything. You can find one through our legal directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. South Dakota Codified Laws 20-9-2, Comparative negligence, reduction of damages. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/20-9-2

2. South Dakota Codified Laws 32-27-1, Vehicles to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/32-27-1

3. South Dakota Codified Laws 32-27-4, Jaywalking, duty to yield right-of-way to vehicles. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/32-27-4

4. South Dakota Codified Laws 32-35-70, Minimum motor vehicle liability policy limits. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/32-35-70

5. South Dakota Codified Laws 58-11-9, Uninsured motorist coverage required. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/58-11-9

6. South Dakota Codified Laws 58-11-9.4, Underinsured motorist coverage required. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/58-11-9.4

7. South Dakota Division of Insurance, Automobile Insurance consumer guidance. https://dlr.sd.gov/insurance/general_guidance/auto.aspx

8. South Dakota Codified Laws 58-11-9.7, No stacking of uninsured and underinsured motorist limits. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/58-11-9.7

9. South Dakota Codified Laws 15-2-14, Three-year limitation for personal injury. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/15-2-14

10. South Dakota Codified Laws 15-2-22, Tolling of limitation for persons under disability. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/15-2-22

11. South Dakota Codified Laws 15-2-13, Six-year limitation for injury to goods or chattels. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/15-2-13

12. South Dakota Codified Laws 32-26-47.1, Use of mobile electronic device while driving prohibited. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/32-26-47.1

13. South Dakota Codified Laws 35-4-78, No civil liability of licensee for sale to an intoxicated person. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/35-4-78

14. South Dakota Codified Laws 21-1-4.1, Punitive damages, pretrial hearing requirement. https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/21-1-4.1

15. Knowles v. United States, 1996 SD 10, 544 N.W.2d 183 (S.D. 1996). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/7930885/knowles-v-united-states/

16. Governors Highway Safety Association, Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State, 2024 Data (Table 2). https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/Pedestrian%20Traffic%20Fatalities%20by%20State%20-%202024%20Data.pdf