If a car hit you while you were walking, your medical bills and lost wages are paid first by the no-fault insurance on the vehicle that struck you, even though you were not in a car. If that driver had no insurance or drove off, the coverage comes from a car insurance policy in your household, or from a state fund called MVAIC if there isn’t one.
Passalacqua & Associates, LLC represents pedestrians injured in Syracuse and throughout Onondaga County. A pedestrian accident lawyer in Syracuse, NY can sort out which insurer owes you benefits, file the paperwork before its short deadlines pass, and build the injury claim against the driver. The consultation is free. Call +1 (315) 500-6425.
In New York, the no-fault insurer of the vehicle that hit you pays your reasonable medical expenses and a portion of your lost wages, up to the policy’s no-fault limits, regardless of who caused the crash. You apply directly to that insurer.
The source of coverage changes depending on the driver’s situation:
| Your situation | Who pays no-fault benefits |
|---|---|
| Insured driver hit you | The insurer of the vehicle that struck you |
| Hit-and-run driver | Your own household’s auto policy, or MVAIC if no one in the household has one |
| Uninsured driver | Your own household’s auto policy, or MVAIC if no one in the household has one |
| Hit by a city bus or Centro vehicle | Special no-fault rules apply to buses, and a notice of claim to the public operator is usually required for the injury claim |
Basic no-fault coverage in New York pays up to $50,000 per person. It covers medical care, 80 percent of lost earnings up to $2,000 a month for up to three years, and some other household expenses. The application must be filed within 30 days of the crash, and a late application gives the insurer a reason to deny.
Hit-and-run claims go through your household auto policy or through the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation (MVAIC), which exists for people injured by drivers who cannot be identified or who carried no insurance. Both paths come with short, strict deadlines.
MVAIC requires the crash to be reported to the police within 24 hours. A notice of intention to make a claim must be filed within 90 days when the vehicle is unidentified. Missing either one gives MVAIC grounds to deny the claim unless you can show you acted as soon as reasonably possible, for example after a hospitalization.
A police report is also the starting point for identifying the driver. Syracuse Police can canvass for video, and so can we. Businesses along Erie Boulevard and West Genesee Street commonly keep camera footage only for days, so we request it early. You can read more about these cases on our Syracuse hit-and-run accident page.
Yes, if your injury meets New York’s serious injury threshold. No-fault covers your basic economic losses, but to recover pain and suffering and losses above no-fault limits, you must bring a claim against the driver and show a serious injury under Insurance Law § 5102(d).
Pedestrian injuries clear that threshold more often than most crash injuries do. A person on foot has no seat belt, no airbag, and no car frame around them. Fractures, which count as a serious injury on their own, are common. So are knee and shoulder injuries needing surgery and traumatic brain injuries.
The 2026 amendments removed the “90 out of 180 days” category from the serious injury definition. That category once covered temporary injuries that kept someone from their normal activities for most of the first six months. Claims filed now depend on the remaining categories, such as fracture, permanent limitation, or significant limitation of use.
The claim itself runs against the driver’s liability insurance, much like a claim against the at-fault driver in any other crash. We gather the evidence of what the driver did wrong and the medical proof of how the injury changed your life.
Hurt in a crosswalk or on a Syracuse street? Call a crosswalk accident lawyer in Syracuse, NY at +1 (315) 500-6425 for a free case review.
In a marked or unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, drivers must yield to pedestrians under VTL § 1151 when no signal controls the crossing. At signalized intersections, pedestrians with a walk signal have the right of way over turning vehicles.
Every driver in New York also has a separate duty under VTL § 1146 to exercise due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian, including one crossing outside a crosswalk. A driver who was speeding, looking at a phone, or backing without checking can be at fault even if you were not in the crosswalk.
You can still have a claim, but your share of fault matters more than it used to. A 2026 change to CPLR 1411 bars recovery in motor vehicle injury lawsuits when the injured person is more at fault than the defendants combined.
For pedestrians struck by insured vehicles, this rule is expected to apply to lawsuits filed on or after its May 2026 effective date, though courts have not yet settled every question about its reach. If you are 50 percent or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your share. If a jury puts you above that line, the lawsuit recovers nothing.
That shift makes the early evidence more important. Signal timing data, video, the driver’s phone records, and vehicle speed calculations are what keep the fault percentage where it belongs. For a broader look at the rules, see our guide to pedestrian laws in New York.
The evidence that proves fault in a pedestrian case is mostly held by other people, and much of it is temporary. What we request first:
Getting this material quickly is what keeps a fault dispute from becoming a guessing contest.
Most pedestrian crashes we see in Syracuse fall into a handful of patterns, and each one points to a different kind of evidence.
Severe pedestrian crashes can cause traumatic brain injury, which requires different medical proof and a longer view of future care. Our attorneys also handle head injuries in pedestrian collisions. People on bikes face similar risks, and cyclists face the same exposure under many of the same rules.
No-fault benefits still apply. New York no-fault covers injuries arising from the use of a motor vehicle, and that includes crashes in parking lots, driveways, and garages, not just on public roads.
The injury claim works the same way too. A driver backing out of a space has to look before moving. In some lot crashes, the property owner may share responsibility if poor lighting, a missing stop sign, or a confusing layout contributed to the collision.
When a driver hits a pedestrian while on the job, the employer is generally responsible for the driver’s negligence. That matters because a company vehicle carries a commercial policy in most cases with far higher limits than a personal auto policy.
Delivery drivers, contractors, and rideshare drivers are common examples. Rideshare companies carry much larger policies while a driver is on a trip or heading to a pickup, and our page on Syracuse Uber accidents explains how that coverage works.
The deadlines overlap, so the shortest one controls what you have to do first.
| Deadline | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 24 hours | Police report for a hit-and-run (required for MVAIC) |
| 30 days | No-fault application to the insurer |
| 90 days | MVAIC notice of intention (unidentified vehicle) |
| 90 days | Notice of claim against a city, county, or public transit agency |
| 3 years | Injury lawsuit against a private driver under CPLR 214 |
When the injured pedestrian is a child, the three-year deadline for the child’s own lawsuit is generally paused until age 18. The no-fault, MVAIC, and notice-of-claim deadlines do not pause the same way, so a family should still act quickly.
A pedestrian case is worth the full measure of your losses that the evidence can prove: past and future medical costs, lost income and earning capacity, and pain and suffering. The practical ceiling is the available insurance, which is why we look for every policy that applies.
That can include the driver’s liability policy, an employer’s commercial policy if the driver was working, and your own supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist (SUM) coverage when the driver’s limits are too low. Many people do not know their own auto policy can pay them after a crash in which they were walking.
Founder Nick Passalacqua is a licensed property and casualty insurance broker as well as a trial lawyer. He reads auto policies the way adjusters do, which matters when coverage questions decide how much money is actually available.
The firm’s attorneys bring more than 50 years of combined experience, and we prepare injury cases for Onondaga County Supreme Court from the start. Pedestrian cases are handled on contingency, so there is no fee unless we recover compensation for you.
The 30-day no-fault deadline arrives fast, especially when you are still in treatment. So does the deadline to preserve video that may show exactly what the driver did.
Call a Syracuse pedestrian accident attorney at Passalacqua & Associates, LLC at +1 (315) 500-6425 for a free case review. Our Syracuse office at 499 S Warren Street meets clients by appointment, and we answer calls 24/7.
Passalacqua & Associates, LLC provides legal representation for individuals facing personal injuries and criminal charges. Our attorneys offer compassionate guidance and aggressive strategies, and we’re committed to achieving the best possible outcomes. We’ll protect your rights and navigate legal complexities on your behalf.
Passalacqua & Associates, LLC proudly serves clients in Utica, Syracuse, and the surrounding upstate New York communities. We are dedicated to providing accessible and effective legal services to those in need of experienced personal injury and criminal defense representation within these regions.