Pedestrian accident settlement amounts in Texas

If a car hit you while you were walking in Texas, one of the first questions on your mind is probably what your case is worth. There's no set figure. Texas doesn't publish a schedule of pedestrian settlement amounts, and any site that promises an "average" is guessing. What your claim is actually worth comes down to a few Texas rules: how your damages are counted, how much fault gets assigned to you, and how much insurance money is available to pay. Those three things, not a statewide average, decide the number.

Pedestrian crashes are common here, and they're often severe. TxDOT recorded 768 pedestrian deaths on Texas roads in 2024, part of 4,150 total traffic fatalities that year.¹ In Austin alone, thatcarhitme.com logged 11,937 crashes in 2025,² and 902 in May 2026 by itself.³

What actually sets the number

A Texas pedestrian settlement is built from your damages. Economic damages cover the measurable losses: emergency care, surgery, rehab, future medical needs, lost wages, and lost earning capacity. Noneconomic damages cover pain, physical impairment, disfigurement, and mental anguish. Texas puts no cap on either category in an ordinary vehicle-versus-pedestrian case. The damages cap in the Civil Practice and Remedies Code applies only to exemplary (punitive) damages, not to the compensation for your injuries.⁴

Serious pedestrian injuries such as broken bones or a head injury tend to produce larger settlements, since the underlying bills and lost income are larger. No formula adds a bonus for severity. The number grows because the losses it has to cover are real and documented, including the care you'll still need after the file closes.

The two-year deadline

You have two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit in Texas.⁵ Miss it and the court will almost certainly throw the case out, no matter how badly you were hurt. The same two-year clock covers a wrongful death claim when a pedestrian is killed, running from the date of death.⁵ Settlement talks don't pause this deadline. If an insurer lets negotiations drift past the two-year mark and no suit is on file, you can lose your leverage completely. Give yourself room and don't wait until the last month.

How fault cuts your recovery

Texas uses modified comparative negligence. If you're found partly to blame, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of responsibility,⁶ and if that percentage is more than 50 percent, you recover nothing at all.⁷ That 51-percent bar matters in pedestrian cases, because drivers and their insurers routinely argue the person on foot caused the crash.

The rules of the road decide who was at fault. A driver has to stop and yield to a pedestrian crossing in a crosswalk when no signal is operating and the pedestrian is on the driver's half of the road, or close enough to it to be in danger.⁸ A pedestrian, in turn, can't leave a curb and step into traffic so suddenly that the driver has no chance to stop.⁸ Where you crossed, whether the light was with you, and whether the driver was distracted all feed the fault split. Texas has banned texting while driving statewide since 2017, and it's a primary offense, so a driver who was on the phone when they hit you often ends up carrying more of the blame.⁹ Because a few percentage points can swing a settlement by thousands of dollars, this is usually where the hardest negotiating happens.

Where the settlement money comes from

A settlement can only be as large as the insurance behind it. Texas requires drivers to carry at least $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage, written as 30/60/25.¹⁰¹¹ For a pedestrian with a shattered leg and a six-figure hospital bill, a minimum policy runs dry fast. That gap is why your own coverage matters.

Two coverages on your own auto policy can pay even though you were on foot. Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage steps in when the driver who hit you had no insurance or not enough of it. Texas insurers must offer UM/UIM on every auto policy, and you only go without it if you rejected it in writing.¹²¹¹ Personal injury protection pays your medical bills and part of your lost wages regardless of who caused the crash. PIP is built into every Texas auto policy by default, with a minimum of $2,500 per person, and you skip it only if you turned it down in writing.¹³ If you own a car, dig out your own declarations page. UM/UIM and PIP often decide whether there's real money to recover at all.

When a case is worth more

Some pedestrian cases carry extra exposure for the at-fault side. If the driver was drunk, a bar, restaurant, or store that kept serving them after they were obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger can be liable under the Texas Dram Shop Act, which adds a second source of recovery.¹⁴ Separately, exemplary damages become available when a driver's conduct rises to gross negligence or malice. Those punitive damages are capped at the greater of $200,000, or two times your economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $750,000.⁴ The cap falls away entirely when the conduct is a felony such as intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter, which drunk-driving pedestrian cases often involve.⁴ That's why a case with a momentarily careless sober driver and one with a repeat drunk driver can settle for very different amounts on identical injuries.

Documenting your claim

The size of your settlement tracks the strength of your evidence. Get the official crash report, which in Texas comes from TxDOT's Crash Records Information System.¹⁵ You can read how to pull one on our Texas crash reports page. Keep every medical record, bill, and pay stub, and photograph your injuries as they heal. If the insurer's first offer feels low against bills that are still coming in, that's normal, because early offers usually land before the full cost of a serious pedestrian injury is known. When you're weighing whether to handle the claim yourself or bring in help, you can find a Texas attorney who handles pedestrian cases.

There's no shortcut number for a Texas pedestrian settlement. The value lives in your medical and wage losses, the fault split under the 51-percent rule, and how much insurance is actually reachable. Line those up with solid records and you'll have a real sense of what your case is worth.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts, Calendar Year 2024 (768 pedestrian fatalities; 4,150 total traffic deaths). https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/division/trf/crash-records/2024/01.pdf

2. thatcarhitme.com, Austin 2025 annual crash report (11,937 crashes). https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/texas/austin/2025-annual-report

3. thatcarhitme.com, Austin May 2026 crash report (902 crashes). https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/texas/austin/may-2026-report

4. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 41.008 (limitation on exemplary damages and the felony exception in subsection (c)). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.41.htm

5. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003 (two-year limitations period). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.16.htm

6. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33.012 (reduction of recovery by claimant's percentage of responsibility). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.33.htm

7. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33.001 (proportionate responsibility, bar to recovery above 50 percent). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.33.htm

8. Texas Transportation Code Section 552.003 (pedestrian right-of-way at crosswalk; pedestrian may not suddenly leave a curb). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.552.htm

9. Texas Transportation Code Section 545.4251 (statewide ban on texting while driving, primary enforcement, effective September 1, 2017). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.545.htm

10. Texas Transportation Code Section 601.072 (minimum liability limits, 30/60/25). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm

11. Texas Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance Guide (Consumer Bulletin CB-020). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html

12. Texas Insurance Code Sections 1952.101 and 1952.104 (uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage must be offered; rejected only in writing). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

13. Texas Insurance Code Sections 1952.152 and 1952.153 (personal injury protection included by default, minimum $2,500 per person, rejected only in writing). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

14. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code Section 2.02 (Dram Shop Act; provider liable for serving a person obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/AL/htm/AL.2.htm

15. Texas Department of Transportation, Crash Records Information System (CRIS). https://cris.dot.state.tx.us/public/Purchase/