Pedestrian Accident Attorneys in Birmingham, AL

Last updated: November 6, 2026

A person on foot has nothing between them and the bumper. When a driver on U.S. 280, 1st Avenue North or University Boulevard fails to see someone in a crosswalk, the injuries are the kind that change a life, and the driver’s version of events is usually the only one the police hear. Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers represents people hit by cars, trucks, buses and rideshare vehicles in Birmingham and across Jefferson County from our office at 2226 1st Avenue South, a few blocks from UAB.

These cases are won or lost in the first two weeks. Alabama’s contributory negligence rule means an insurer only has to convince a jury that you shared a little of the blame, and “came out of nowhere” is the phrase they build that argument around. Our job is to get the camera footage, the witnesses and the crash report in order before that story hardens into the file.

Birmingham Pedestrian Accident Claims: At a Glance

  • Deadline: two years from the crash under Ala. Code § 6-2-38, two years from the death for wrongful death, and only six months to give notice if a City of Birmingham vehicle, signal or crosswalk defect was involved.
  • The 1% trap: Alabama bars recovery if a jury finds you even slightly at fault, including for where you crossed, so fault evidence has to be gathered before it disappears.
  • The driver’s duty: Ala. Code § 32-5A-213 requires every driver to use due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian, crosswalk or not.
  • Your own policy counts: uninsured motorist coverage on your auto policy pays when the driver fled or had no insurance, even though you were walking.
  • Cost: free consultation, no fee unless we win: (205) 407-6009.
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Pedestrian Crashes in Birmingham and Alabama: The Numbers

ALDOT’s 2024 Crash Facts, the most recent statewide report, count 612 crashes in which a vehicle struck a pedestrian in Alabama that year. Those crashes involved 819 pedestrians, injured 620 of them and killed 120, the same death toll as 2023. Pedestrian deaths in Alabama are up about 22 percent since 2015, while traffic deaths overall have not risen at that rate. Nationally, NHTSA reports 7,080 pedestrians killed in 2024, about 18 percent of all traffic deaths.

Jefferson County recorded 26,354 crashes and 103 traffic deaths in 2024. ALDOT does not publish a county-level pedestrian count, but the Jefferson County Coroner’s figures, as reported by WBRC in early 2025, show pedestrian deaths in the county up 47 percent between 2012 and 2024, with 34 people killed on foot in 2023 alone.

One line in the ALDOT report shapes how every one of these cases is defended: the state attributes 64 percent of fatal pedestrian crashes to the pedestrian. Insurers know that number. Jurors share the assumption behind it. A pedestrian case in Birmingham has to begin from the premise that the driver’s insurer will argue you were at fault, no matter how clear the facts look from the hospital bed.

Where Birmingham Pedestrians Get Hit

The same corridors produce these cases year after year, and the pattern is not random. Multi-lane arterials with long gaps between signals, transit stops on the far side of the road, and poor lighting at night account for most of the serious injuries we see.

  • U.S. 280. Wide, fast lanes from Mountain Brook through Inverness, with shopping centers and apartments on both sides and crosswalks only at widely spaced signals. Night crashes here are the deadliest pattern in the metro area.
  • U.S. 31 through Homewood, Vestavia Hills and Hoover. Six lanes of commercial traffic with constant turning movements across the center lane.
  • 1st Avenue North, 20th Street and the downtown grid. Transit stops, one-way streets and drivers running stale yellows at the signalized intersections. Downtown crashes are usually at lower speed, but they involve buses, delivery trucks and rideshare vehicles with their own insurance structures.
  • The blocks around UAB. University Boulevard, 6th Avenue South and the streets between the hospital and campus carry shift workers, students and patients on foot at all hours. The crosswalk outside UAB Hospital is where one of our own results came from, described below.
  • Arkadelphia Road, Bessemer Road and the Ensley corridors. Long stretches of road with sparse sidewalks and lighting, where people walk along the shoulder. A man riding an electric scooter was killed on Arkadelphia Road in November 2026.
  • Parking lots and shopping centers. Galleria-area lots, grocery store entrances and gas stations produce low-speed crashes with serious injuries to older pedestrians and children, and they are often recorded on the business’s own cameras.

Where the crash happened also decides who the defendants are and how fast you have to act. A crash involving a city vehicle, a dark intersection where the street light was out, or a crosswalk signal that did not work brings the City of Birmingham into the case, and city claims have a six-month notice deadline that no other defendant has.

The Crosswalk Statutes That Decide Fault

Six sections of Alabama’s rules of the road control almost every pedestrian case. Which one the adjuster quotes first tells you how they plan to fight your claim.

  • § 32-5A-210. Pedestrians must obey traffic signals and pedestrian signals. A “Don’t Walk” signal is the first thing the defense looks for in intersection cases.
  • § 32-5A-211. A driver must yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, slowing or stopping if necessary. The same section adds that no pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb into the path of a vehicle that is too close to stop, which is the “darted out” defense in statutory form.
  • § 32-5A-212. The insurer’s favorite. A pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk must yield to vehicles, and between two adjacent signalized intersections you may cross only in a marked crosswalk.
  • § 32-5A-213. The answer to it. Notwithstanding everything else in the chapter, every driver must exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian, sound the horn when necessary, and take special precaution around children and anyone who appears confused or incapacitated.
  • § 32-5A-214. Pedestrians should use the right half of a crosswalk where practicable.
  • § 32-5A-215. Where there is a sidewalk, use it. Where there is none, walk on the left shoulder facing traffic. On the Birmingham roads with no sidewalk at all, this is the section the defense reaches for.

A crosswalk, under Alabama law, is not only the painted one. At any intersection, the extension of the sidewalk lines across the road is a crosswalk whether or not it is marked. Many Birmingham pedestrians who are told they were “jaywalking” were in a legal crosswalk the whole time.

Hit Outside a Crosswalk? You May Still Have a Case

Because Alabama bars recovery at even 1 percent fault, insurers treat “jaywalking” as a case-ending word. It is not. The driver’s independent duty of due care under § 32-5A-213 does not disappear because you were outside the lines. A speeding, texting or impaired driver has their own negligence to answer for, and a jury decides whose negligence caused the crash.

Alabama courts also recognize subsequent negligence, sometimes called the last clear chance rule. If the driver saw you in a position of danger, or should have, and still failed to use reasonable care to avoid the collision, your earlier misstep does not bar the claim. These cases turn on reconstruction: speed calculations from the throw distance, sight lines, lighting, and the driver’s phone records. That is why we investigate before the insurer’s version is the only one in the file.

Contributory Negligence: The Rule That Decides Alabama Pedestrian Cases

Alabama is one of a handful of states that still follows pure contributory negligence. If the defense convinces a jury that you were negligent and that your negligence contributed to the crash, even slightly, you recover nothing. The Alabama Supreme Court has applied that rule for decades (Brown v. Piggly-Wiggly Stores, 454 So. 2d 1370 (Ala. 1984)), and insurers build pedestrian defenses around it: you were outside the crosswalk, you were wearing dark clothing, you were looking at your phone, you stepped off the curb too soon.

Two things help injured pedestrians. First, contributory negligence is not a defense to wantonness, which is conduct done with reckless disregard for the consequences. A driver who was drunk, racing, or texting at 50 miles an hour on a city street can meet that standard, and a wanton driver cannot hide behind the pedestrian’s clothing. Second, a pedestrian’s negligence that did not actually contribute to the crash is no defense at all. If the driver was looking down and would have hit you whether you were in the crosswalk or three feet outside it, where you crossed did not cause anything.

The practical answer to the rule is evidence, not argument. The driver’s own phone records, the event data recorder in most newer cars, traffic and business cameras, and a reconstruction based on the physical evidence usually settle the fault question in a way the driver’s statement cannot. We do not recommend giving a recorded statement to the driver’s insurer, because the questions are designed to produce the one percent.

Who Can Be Held Liable Beyond the Driver

The driver is the obvious defendant and often the one with the least insurance. Alabama’s minimum liability policy is $25,000 per person, which does not cover a night in the UAB trauma unit. We look at every other source of responsibility before we tell you what the case is worth.

  • The driver’s employer, if the driver was working: a delivery van, a company truck, a rideshare driver with a passenger, a bus. The employer’s commercial policy is usually many times the driver’s personal limits.
  • The vehicle’s owner, for negligent entrustment, where the owner lent the car to someone they knew to be an unsafe or unlicensed driver.
  • The City of Birmingham or another municipality, for a broken pedestrian signal, a missing crosswalk where one was required, a street light that had been out for months, or a city vehicle. Notice must be presented within six months under Ala. Code § 11-47-23.
  • Jefferson County, for county roads and vehicles, with a twelve-month claim deadline under § 11-12-8.
  • A bar or restaurant, under Alabama’s Dram Shop Act, when the driver was served while visibly intoxicated.
  • A property owner, in parking-lot cases, where the lot’s design, lighting or lack of marked walkways contributed.
  • Your own insurer, under the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage described below.

Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers

Many Birmingham pedestrian cases involve a driver who fled or carries no insurance. Most people hit while walking never think to check their own auto policy. They should. Uninsured motorist coverage protects you as a pedestrian, even though you were nowhere near your car. Alabama policies include UM coverage of at least $25,000 per person unless it was rejected in writing, a hit-and-run driver counts as uninsured for coverage purposes, and UM limits can often be stacked across the vehicles on a policy. Coverage on a policy held by a relative you live with can apply too.

One caution: your own UM insurer becomes an adversary once a claim is made, and it has the same contributory negligence defense the driver would have had. UM policies also have strict notice requirements and may require the insurer’s consent before you settle with the driver. We handle the UM claim alongside the liability claim so neither one is lost. Before you conclude there is no money in a hit-and-run, let us read every policy in the house.

The Injuries We See in Pedestrian Cases

A vehicle at 30 miles an hour strikes an adult at the hip, throws them onto the hood and then onto the pavement, so the injuries come in pairs: the impact injury and the ground injury. The cases that come through our office involve traumatic brain injuries from the second impact, spinal cord injuries, pelvic and femur fractures, tibial plateau fractures that take a year to heal, internal bleeding, degloving injuries and amputations. Children are struck higher on the body and suffer head and chest injuries at lower speeds than adults. Older pedestrians, who make up a large share of the deaths, often do not survive injuries a younger person would.

These injuries bring long recoveries, future surgeries and lost careers. Valuing them requires the treating physicians and, in serious cases, a life-care planner rather than an adjuster’s software. We work with the doctors at UAB, Grandview, Brookwood, St. Vincent’s and Children’s of Alabama to document what the future holds before any demand goes out.

What a Pedestrian Accident Claim Can Include

Alabama does not cap compensatory damages in injury cases. A claim can include every medical bill, past and future; lost wages and lost earning capacity; the cost of care at home; and the pain, scarring, disability and loss of enjoyment of life the crash caused. Punitive damages are available against a wanton driver and are capped at the greater of $1.5 million or three times compensatory damages under Ala. Code § 6-11-21.

If a pedestrian is killed, the claim becomes a wrongful death action under Ala. Code § 6-5-410, and Alabama’s wrongful death law is unlike any other state’s. Damages are entirely punitive: the jury sets an amount that punishes the wrongdoing and deters it, rather than totaling the family’s financial loss, and no cap applies. The claim is filed by the personal representative of the estate within two years of the death, and the recovery passes to the heirs outside the estate, free of the deceased’s debts. Because the measure is the driver’s conduct, the evidence of speed, impairment and distraction matters even more in a death case.

Deadlines for a Birmingham Pedestrian Accident Claim

  • Injury claims: two years from the date of the crash. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l).
  • Wrongful death: two years from the date of death, filed by the personal representative of the estate. Ala. Code § 6-5-410.
  • City of Birmingham vehicles, signals, crosswalks and lighting: a sworn claim must be presented to the city within six months. Ala. Code § 11-47-23.
  • County claims: twelve months. Ala. Code § 11-12-8.
  • Your own UM policy: the notice and consent-to-settle deadlines in the policy, which can be shorter than any statute.
  • Evidence: no statute, but the shortest deadline of all. Business and traffic camera footage is typically overwritten within days to a few weeks.

Claims for minors run on a different clock, and a claim against a federal vehicle has its own administrative process. If there is any question, call before the dates get close rather than after.

What to Do After Being Hit by a Car in Birmingham

  1. Get medical care the same day. UAB Hospital is the region’s Level I trauma center, and Children’s of Alabama handles pediatric trauma. Head and internal injuries often present hours later, and a gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster looks for.
  2. Make sure a crash report is written. Birmingham Police inside the city, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office or the local department in the suburbs. Birmingham crash reports are available through ALEA’s online portal for about $17; our guide to getting your Birmingham accident report walks through it. Read the narrative and the diagram closely. If the officer wrote down the driver’s version as fact, that can be corrected, but only early.
  3. Get the names of witnesses. People who stopped will leave once the ambulance does, and the driver’s insurer will not be looking for them.
  4. Note every camera. Traffic cameras at the intersection, the gas station across the street, the apartment building’s entrance, the bus that was passing. We can send preservation demands only for footage we know exists.
  5. Keep your clothing and shoes. The damage pattern and any paint transfer help a reconstruction engineer establish the point of impact and the vehicle’s speed.
  6. Do not give a recorded statement to the driver’s insurer, and do not sign a medical authorization or a release. Report the crash to your own auto insurer in writing, with the basic facts only, to protect your UM claim.
  7. Stay off social media about the crash and your recovery. Adjusters read it.
  8. Call a lawyer early. The preservation letters and the camera canvass are the most time-sensitive work in the case, and they cannot be redone later.

How We Build a Pedestrian Case

When the person hit is on foot, the driver’s version is usually the only version in the police report, and it almost always includes the words “came out of nowhere.” A pedestrian case is built by replacing that story with evidence.

  • Camera canvass in the first week. City traffic cameras, business security systems, bus and rideshare dash cameras, and doorbell cameras on residential streets. Most systems overwrite within days, so written preservation demands go out immediately.
  • The driver’s phone records, by subpoena once a case is filed, to show whether they were texting or on a call at the moment of impact.
  • The vehicle’s event data recorder, which in most newer cars records speed, braking and throttle in the seconds before a crash. We ask that the vehicle be held for download before it is repaired.
  • Reconstruction. Throw distance, skid marks, the damage profile on the vehicle and the injury pattern let an engineer establish speed and point of impact, which is where the “darted out” story usually falls apart.
  • Scene documentation. Lighting, sight lines, signal timing and the location of crosswalk markings, photographed at the same time of day and in the same conditions as the crash.
  • Crash report correction. Where the report records the driver’s account as fact, we present the officer with the evidence and request a supplement.
  • Every policy in the picture. The driver’s, the employer’s, the vehicle owner’s, and the UM coverage on every policy in your household.

With the evidence in hand we send a demand that lays out fault and damages, and we prepare every case as if it will be tried. Most pedestrian claims settle, but they settle for more when the insurer knows the firm on the other side will pick a jury.

Recent Case Settlement

THE CASE: Our client was hit by a car in the crosswalk outside of UAB Hospital in downtown Birmingham. As a result of the collision, our client suffered an injury to his spine. The insurance adjuster initially blamed our client and took the position that he contributed to the incident. However, surveillance footage outside of UAB clearly showed the driver of the vehicle was at fault.

CASE RESULT: The insurance carrier tendered policy limits, which was $25,000.00.

Where Your Case Is Filed

Crashes in Birmingham and most of Jefferson County are filed in the Jefferson County Circuit Court at 716 Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard North, downtown. Crashes in the western part of the county, including Bessemer and Hueytown, go to the court’s Bessemer Division. A crash on U.S. 280 past the county line is filed in Shelby County Circuit Court in Columbiana. When the defendant is an out-of-state company, the case may be removed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, which also sits downtown. We try cases in all of them, and we plan for the forum when the complaint is drafted rather than after the defense makes its move.

Why Birmingham Pedestrians Call Fob & Foster

Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers has recovered more than $100 million for injured people across Alabama, and our attorneys bring decades of combined personal injury experience to every pedestrian case. You deal directly with your lawyer, not a case manager. We advance the cost of the reconstruction engineers and medical experts a serious case requires, and we do not refer serious cases out.

You pay nothing up front. Our fee comes out of the recovery, and if there is no recovery there is no fee. Consultations are free and confidential, and we will tell you plainly if we think the case is not worth pursuing.

Birmingham Pedestrian Accident Questions, Answered

How long do I have to file a pedestrian accident claim in Alabama?

Two years from the date of the crash for an injury claim under Ala. Code § 6-2-38, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. If a City of Birmingham vehicle, signal, crosswalk or street light was involved, a sworn notice must be presented to the city within six months, or that part of the claim is lost regardless of the two-year limit.

What if I was jaywalking when I was hit?

You may still have a case. Crossing outside a crosswalk is a factor the insurer will use under Alabama’s contributory negligence rule, but the driver has an independent duty under § 32-5A-213 to use due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian, and a speeding, distracted or impaired driver can be held fully responsible. Many intersections also have unmarked legal crosswalks. Talk to a lawyer before assuming you are barred.

The driver left the scene. Can I still recover anything?

Usually yes. A hit-and-run driver counts as uninsured, so the uninsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy, or on a policy held by a relative in your household, pays your claim even though you were on foot. If the driver is later identified, their insurance and assets are added to the case.

How much does a Birmingham pedestrian accident lawyer cost?

Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover, and we advance the case expenses. If we do not recover anything, you owe us nothing.

How much is my pedestrian accident case worth?

There is no formula, and anyone quoting a number before reading your medical records is guessing. The value depends on the severity and permanence of the injury, the clarity of the fault evidence, and the insurance available from the driver, any employer or owner, and your own UM coverage. Alabama does not cap compensatory damages, and punitive damages are available against a wanton driver.

The driver’s insurer already called me. Should I talk to them?

Not on the record, and not before you have spoken with a lawyer. Under Alabama’s contributory negligence rule, a single admission, even a polite one, can be used to argue you shared the fault and recover nothing. Give them your name and your lawyer’s number.

Do I have to go to court?

Most pedestrian accident claims settle without a trial. We prepare every case as if it will be tried, because that is what produces a fair settlement, and if the insurer will not pay what the case is worth, our trial lawyers take it to a Jefferson County jury.

My child was hit in a crosswalk. Is the claim different?

In two ways. Alabama law requires drivers to take special precaution around children under § 32-5A-213, and young children are generally not held to an adult standard of care, which blunts the contributory negligence defense. A child’s claim also runs on a different limitations clock, and any settlement must be approved by the court. Call us and we will explain how both work.

Related Practice Areas

Pedestrian Accidents in Mobile, Alabama

We handle pedestrian cases on the Gulf Coast from our Mobile office at 411 St. Francis Street. Mobile County recorded 13,491 crashes and 73 traffic deaths in 2024, and its pedestrian crashes follow the same pattern as Birmingham’s: Airport Boulevard, Government Boulevard and Dauphin Island Parkway at night, the downtown grid around the port and Water Street, and the Causeway’s restaurants and boat launches. The same crosswalk statutes, the same contributory negligence rule and the same six-month notice deadline for City of Mobile claims apply. Cases are filed in the Mobile County Circuit Court at Government Plaza or, for the Eastern Shore, the Baldwin County Circuit Court in Bay Minette. Call (251) 501-4232 to speak with a Mobile pedestrian accident lawyer, or visit our Mobile personal injury page.

Serving Birmingham and Surrounding Areas

We represent injured pedestrians in Birmingham, Bessemer, Gardendale, Hoover, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Trussville and throughout Jefferson and Shelby Counties.

Visit Our Birmingham Office

If you’ve been injured in a pedestrian accident, our office is easy to find downtown at:

Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers
2226 1st Ave S, Suite 105
Birmingham, AL 35233
📞 (205) 407-6009

Contact a Birmingham Pedestrian Accident Lawyer Near You

If you are searching for a pedestrian accident attorney near you from a hospital bed in Birmingham, the same-week work is the thing to ask about: the camera canvass, the witness calls and the crash report, because it is the part that cannot be redone later. If you or someone in your family was hit by a vehicle in Birmingham or anywhere in Jefferson County, call (205) 407-6009 or fill out our online contact form. The consultation is free, and the preservation letters can go out the same day.