If you were hit by a car while walking in Kansas City, the attorneys at Bretz Injury Law will fight to recover the compensation you deserve. Pedestrian accidents in Kansas cause severe, often life-changing injuries because the human body has zero protection against a vehicle weighing 3,000 pounds or more. Traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and shattered bones are common outcomes.
If your accident was caused by a negligent driver, unsafe road conditions, or a missing sidewalk, you may be entitled to recover medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Call (913) 361-5510 for a free consultation to find out if you have a case.
Through Personal Loss And Experience, We’ve Learned What Matters Most. Helping Families Find Their Way Forward
Bretz Injury Law represents pedestrians who have been struck by vehicles across Kansas City, KS and the surrounding Wyandotte County area. In 2025, nearly half of Kansas City’s 68 traffic fatalities involved someone who was walking or riding a bicycle. Those numbers have been climbing for years, and the roads where these crashes happen are well documented.
Pedestrian crashes produce catastrophic injuries because there is nothing between the person on foot and the full force of a moving vehicle. That applies to collisions at relatively low speeds in parking lots and residential neighborhoods as well.
Kansas law imposes specific duties on drivers to watch for and yield to pedestrians, and those duties do not disappear simply because you were crossing outside a crosswalk. Many insurance adjusters ignore these protections when evaluating your claim.
Insurance companies routinely reduce or deny pedestrian accident claims when victims try to handle the process on their own. Adjusters are trained to look for reasons to pay less, and the most common tactic in pedestrian cases is shifting blame onto the person who was walking. They will argue you were jaywalking, wearing dark clothing, or not paying attention, even when the driver was clearly at fault.
We understand how overwhelming it feels to face months of recovery while also fighting an insurance company that is working against you. You should not have to do both at the same time.
When you have an attorney handling your case, every liable party gets identified, including government entities responsible for dangerous road conditions that many victims would never think to pursue. An attorney also ensures you do not accept a settlement that fails to account for future medical costs, ongoing rehabilitation, and the full extent of your lost income.
At Bretz Injury Law, we handle the full range of pedestrian accident cases, from vehicle collisions on busy intersections to injuries caused by unsafe property conditions and failed infrastructure.
The most common pedestrian cases we see involve crosswalk collisions where a driver failed to yield, parking lot accidents where a driver backed into a pedestrian, and hit-and-run crashes where the driver fled the scene. We also handle driveway backover incidents in residential areas and represent pedestrians struck near active construction zones where the contractor failed to provide a safe walking route.
Children and elderly pedestrians face especially high risk on Kansas City roads, and Kansas law recognizes that. Drivers must exercise extra precaution when they observe a child or any obviously confused or incapacitated person near the roadway.
Kansas has a specific set of statutes that govern pedestrian rights, driver obligations, and how fault is divided when a driver’s negligence causes an accident.
The statutes that apply most often in pedestrian cases are K.S.A. 8-1533 through 8-1537, which define when pedestrians have the right of way, when they must yield to vehicles, and what level of care drivers owe to people on foot. Kansas also follows a modified comparative fault system under K.S.A. 60-258a, which determines how shared fault affects your total compensation.
You have two years from the date of your accident to file a claim under K.S.A. 60-513, and missing that deadline eliminates your right to sue entirely.
When traffic signals are not in place or not operating, drivers in Kansas must yield to any pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk. Under K.S.A. 8-1533, this obligation applies when the pedestrian is on the driver’s half of the road or approaching closely enough from the opposite side to be in danger.
This protection extends to both marked crosswalks and unmarked crosswalks that exist at intersections by default under Kansas law. Drivers approaching from behind a vehicle that has stopped for a crossing pedestrian are prohibited from passing that stopped vehicle. On your side, you are expected not to suddenly step off a curb into the path of an oncoming vehicle that is too close to stop safely.
One of the most powerful protections for pedestrians in Kansas is K.S.A. 8-1535, which requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian, regardless of whether that pedestrian had the right of way. This statute overrides every other provision in the traffic code and applies in all circumstances.
The law also requires drivers to sound their horn when necessary to prevent a collision. Drivers must take extra precaution upon observing any child or any obviously confused or incapacitated person near the road. This duty of care places an affirmative obligation on the driver to act, which goes well beyond simply obeying traffic signals.
Kansas follows a modified comparative fault rule under K.S.A. 60-258a, which means your total compensation is reduced by whatever percentage of fault a jury assigns to you. If you are found 30% responsible for the accident and your total damages are $500,000, you would recover $350,000 after the reduction.
The rule creates a hard cutoff at 50%. If your share of fault reaches that threshold or goes above it, you are completely barred from recovering any compensation at all. Because one percentage point can separate a six-figure recovery from nothing, having an attorney who can protect your percentage of fault is essential to the outcome of your case.
Kansas City has one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates among major U.S. cities. In 2025, 68 people died in car crashes across Kansas City, and nearly half of those victims were pedestrians or cyclists.
Those figures reflect a national crisis as well. According to NHTSA, 7,314 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes across the United States in 2023, which works out to one pedestrian death every 72 minutes. More than half of all pedestrian fatalities in Kansas City have occurred east of Troost Avenue, a corridor with a long history of underinvestment in sidewalks, crosswalks, and street lighting.
Kansas City identifies its most dangerous roads through what it calls the “high injury network,” a designation for streets with the highest concentration of crashes resulting in death or serious injury. The five deadliest roads on that list are Truman Road, Independence Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Troost Avenue, and Ward Parkway.
Together, these five streets accounted for roughly one-fifth of Kansas City’s 190 traffic deaths during the 2022 and 2023 period.
Troost Avenue has been especially deadly for pedestrians, claiming more than nine lives in recent years. The intersections along Prospect Avenue near 31st, 35th, and 39th streets also appear repeatedly in pedestrian crash data, and the city has acknowledged these locations as priority areas for safety upgrades.
Many of the most dangerous stretches of road in Kansas City lack the basic pedestrian infrastructure that could prevent crashes from happening in the first place. Entire sections of Troost Avenue had no sidewalks at all, which forced pedestrians to walk directly in active traffic lanes just to reach a bus stop or a grocery store.
When a city fails to install or maintain sidewalks, crosswalks, adequate lighting, or functioning traffic signals, the government entity responsible for that road can be held liable. Areas of Wyandotte County have documented deficiencies in all of these categories.
Kansas City adopted its Vision Zero action plan in 2022 with the goal of eliminating all traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. The city doubled its Vision Zero funding to $8 million in the 2025-2026 budget.
In May 2025, new traffic signals and hybrid beacon crossings were installed at 51st and Troost, one of five intersections that received either a new signal or a pedestrian-activated stoplight during the year. The city also added bump-outs in Westport and the Crossroads and approved a $10 million federal grant for safety improvements along Prospect Avenue.
Despite those changes, pedestrian fatalities remain disproportionately high compared to overall traffic deaths.
Yes. Jaywalking does not automatically prevent you from recovering compensation after a pedestrian accident in Kansas. This is one of the most widely misunderstood aspects of pedestrian law. It is also the single most common defense that insurance companies use to deny or reduce claims filed by injured pedestrians.
Under K.S.A. 8-1535, every driver in Kansas has an affirmative duty to exercise due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian, and that obligation applies whether or not the pedestrian had the right of way. If a pedestrian crosses outside a crosswalk, K.S.A. 8-1534 requires them to yield to vehicles, but that does not erase the driver’s independent responsibility to watch the road and take action to prevent a collision.
What actually determines your right to compensation is Kansas modified comparative fault under K.S.A. 60-258a. As long as your share of fault is less than 50%, you can still recover damages, reduced by your percentage of responsibility. Insurance adjusters push the jaywalking argument because they know that if they can get your fault to 50% or higher, your claim is worth nothing to them.
Kansas law allows pedestrian accident victims to recover three broad categories of damages, and an experienced pedestrian accident lawyer can help you pursue all of them. Those categories are economic losses that can be calculated, non-economic losses tied to pain and quality of life, and in certain cases, punitive damages intended to punish extreme misconduct by the driver.
The total value of your claim depends on the severity of your injuries and the cost of your ongoing medical care. How the accident has changed your ability to work and live your daily life also plays a significant role.
Most pedestrian accident victims do not realize that Kansas personal injury protection, commonly called PIP, can cover their medical bills and a portion of their lost wages immediately. This coverage comes from the striking vehicle’s insurance policy, not your own.
When a vehicle strikes a pedestrian in Kansas, the vehicle owner’s PIP insurer is responsible for covering the pedestrian’s initial medical expenses and lost income. This insurance claim is filed separately from any lawsuit. This is a provision of the Kansas Automobile Injury Reparations Act under K.S.A. 40-3101, and it applies regardless of who was at fault for the crash.
The minimum PIP benefits required under Kansas law include $4,500 for medical expenses and $900 per month for disability and lost income for up to one year. You are also entitled to a $25 daily allowance for essential services you can no longer perform yourself and $2,000 for funeral expenses in fatal cases.
These benefits are separate from any liability claim you file against the at-fault driver, which means PIP provides a first layer of financial support while your larger case moves forward.
Economic damages in a pedestrian accident case cover every financial loss that can be documented and measured. That includes your current and future medical bills, surgical costs, physical rehabilitation, and lost wages. If your injuries prevent you from returning to your former job, you can also recover lost earning capacity and the cost of assistive devices like wheelchairs or prosthetics.
Non-economic damages cover the losses that do not show up on a bill but still affect every part of your daily life. Pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, disfigurement, and the loss of physical mobility all fall into this category.
Because pedestrian injuries like traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord damage often require lifelong medical treatment, these damages can represent a substantial portion of your total recovery.
When a pedestrian accident is fatal, surviving family members have the right to file a wrongful death claim in Kansas against the driver or any other party whose negligence caused the death. We understand how devastating it is to lose someone you love in an accident that should never have happened.
A wrongful death claim holds the responsible parties accountable and provides your family with financial stability when you need it most. Recoverable damages include funeral and burial expenses, loss of the deceased person’s financial support and future earnings, and loss of companionship and guidance.
Kansas wrongful death claims are subject to the same two-year statute of limitations, so reaching out to an attorney early protects your family’s right to file.
If you have been struck by a vehicle in Kansas City, protecting your health and preserving your legal rights both start in the first hours after the accident.
Bretz Injury Law has recovered over $300 million for injured clients across Kansas, and attorney Matt Bretz brings more than 30 years of trial experience to every case he takes on. Our firm is intentionally small because we believe you deserve direct, personal attention from the attorney handling your case, not a rotating cast of staff members you have never met.
You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you, and that guarantee is in writing. Call (913) 361-5510 for a free consultation, submit an online case evaluation, or visit our Kansas City office at 748 Ann Ave, Suite 114. Hablamos español.
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