Omaha Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

A person on foot has nothing around them. No frame, no crumple zone, no airbag — just the human body against two tons of moving steel. That is why pedestrian collisions produce some of the most serious injuries I see in my practice: fractures that need hardware, head injuries that change personalities, and deaths that should never have happened at walking speed. It is also why these cases deserve a lawyer who treats them as what they are — major injury cases — rather than fender-benders that happen to involve a person instead of a bumper.

I have tried and resolved pedestrian cases across Nebraska, from a $571,332 jury verdict for a pedestrian struck on a gravel road to a $300,000 recovery for a man hit by a city bus, to a vehicle-into-pedestrian case I resolved successfully in the Scottsbluff area. Every one of them started with an insurance company arguing the person on foot should have watched where they were going.

Who Had the Right-of-Way: What Nebraska Law Actually Says

Nebraska's rules of the road are more specific — and more favorable to pedestrians — than most drivers realize. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,153, a driver must yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing within a crosswalk, and that includes the unmarked crosswalks that exist at ordinary intersections, not just the painted ones. Two other provisions of the same statute do quiet but important work in these cases:

• No passing a stopped vehicle at a crosswalk. When a car stops at a crosswalk to let someone cross, the statute forbids other drivers from overtaking and passing it. A huge share of serious crosswalk collisions are exactly this: the first car stops, the second car swings around it, and the pedestrian who was lawfully crossing is struck in the next lane. That driver did not just fail to yield — he violated a specific statutory command.
• The "sudden departure" rule cuts both ways. Pedestrians may not suddenly leave a curb into the path of a car so close the driver cannot stop. Insurers love this clause; the answer to it is usually physics. Walking speed, the distance from curb to point of impact, and the driver's sight line generally establish exactly how long the pedestrian was visible in the roadway — and it is almost always longer than the driver claims.

Hit Outside a Crosswalk? That Is Not the End of Your Case

The first thing many injured pedestrians tell me is some version of "but I wasn't in a crosswalk." Here is the honest legal picture. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,154 does require a pedestrian crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk to yield to traffic. But a driver's duties do not evaporate the moment someone steps off the curb mid-block. Drivers must keep a proper lookout, drive at a speed that lets them respond to what is actually in front of them, and react to a visible hazard — including a visible human being.

Nebraska's comparative negligence statute is what makes these cases winnable. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-21,185.09, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault and barred only if your negligence was 50 percent or greater. A pedestrian who crossed mid-block at night may carry a share of fault — but a driver who was speeding, looking at a phone, or simply not looking at the road usually carries far more. I have seen insurers open with "jaywalking, no case" and end with six-figure checks, because the evidence showed the driver had four full seconds to see a person walking and never touched the brakes.

Struck While Walking Along a Road

Not every pedestrian case is a crossing case. In the parts of Nebraska I regularly serve — the Panhandle, the Sandhills, the farm counties — people walk along roads because there is nowhere else to walk. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,156 sets out the rules: use the sidewalk where one exists, otherwise the shoulder, and where there is neither, walk as near as practicable to the edge of the roadway — on the left side, facing traffic, on a two-way road.

My $571,332 jury verdict came from precisely this kind of case: a pedestrian walking on a gravel road, struck by a piece of farm equipment. Rural walking cases have their own texture — wide loads that overhang the traveled surface, dust and sun angles, equipment operators who genuinely never saw the person — and they are tried, if necessary, in front of rural juries who know those roads. A verdict like that one is proof these cases can be won where they happen, not just settled cheap.

Hit by a City Bus, Snowplow, or Other Government Vehicle

If the vehicle that hit you belongs to a city, county, school district, or transit authority, your case runs on a completely different clock. Claims against Nebraska political subdivisions fall under the Political Subdivisions Tort Claims Act. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 13-905, the claim must be presented in writing to the subdivision's clerk or governing body, stating the time, place and facts. Under § 13-919, that written claim must be made within one year — three years earlier than Nebraska's ordinary injury deadline — and suit must generally be brought within two, with a six-month extension after the body finally disposes of the claim or the claim is withdrawn.

The one-year trap is where these cases die. A family assumes they have years, negotiates casually with the transit authority's adjuster, and the claim-filing deadline passes in the background. I recovered $300,000 for a pedestrian injured in a collision with a city bus — a case that existed only because the procedural steps were taken correctly and on time. If a government vehicle hit you, the calendar is the first emergency, before the medicine and before the negotiation.

Where the Money Actually Comes From

Pedestrians often assume that if the driver was uninsured — or drove off — there is no recovery. Usually wrong. A pedestrian case can draw on more insurance than people expect:

• The driver's liability policy — the obvious first source.
• Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. This is the fact almost nobody knows: your auto policy's UM/UIM coverage protects you as a person, not your car. If you are struck while walking by an uninsured driver, an underinsured driver, or a hit-and-run driver who is never found, your own policy typically responds — and using it does not make you the bad guy; it is precisely what you paid premiums for.
• Resident relatives' policies. A pedestrian who lives with family members who carry auto insurance may have coverage under those policies as well. I stack every available layer.
• Medical payments coverage — no-fault money for early bills while the liability fight plays out.

Identifying every policy is not paperwork; it is often the difference between a recovery capped at a minimum-limits policy and one that actually matches the injury. It is one of the first things I do in every motor vehicle case, and it matters doubly for pedestrians, whose injuries routinely exceed a careless driver's limits.

Children Hit by Cars

Children are the pedestrians drivers are most obligated to anticipate and the victims insurers work hardest to blame. The defense in nearly every child-pedestrian case is the same phrase: "he darted out." Nebraska law does not accept that as a case-ender. Young children are not held to an adult standard of care, and drivers are required to anticipate the presence of children — near schools, parks, school buses, ice cream trucks, and on residential streets — and to adjust speed and attention accordingly. A driver doing 38 in a residential 25 does not get to blame a seven-year-old for being a seven-year-old.

The dart-out story also has to survive the physical evidence: the child's walking or running speed, the point of impact on the vehicle, skid or yaw marks, and what the driver could see and when. I treat that reconstruction as the core of the case. Deadlines for injured children run differently than for adults, but do not let that become a reason to wait — evidence disappears on the same schedule regardless of the victim's age. Where a crash is fatal, the case proceeds as a wrongful death claim for the family.

"But the Police Report Blamed Me"

Injured pedestrians regularly tell me the case is hopeless because the officer's crash report put them at fault, or because they were cited for crossing improperly. Neither ends a civil case. The investigating officer almost never witnessed the collision — the report's fault assessment is a reconstruction from statements taken at the scene, frequently from the only participant still able to talk: the driver. A citation is not a civil judgment, a traffic infraction is not a finding that you were 50 percent negligent, and the report's conclusions are not the evidence a jury ultimately weighs. I have taken cases where the initial paperwork leaned entirely the driver's way and turned them with signal-timing records, camera footage, and reconstruction the officer never had time to do. Read the report, take it seriously — and then let someone test it.

Dark Roads, Nebraska Winters, and Why Pedestrians Get Blamed

Most serious pedestrian collisions in Nebraska do not happen at noon in July. They happen at dusk and after dark, in the months when commutes outlast the daylight, and in winters when unshoveled sidewalks and windrowed snow push walkers into the traveled roadway whether they like it or not. Insurers use those facts to blame the pedestrian: dark clothes, walking in the street, should have stayed home. The law reads the same facts differently. A driver operating in darkness is required to drive within the range of his own headlights and attention — darkness is a reason for more care behind the wheel, not less. And a pedestrian forced off an impassable sidewalk by snow or ice did not choose the roadway; the property owner who never cleared the walk may be an additional responsible party under the same principles I use in premises liability cases. Where you were walking is a fact. Why you were walking there is the argument — and it is usually a better one than the adjuster expects.

Struck in Iowa? I Handle Both Sides of the River

I am licensed in Iowa as well as Nebraska, and pedestrian cases from Council Bluffs, Sioux City, and western Iowa come with one difference that cannot wait: Iowa's deadline for injury suits is generally two years, half of Nebraska's four. The right-of-way concepts are similar; the calendar is not. If an Iowa driver hit you — or a Nebraska driver hit you on the Iowa side — get the timing question answered early, because the most common fatal mistake in cross-border cases is assuming the longer state's clock applies.

The Evidence That Wins Pedestrian Cases

Pedestrian cases are won with evidence most people never think to preserve:

• Signal timing and phasing records. City traffic engineering departments keep records of how long a walk signal lasts at a given intersection. If the crossing time was inadequate — or the pedestrian had the walk signal when struck — that record is decisive, and it must be requested before it is routine-purged.
• The striking vehicle's event data recorder. Speed, braking, and throttle in the seconds before impact, straight from the defendant's own car.
• Cameras. Intersection cameras, transit cameras, business surveillance, doorbell cameras on residential streets. Most systems overwrite within days or weeks; a preservation letter has to go out immediately.
• Scene physics. Where the person landed relative to the point of impact tells a reconstructionist a great deal about the vehicle's true speed — often far above what the driver reported.
• Lighting and visibility documentation — photographed at the same hour and conditions as the crash, before the seasons change what the scene looks like.

I send preservation demands in the first days of a case because this category of evidence does not wait for anyone's insurance negotiation.

Selected Results

From my full results list. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

I was hit outside a crosswalk. Do I still have a case?

Very possibly. Crossing outside a crosswalk gave you a duty to yield under § 60-6,154, but the driver still owed a duty of care, and Nebraska bars recovery only if your fault reaches 50 percent. Where you crossed starts the analysis; the driver's speed, attention, and reaction finish it.

The driver drove off and was never found. Who pays?

Your own auto policy's uninsured motorist coverage typically covers you when a hit-and-run driver strikes you as a pedestrian — you do not need to have been in your car. Policies of family members you live with may add another layer.

I don't own a car, so I have no auto insurance. Now what?

The driver's liability coverage remains the primary source, and coverage through resident relatives' auto policies may still reach you. This is a coverage-hunting problem, and it is worth an hour of a lawyer's time before anyone concludes there is no money.

I was hit by a city bus. Is my case different?

Completely. Claims against political subdivisions require a written claim within one year under the Political Subdivisions Tort Claims Act, with suit generally due within two. Miss the one-year filing and the strongest case in the world can be worth nothing. Call someone now, not later.

The insurance adjuster says I "came out of nowhere." What do I do?

Nothing comes out of nowhere; things come out of places drivers were not looking. Sight lines, lighting, walking speed, and the physical evidence establish how long you were visible. Do not give a recorded statement before you have counsel — that phrase usually enters the file through the injured person's own words.

How long do I have to bring a claim?

Nebraska's general personal injury deadline is four years and Iowa's is two — but the one-year PSTCA claim deadline applies to government vehicles, and children's claims have their own rules. Treat the timing question as urgent in every pedestrian case.

What is my case worth?

What the injuries, the wage loss, and the permanent limitations actually add up to — pedestrian injuries are routinely severe precisely because nothing protected your body. My published results above, and the settlement examples I publish, are the honest way to calibrate expectations for your own facts.