Sacramento Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Our Sacramento office is downtown at 770 L St., Suite 1400, Sacramento, CA 95814, and we meet clients there by appointment. Our intake team picks up calls and web messages at any hour, and hablamos Español. Our Sacramento office page has a map and the other kinds of cases this office takes.

Four results, including our Sacramento case and two that involved public agencies:

• $28.7 million (2019, Victorville): a child waiting to cross was struck by a car and suffered catastrophic injuries; the case named the driver, a business, and three public entities.
• $8 million (2026, Santa Monica): a city tractor ran into a person on foot on the beach after dark, leaving serious head injuries.
• $1.6 million (2026, Sacramento): a left-turning pickup hit a cyclist who was crossing with a pedestrian green light, causing serious back injuries and other injuries.
• $1.5 million (2023, Porterville): several defendants faced claims after a vehicle hit a pedestrian, who suffered a brain injury and serious leg injuries.

Our settlements and verdicts page lists more pedestrian outcomes from around California. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is different.

The collision report. Inside city limits, Sacramento Police Department officers take collision reports, and the department sells them online for $5 when they're available there, usually five to ten days after the crash. Reports involving serious injuries, a death, or a hit-and-run may not be posted online; the person hurt or their representative requests those by mail from SPD Records, 5770 Freeport Blvd., Suite 100. On freeways and ramps, the CHP has primary jurisdiction (Veh. Code § 2400(d)), and its North, South, and East Sacramento Area offices also patrol unincorporated county roads. A CHP report can be requested through the CHP's online crash portal or with form CHP 190 at an Area office.

The court. Pedestrian injury lawsuits in Sacramento County are heard at the Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye Sacramento County Courthouse, 500 G St., at the corner of 6th Street. The court occupied the building in April 2026, and it replaced the older Gordon D. Schaber Courthouse, so older directions to Schaber are out of date. Either the county where the crash happened or a county where a defendant lives is a proper place to file (Code Civ. Proc. § 395(a)).

Public agency claims. Each agency has its own claims office, and the written claim must reach it within six months (Gov. Code § 911.2):

• City of Sacramento: the City of Sacramento Claim Form, delivered in person or by mail to the Office of the City Clerk, 915 I St., 5th Floor. The City Attorney, Risk Management, and other departments don't accept claims.
• Sacramento County: the County's claim form, mailed or brought to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, 700 H St., Room 2450. The County doesn't accept claims electronically.
• SacRT buses and light rail: the Sacramento Regional Transit District Claim Form, mailed to Claims, Clerk to the Board, 1102 Q St., Suite 3000, or delivered in person by appointment. SacRT won't accept claims by fax or email.
• State highways: Sacramento County is in Caltrans District 3. Its Marysville office handles claims up to $12,500, and the state Government Claims Program handles anything larger.

Trauma care. The state EMS Authority's August 2025 list shows three verified trauma centers in the county: UC Davis Medical Center (Level I, adult and pediatric), Mercy San Juan Medical Center (Level II, adult), and Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento (Level II, adult). Sutter Roseville Medical Center, an adult Level II center, sits just over the Placer County line. The records from that first hospital stay anchor the injury claim.

The Office of Traffic Safety's 2023 rankings put Sacramento 4th among the 15 California cities with more than 250,000 people for pedestrians killed or injured, with 297 victims, and 3rd for bicyclists. Those city figures leave out freeways.

The City's own crash review for its Vision Zero update counted 1,941 crashes involving someone walking from 2015 through 2024. It found that people walking and biking were in nearly half of all serious injury and fatal crashes, even though they make up just over 1% of travel on Sacramento streets. The City adopted its first Vision Zero Action Plan in 2018, with the goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2027, and released a draft update for public review in 2026.

Numbers like these show where risk concentrates, but they don't decide a case. Whether a driver, or the agency responsible for a street, is liable depends on the facts of the crash and, for public property, on the dangerous-condition rules (Gov. Code §§ 835, 835.2).

Our Sacramento office also handles pedestrian cases from the rest of the county and from just across the river.

Unincorporated county areas. Outside city limits, the CHP's North, South, and East Sacramento Area offices patrol county roads; the East Sacramento Area, for example, covers unincorporated areas east of Watt Avenue and south of the American River. County claims go to the Clerk of the Board. For a hit-and-run outside city limits, the 24-hour police report that uninsured motorist coverage requires can be made to either the county sheriff or the CHP (Ins. Code § 11580.2(b)).

Citrus Heights. A claim against the City of Citrus Heights goes on its Claim for Damages form to the City Clerk at 6360 Fountain Square Dr. The City won't take claims by fax or email.

West Sacramento. West Sacramento is in Yolo County, not Sacramento County. Claims against the City of West Sacramento go to the City Manager's Office at 1110 West Capitol Ave., by email, mail, or hand delivery, and no other City office accepts them. Because the injury happened in Yolo County, a lawsuit can be brought there (Code Civ. Proc. § 395(a)); Yolo's court cases are heard in Woodland, at the courthouse that replaced all seven of the county's court facilities in 2015.

A driver owes people on foot due care anywhere on the road (Veh. Code § 21954(b)), and at a crosswalk, marked or unmarked, the driver has to yield (§ 21950(a)). If you were struck in a crosswalk, our crosswalk accident page explains how those cases are investigated.

The driver is usually the first defendant, but not always the only one. A company may answer for an employee who was driving for work. An owner who lent the car is liable within dollar limits the Vehicle Code sets (§§ 17150, 17151). And the City, the County, or Caltrans may share the blame for a dangerous crossing, signal, or street (Gov. Code § 835).

We pursue compensation for hospital and follow-up care, treatment you may need later, wages you lost and earning ability you may lose, and the pain the injury causes. Families who lost someone can read about wrongful death claims on our fatal pedestrian accident page. If the driver fled, our hit-and-run page covers the 24-hour police report and the 30-day sworn statement that protect uninsured motorist coverage (Ins. Code § 11580.2(b)).