EXPERIENCED PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER SERVING ALL OF TEXAS
Written by Geoffrey Dashner. Read more about the author.
Most people think about pedestrian accidents as something that happens somewhere else — a crowded city, a poorly lit highway overpass, somewhere that isn’t their neighborhood. But if you’ve spent any time driving or walking in Arlington, Texas, you already know the roads here are unforgiving. Wide arterials built for cars, limited sidewalk connectivity, heavy truck traffic near the industrial corridors — it adds up. At Dashner Law Firm | Arlington Injury & Accident Attorney, I’ve represented people who were seriously hurt while doing nothing more than walking to their car or crossing the street. The numbers behind pedestrian fatalities and injuries in this region tell a story that every Arlington resident should understand.
How Many People Are Killed in Pedestrian Accidents Each Year in Arlington?
According to data compiled by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Tarrant County — where Arlington sits — consistently ranks among the most dangerous counties in Texas for pedestrians. Arlington itself reported between 12 and 18 pedestrian fatalities annually in recent years, with 2024 figures placing the city at 14 pedestrian deaths. That number fluctuates year to year, but the trend line since 2020 has not moved in a positive direction.
To put that in broader context: Texas recorded roughly 840 pedestrian fatalities statewide in 2024, making it one of the deadliest states in the country for people on foot. Arlington’s share of those deaths reflects both the city’s size and the specific infrastructure challenges that come with a car-centric urban layout that was largely built without pedestrians in mind.
What those annual death totals don’t capture is the number of people seriously injured but not killed — broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, spinal damage, and internal injuries that leave survivors dealing with years of treatment and financial strain. For every fatality, research from the CDC suggests there are roughly eight additional pedestrians hospitalized with serious injuries. For Arlington, that math produces a number that should alarm anyone who walks in this city.
How Many Car Accidents Involve Pedestrians in Texas?
Texas reported approximately 6,200 pedestrian-involved crashes in 2024, according to TxDOT’s most recent annual crash report. Of those, around 840 were fatal and more than 1,400 resulted in serious incapacitating injuries. The remaining thousands involved moderate injuries, minor injuries, or property damage — though “minor” in a car-versus-pedestrian crash still often means broken bones and significant medical bills.
These numbers have been climbing. Between 2018 and 2024, the total count of pedestrian crashes in Texas increased by approximately 19 percent. Urban counties — Dallas, Harris, Bexar, and Tarrant — account for the majority of those crashes, but smaller cities and suburban corridors are seeing their numbers rise as well.
One thing I notice consistently in the cases that come through our office: many of these crashes happen on roads that pedestrians have no realistic way to avoid. There isn’t always a sidewalk. The nearest crosswalk might be half a mile away. People make practical decisions about where to walk, and Texas roads are not designed to accommodate those decisions safely.
What Percentage of Pedestrian Accidents Happen at Intersections in Texas?
TxDOT data indicates that roughly 42 to 47 percent of pedestrian crashes in Texas occur at or near intersections. That leaves the majority happening in mid-block locations, driveways, parking lots, and along roadway edges — places where pedestrians have fewer legal protections and drivers are less alert.
The intersection figure is meaningful for a different reason. Pedestrians at marked crosswalks often assume they have clear legal right of way and that drivers will stop. In practice, turning vehicles, obstructed sightlines, and distracted drivers make intersections consistently dangerous even when pedestrians are doing everything right. I’ve handled cases where a person was hit in a fully marked, signalized crosswalk and the at-fault driver still tried to argue contributory negligence. Under Texas law, that argument doesn’t automatically hold — but it takes experienced legal work to counter it effectively.
The non-intersection crashes, which make up the larger share, frequently involve pedestrians walking along roadway shoulders at night, cutting through parking lots, or crossing mid-block where drivers simply don’t expect them. Speed is almost always a factor. Research from Johns Hopkins Medicine has documented that the fatality risk for a pedestrian struck at 40 mph is dramatically higher than at 25 mph — a distinction that matters when roads like Division Street or Green Oaks Boulevard in Arlington routinely see traffic moving well above posted limits.
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What State Has the Most Pedestrian Accidents?
Florida and California have historically competed for the top spot in pedestrian fatality totals, but Texas moved into the number-two position nationally by 2023 and has held it. California’s pedestrian death count has hovered around 1,000 per year while Texas consistently crosses 800. Florida regularly reports between 700 and 900, depending on the year.
The reasons Texas ranks so high are structural. The state has enormous stretches of urban sprawl with minimal pedestrian infrastructure, high posted speed limits, a large population of unhoused individuals who walk arterial roads out of necessity, and a significant proportion of impaired driving incidents at night. A Pew Research Center analysis of urban mobility patterns has noted that car dependence in Sun Belt metros correlates directly with higher pedestrian injury rates — and few metros are more car-dependent than Dallas-Fort Worth.
This national context matters when you’re handling a case. Defense attorneys often try to frame pedestrian crashes as individual acts of carelessness. The data doesn’t support that narrative. These are predictable outcomes of infrastructure and design choices, and the law recognizes that drivers have an obligation to exercise reasonable care regardless of where a pedestrian is standing.
Are Pedestrian Accidents on the Rise in Texas?
Yes, and the rise has been steep. Texas saw a 34 percent increase in pedestrian fatalities between 2016 and 2024. The sharpest increases occurred between 2019 and 2022, a period that coincided with increased speeding on emptier pandemic-era roads and a subsequent rise in distracted driving as phone use behind the wheel became more entrenched.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has flagged Texas as a state of particular concern in its national pedestrian safety action plans. Nighttime crashes account for a disproportionate share of the increase — approximately 76 percent of pedestrian fatalities in Texas in 2024 occurred in low-light or dark conditions, despite lower overall traffic volumes at those hours.
In my experience, the rise also reflects something harder to quantify: enforcement gaps. Texas has no statewide law banning handheld cell phone use while driving, and while local ordinances exist in some cities, enforcement is inconsistent. A driver who strikes a pedestrian while looking at a phone may face a traffic citation — but that citation alone doesn’t compensate an injured person or their family.
How to Prevent Pedestrian Accidents in Texas?
Prevention happens at two levels: what individual pedestrians and drivers can do, and what needs to change at the infrastructure and policy level. Both matter, but I want to be honest about the limits of telling pedestrians to “be more visible.” The burden of keeping pedestrians safe shouldn’t fall entirely on the person without a 3,000-pound vehicle.
That said, there are practical steps that reduce risk. Walking facing traffic on roads without sidewalks gives you a second or two of reaction time when a vehicle drifts. Wearing reflective clothing at night makes a measurable difference — research cited by the CDC has found that retroreflective materials can increase pedestrian detection distances from under 200 feet to over 500 feet for oncoming drivers. Avoiding the assumption that a driver has seen you before stepping off a curb is a habit that prevents tragedies.
For drivers, the arithmetic is simple: at 25 mph, stopping distance from perception to stopped vehicle is roughly 85 feet. At 40 mph, it exceeds 180 feet. Slowing down near crosswalks, school zones, and shopping center driveways is not just courtesy — under Texas Transportation Code Section 545.351, drivers are required to control speed to avoid colliding with pedestrians, and failure to do so creates legal liability.
At the infrastructure level, Texas cities need more mid-block pedestrian refuges, longer pedestrian signal phases, and reduced speed limits on high-risk corridors. Arlington has taken some steps in recent years, but the pace of improvement hasn’t kept up with population growth or crash data. Advocacy organizations and data from TxDOT can help residents push for specific changes on specific roads — that kind of targeted, evidence-based pressure has worked in other Texas cities.
What Happens After a Pedestrian Crash in Texas?
If you or someone you know was hit by a vehicle in Texas, the legal process starts with understanding your rights under the state’s negligence framework. Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule — you can recover damages as long as you were not more than 50 percent responsible for the crash. If a jury finds you 30 percent at fault, your recovery is reduced by 30 percent. Defense attorneys often try to push that percentage up, which is why the early work — preserving evidence, getting witness statements, pulling the driver’s cell records — matters enormously.
Damages in a Texas pedestrian accident lawsuit can include medical expenses (past and future), lost wages, loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering, and in fatal cases, wrongful death compensation for surviving family members. Our Texas Pedestrian Accident Attorneys page covers the full scope of what a claim can include.
Hit-and-run crashes add another layer of complexity. Texas law requires drivers to stop and render aid after a crash involving injury, and fleeing the scene is a felony if the victim dies. But identifying the driver takes investigative work — traffic cameras, witness accounts, debris analysis, and sometimes database searches. A Texas pedestrian hit-and-run attorney can coordinate that investigation and also explore whether uninsured motorist coverage applies.
One mistake I see frequently: people wait too long to contact an attorney. Texas has a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003. That sounds like a long time, but critical evidence disappears fast. Surveillance footage gets overwritten in days. Eyewitnesses become harder to locate. The sooner we get involved, the stronger the case.
Working with a Pedestrian Accident Lawyer in Texas
Not every attorney who handles car accident cases has experience with pedestrian crash claims. The dynamics are different. There’s often a significant disparity between what insurance companies offer injured pedestrians — especially unrepresented ones — and what those claims are actually worth when fully developed.
As a pedestrian accident compensation lawyer, my job is to build the full picture: the medical costs the client is looking at over a lifetime, the wages and career opportunities lost, the non-economic harm that doesn’t show up on a bill but dominates a person’s daily life. A personal injury pedestrian lawyer who has handled these cases knows how to present that picture to an insurance adjuster or a jury.
You can read what our clients say about their experience with our firm on our verdicts and settlements page, which gives a realistic sense of outcomes we’ve achieved across pedestrian accident and other injury cases. And if you want to understand more about our team and practice background, that information is there too.
We handle pedestrian accident cases throughout Texas — not just in Arlington. Whether the crash happened in Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Mansfield, or anywhere else in the state, our team has the experience to help.
Speak with Our Team After a Crash
If you were hurt — or if a family member was killed — in a pedestrian crash in or around Arlington, Texas, call us before you talk to the insurance company. That conversation with the insurer can shape your entire claim, and not always in your favor.
Dashner Law Firm | Arlington Injury & Accident Attorney offers free consultations, and there are no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. Reach us by phone at (817) 203-8018, contact us online to schedule a consultation, or visit our office at 4275 Little Rd # 205, Arlington, TX 76016.
For general information on pedestrian injury law, resources from FindLaw and Justia provide solid background, and Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute covers the federal and state legal frameworks that apply to traffic injury claims. The American Bar Association also maintains guidance on finding qualified personal injury counsel.
The road doesn’t have to be the last word. If someone’s negligence put you here, the law gives you options — and we’re ready to help you use them.
