San Diego Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

You'll find our San Diego office at 3511 Camino del Rio S., Suite 400, San Diego, CA 92108, in Mission Valley. Call (619) 257-2818; our intake team answers 24/7, and hablamos español. Office meetings are by appointment, and our San Diego office page has directions.

Pedestrian results from across our firm, plus one San Diego County case:

• $28.7 million (2019, Victorville): a child waiting to cross the street was hit by a car and suffered catastrophic injuries; the defendants included three public entities.
• $5.8 million (2026, Los Angeles): a truck struck a person crossing a city street.
• $3 million (2025, San Diego County): a city street sweeper turning around struck a motorcyclist commuting to work.
• $1.5 million (2023, Porterville): a vehicle struck a pedestrian, causing a brain injury and serious leg injuries; several defendants faced claims.

More results are on our settlements and verdicts page.

Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is different.

The report. The San Diego Police Department reports collisions on city streets. Its Traffic Division handles fatal, felony, major-injury and hit-and-run collisions and crashes involving police or City equipment. Freeway crashes belong to the CHP: its San Diego Area office at 5902 Kearny Villa Road covers fourteen freeway systems in San Diego, Chula Vista, National City and Coronado, and its El Cajon and Oceanside Areas cover parts of I-8, SR-94, I-5, SR-78 and I-15.

The court. Civil cases are filed at the Hall of Justice, 330 W. Broadway, or at the North County Regional Center, 325 S. Melrose Dr. in Vista, following the court's zip-code rules: where the defendant lives or does business, or where the crash happened. East and South County civil cases file downtown at 330 W. Broadway.

Claims against public agencies, due within six months (Gov. Code §911.2):

• City of San Diego: Risk Management, Public Liability, through the online portal or Form RM-9 at 1200 Third Ave., Suite 1000.
• San Diego County: County Counsel, Claims and Investigation Division, 1600 Pacific Hwy., Room 335, by mail or in person (no fax); the County's CD-1 form is available but not required.
• MTS buses and the San Diego Trolley: under MTS's claims policy, claims go to its Claims Administrator, on a form from its Office of General Counsel, at 1255 Imperial Ave., Suite 1000, within six months.
• Freeways and state highways (I-5, I-8, I-15, I-805, SR-163, SR-94): the Caltrans District 11 claims office at 4050 Taylor St. for claims of $12,500 or less; larger claims go to the state's Government Claims Program.

Where crashes happen. As of October 2026, the City's Vision Zero dashboard showed 27 fatal and 44 severe-injury pedestrian collisions in 2025. The state Office of Traffic Safety's 2023 rankings put San Diego 10th of 15 large California cities (first is worst), with 522 pedestrians killed or injured. In the City's review of 2025 high-crash locations, the intersection with the most pedestrian crashes was Fifth Avenue at Broadway downtown, and a City analysis of 2014 to 2023 found that fatal pedestrian crashes peak on streets posted at 30 and 35 mph. The City Council adopted Vision Zero in October 2015, and since 2020 the City has installed 204 leading pedestrian intervals, which give people on foot a head start at the light.

Trauma care. Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, UC San Diego Medical Center and Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla are Level I trauma centers; Rady Children's Hospital is a designated pediatric trauma center.

Chula Vista and the South Bay. The Chula Vista Police Department's Traffic Unit investigates collisions in the city, and claims go to the City Clerk at 276 Fourth Ave., online, in person or by mail, within six months. Chula Vista endorsed Vision Zero in March 2020 and recorded 64 pedestrians killed or injured in 2023. South County civil cases are filed at the Hall of Justice downtown.

Escondido. The Escondido Police Department's Traffic Unit investigates collisions, and claims go to the City Clerk at 201 N. Broadway, 2nd Floor. Escondido recorded 45 pedestrians killed or injured in 2023.

Oceanside. The Oceanside Police Department investigates collisions in the city, and the City Clerk at City Hall, 300 N. Coast Hwy., accepts liability claims. Oceanside recorded 48 pedestrians killed or injured in 2023.

North County transit. NCTD, the North County transit agency, is a public agency headquartered at 810 Mission Ave. in Oceanside. It does not post a claim form and says email is not legal notice, so claims go in writing, within six months. North County cases can be filed at the North County Regional Center in Vista when the zip-code rules allow, and Palomar Medical Center in Escondido is a Level II trauma center.

California's Vehicle Code puts the main duty on drivers. They must yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection (§21950(a)), and must yield to pedestrians in the adjacent crosswalk when turning right on a red light (§21453(b)). A pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk must yield to vehicles close enough to be an immediate hazard, yet the driver still owes due care (§21954). Since January 1, 2023, officers can cite a pedestrian for crossing outside a crosswalk only if a reasonably careful person would see an immediate danger of a collision (§21955(b)). And the basic speed law bars driving faster than conditions allow (§22350).

Responsible parties can include the driver, the vehicle's owner (Veh. Code §17150), an employer whose driver was working, and the City, County or another agency when a dangerous crossing, signal or streetlight it created or knew about contributed (Gov. Code §835).

Compensation covers medical care now and later, lost wages and earning capacity, and pain and suffering; after a death, the family may pursue a wrongful death claim.

Deadlines at a glance:

• Lawsuit against the driver: two years (Code Civ. Proc. §335.1).
• Claim against the City, the County, MTS, NCTD or Caltrans: six months (Gov. Code §911.2).
• Lawsuit after a written claim rejection: six months from the notice (Gov. Code §945.6).
• Hit-and-run and uninsured motorist coverage: report to police within 24 hours (Ins. Code §11580.2).

See also how the statute of limitations works for California vehicle accidents.