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Pedestrian accidents can change a person’s life in an instant. One moment you are walking along a Plano sidewalk near Legacy Drive or crossing at a busy intersection on Preston Road, and the next you are on the ground, seriously hurt. If a driver’s carelessness caused your injuries, Texas law gives you the right to hold that driver accountable, and Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys is ready to help you do exactly that.
Table of Contents
- Why Pedestrian Accidents in Plano Cause Serious Injuries
- Texas Laws That Protect Pedestrians and Define Driver Duties
- Common Causes of Plano Pedestrian Accidents and Who Is at Fault
- What Compensation You Can Recover After a Plano Pedestrian Accident
- Why the Two-Year Filing Deadline in Texas Makes Acting Quickly Essential
- How Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys Handles Plano Pedestrian Accident Cases
- FAQs About Plano Pedestrian Accident Lawyers
Why Pedestrian Accidents in Plano Cause Serious Injuries
Pedestrians have no metal frame, no airbags, and no seat belt between them and a moving vehicle. When a car, truck, or SUV strikes a person on foot, the results are almost always severe. Broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and internal bleeding are common outcomes of these crashes. The injuries that follow a pedestrian accident often require surgery, long hospital stays, and months of rehabilitation.
Pedestrians are involved in only one percent of traffic crashes in Texas, yet they account for 19 percent of all roadway fatalities. That gap tells you everything about how dangerous these collisions are for people on foot.
In 2024, there were 6,095 crashes involving pedestrians across Texas, resulting in 772 pedestrian deaths, and another 1,455 pedestrians were seriously injured. These numbers reflect real families in real communities, including the fast-growing neighborhoods of Plano along US-75 and the Dallas North Tollway.
Plano’s mix of dense retail corridors, busy restaurant districts near the Shops at Legacy, and high-speed arterial roads creates conditions where pedestrian accidents happen regularly. Drivers moving quickly through commercial areas near Spring Creek Parkway or Coit Road may fail to notice someone stepping off a curb. The consequences for that person can be life-altering, and sometimes fatal.
If you or someone you love was hurt in a pedestrian accident in Plano, the personal injury lawyers at Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys understand the physical, emotional, and financial toll these crashes take. Call us at (940) 800-2500 to talk about your case.
Texas Laws That Protect Pedestrians and Define Driver Duties
Texas law places clear duties on drivers to protect pedestrians. Understanding those duties is the foundation of any pedestrian accident claim, because a driver who violates them can be held legally responsible for the harm they cause.
Under Texas Transportation Code Section 552.003, a driver must stop and yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing a roadway in a crosswalk when no traffic control signal is in place and the pedestrian is on the driver’s half of the roadway or close enough to be in danger. This rule applies to both marked crosswalks, which are painted on the pavement, and unmarked crosswalks at intersections.
Section 552.008 of the same code requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian on a roadway, to sound the horn when necessary as a warning, and to take extra precautions when a child or a person who appears confused or incapacitated is present on the road. These are not optional courtesies. They are legal obligations.
Texas Transportation Code Section 545.428 goes further. A driver who operates a vehicle within the area of a crosswalk with criminal negligence and causes bodily injury to a pedestrian commits a Class A misdemeanor. If the pedestrian suffers serious bodily injury, the offense rises to a state jail felony. This statute, added in 2021 and amended in 2023, reflects how seriously Texas treats crosswalk safety.
Under Texas Transportation Code Section 552.001, pedestrians facing a green traffic signal may proceed across a roadway within a marked or unmarked crosswalk. Those facing a steady red or yellow signal may not enter the roadway. Local authorities in cities like Plano may also impose additional pedestrian rules under Section 552.009, such as requiring pedestrians to cross only at marked crosswalks in business districts.
When a driver breaks any of these rules and injures you, that violation is strong evidence of negligence in a personal injury claim. Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys analyzes the specific facts of each accident against these legal standards to build the strongest possible case for our clients.
Common Causes of Plano Pedestrian Accidents and Who Is at Fault
Most pedestrian accidents in Plano happen because a driver failed to pay attention, failed to yield, or made a deliberate choice to speed. Identifying the cause is the first step in determining who is legally responsible.
The top factors contributing to traffic crashes in Texas involving pedestrians include pedestrians failing to yield the right-of-way to vehicles and drivers failing to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians. Both sides share some responsibility under Texas law, but drivers carry the heavier burden because their vehicles are the source of the danger.
Distracted driving is a leading cause of pedestrian accidents. A driver reading a text message while turning right onto a Plano street near Haggard Park may never see the person stepping into the crosswalk. Speeding is another major factor, particularly on wide arterial roads like Parker Road or Alma Drive, where higher vehicle speeds give drivers less time to react and give pedestrians less chance of survival.
Drunk driving also plays a significant role. A driver impaired by alcohol has slower reaction times and reduced awareness, making them far more likely to strike someone walking near a Plano restaurant or bar on a weekend night. Crashes involving drunk drivers that injure pedestrians can also support punitive damage claims in civil court, on top of the standard compensation for injuries.
Failure to yield at crosswalks is perhaps the most direct form of driver negligence in pedestrian cases. Texas law is clear on this point, and when a driver rolls through a crosswalk without stopping, they are breaking the law. Drivers who pass another vehicle that has stopped at a crosswalk to let someone cross are also in violation of Section 552.003(c) of the Transportation Code.
Texas follows a modified comparative fault system under the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. This means that if you as a pedestrian are found to be partially at fault, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault. However, as long as you are less than 51 percent responsible, you can still recover damages. An experienced attorney can help counter attempts by insurance companies to shift blame onto you unfairly.
What Compensation You Can Recover After a Plano Pedestrian Accident
A successful pedestrian accident claim in Texas can recover compensation for every real loss the accident caused. These damages fall into two main categories: economic damages, which cover measurable financial losses, and non-economic damages, which cover the human cost of the injury.
Economic damages include past and future medical bills, the cost of surgeries and rehabilitation, lost wages from time missed at work, and loss of future earning capacity if the injury prevents you from returning to your career. If your injuries are serious, such as a traumatic brain injury or a spinal cord injury, these future costs can be substantial and must be calculated carefully with the help of medical and financial experts.
Non-economic damages cover physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and the impact the injury has on your relationships with family. For someone who can no longer walk through Arbor Hills Nature Preserve or coach their child’s sports team because of a pedestrian accident, these losses are real and significant. Texas law allows injured people to seek full compensation for them.
In cases involving a drunk driver or a driver who showed reckless disregard for pedestrian safety, a court may also award punitive damages. These are meant to punish particularly harmful conduct and deter others from similar behavior. They are separate from the compensation you receive for your own losses.
If a pedestrian accident results in a death, surviving family members may have a wrongful death claim under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003(b). This allows spouses, children, and parents of the deceased to seek compensation for their own losses, including grief, lost financial support, and loss of companionship. The two-year clock for wrongful death claims begins on the date of death, not the date of the accident.
Every case is different, and past results in other cases do not guarantee the same outcome in yours. What matters is building a strong claim based on the specific facts of your accident. Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys works to identify every category of damages you are entitled to and fights to recover the full amount.
Why the Two-Year Filing Deadline in Texas Makes Acting Quickly Essential
Texas gives injured pedestrians a firm legal deadline to file a lawsuit. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003 requires an injured person to bring suit no later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. For most pedestrian accident victims, that clock starts on the day of the crash.
The clock does not pause while you are recovering in the hospital. It does not pause while you are negotiating with an insurance adjuster. It keeps running whether you are aware of it or not. Insurance companies know your exact deadline, and some will delay settlement discussions hoping time runs out.
If you miss that deadline, the court will almost always dismiss your case, no matter how strong it is. That means no compensation for your medical bills, your lost wages, or your pain and suffering, regardless of how clearly the driver was at fault.
Acting quickly also protects your evidence. Surveillance footage from cameras near Plano intersections or shopping centers gets overwritten within days or weeks. Witness memories fade. Skid marks disappear from the road surface. The police crash report, known in Texas as the CR-3 form filed with TxDOT, is a key piece of evidence that an attorney can obtain and analyze early in the process.
There are narrow exceptions to the two-year rule. If the injured person is under 18, the clock does not start until their 18th birthday, giving a minor until age 20 to file. If a person is mentally incapacitated, the clock pauses until that incapacity is resolved. These exceptions are limited and fact-specific, so you should never assume one applies without speaking to an attorney first.
Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys serves clients throughout the North Texas region from our office at 110 N. Woodrow Ln, Ste 120, Denton, TX 76205. Call us at (940) 800-2500 as soon as possible after your accident so we can protect your rights before any deadline passes.
How Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys Handles Plano Pedestrian Accident Cases
Pedestrian accident cases require thorough investigation, a clear understanding of Texas traffic law, and the ability to stand firm against insurance companies that want to pay as little as possible. Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys approaches every pedestrian case with those priorities in mind.
From the start, we work to gather and preserve every piece of relevant evidence. That includes the TxDOT CR-3 crash report, any available traffic or security camera footage, photographs of the scene, medical records documenting your injuries, and statements from witnesses. We also work with accident reconstruction professionals when the facts of a crash are disputed.
We identify every party whose negligence contributed to your injuries. In some cases, that may be the driver alone. In others, a commercial trucking company, a rideshare driver, or even a government entity responsible for a dangerous intersection design may share liability. Plano intersections with poor lighting or inadequate crosswalk markings can create conditions that make accidents more likely, and those design failures can be part of a claim.
Once we have built your case, we negotiate directly with the insurance company on your behalf. Insurance adjusters are trained to minimize payouts. Having an attorney who knows the law and the value of your claim changes that dynamic significantly. If a fair settlement cannot be reached, we are prepared to take your case to the Collin County courts, where Plano cases are typically filed.
Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys handles pedestrian accident cases on a contingency fee basis. That means you pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. There is no financial risk in calling us to discuss your case. Reach us at (940) 800-2500 for a free consultation. The attorneys responsible for the content of this page practice at Chandler Ross, Injury Attorneys, 110 N. Woodrow Ln, Ste 120, Denton, TX 76205.
FAQs About Plano Pedestrian Accident Lawyers
Do I have a case if I was hit by a car while crossing outside a marked crosswalk in Plano?
You may still have a case, but the facts matter more in this situation. Under Texas Transportation Code Section 552.008, drivers must exercise due care to avoid hitting pedestrians on any roadway, even outside a crosswalk. However, if you crossed mid-block where you were required to yield to traffic, a portion of the fault may be assigned to you. Texas’s modified comparative fault rule allows you to recover damages as long as you are less than 51 percent responsible for the accident. An attorney can review the specific circumstances of your crash and give you an honest assessment of your claim.
How long does a Plano pedestrian accident case take to resolve?
The timeline varies significantly depending on the severity of your injuries, how clearly fault is established, and whether the insurance company cooperates with a fair settlement. Cases involving serious injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries or spinal cord damage, often take longer because the full extent of your medical needs must be understood before settling. Some cases resolve through negotiation within several months. Others require filing a lawsuit in Collin County District Court, which can extend the process. Acting early and getting an attorney involved quickly helps keep things moving.
What if the driver who hit me did not have insurance?
Texas requires drivers to carry liability insurance, but not all of them do. If the driver who struck you is uninsured, you may be able to make a claim under your own uninsured motorist coverage, if you have it. Your attorney can also investigate whether any other party, such as a vehicle owner who is different from the driver, or a government entity responsible for a dangerous road condition, may share liability. Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys will explore every available source of compensation in your case.
Can a family file a claim if a pedestrian accident in Plano resulted in a death?
Yes. Under Texas law, the spouse, children, and parents of a person killed in a pedestrian accident may bring a wrongful death claim. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003(b) gives surviving family members two years from the date of death to file. Compensation in a wrongful death case can include funeral and burial costs, loss of financial support, loss of companionship, and the grief and mental anguish caused by the loss. If you have lost a family member in a pedestrian accident in Plano, contact Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys at (940) 800-2500 to understand your options.
What should I do immediately after being hit by a car as a pedestrian in Plano?
Call 911 right away and get medical attention, even if you feel like your injuries are minor. Adrenaline can mask pain, and some serious injuries, including internal bleeding and traumatic brain injuries, may not produce obvious symptoms immediately. Once emergency responders arrive, let them document the scene. If you are physically able, take photos of the intersection, the vehicle, and your injuries. Get the driver’s name, license plate, and insurance information. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company before speaking with an attorney. Then call Chandler Ross Injury Attorneys at (940) 800-2500 as soon as possible so we can begin protecting your rights.
