Hit by a Car While Walking in Tulsa?

If you’ve been hit by a car, your first job is to get out of the traffic lane if you can move safely. Tulsa’s wide, high-speed arterials — the Broken Arrow Expressway, Peoria Avenue, 71st Street, Memorial Drive, Sheridan Road — are dangerous for anyone on foot, especially after a crash when other drivers may not see you.

Call 911 immediately. If the driver who hit you is still at the scene, do not let them leave without police documenting the incident. If the driver fled, give the dispatcher every detail you can: vehicle make, model, color, direction of travel, any part of the plate number. Hit-and-run pedestrian crashes are a persistent problem across the Tulsa metro.

Even if your injuries seem minor, get police on the scene. A crash report is your most important piece of evidence. Without it, proving what happened becomes exponentially harder.

Pedestrian injuries are almost never minor. When a 4,000-pound vehicle hits an unprotected human body, the result is broken bones, head trauma, spinal injuries, internal bleeding, and severe soft tissue damage. You may feel functional at the scene because of adrenaline, but that doesn’t mean you’re okay.

Get to an emergency room. Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa is a verified Level I Trauma Center and serves as the referral hub for complex, life-threatening injuries across northeastern Oklahoma. Ascension St. John Medical Center also holds Level I Trauma Center designation. Hillcrest Medical Center operates as a Level III Trauma Center and provides emergency care in the central Tulsa area. For children struck by vehicles, The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis offers pediatric emergency services.

A same-day medical visit does two things: it gets you treated, and it creates a documented link between the crash and your injuries. If you wait days or weeks to see a doctor, the insurance company will argue your injuries came from something else or aren’t as serious as you claim.

If you’re physically able, pull out your phone before you leave the scene. Photograph the vehicle that hit you — front end, license plate, any damage to the hood or bumper. Pedestrian impacts leave distinctive marks on vehicles: dents in the hood, cracked windshields, broken headlights. Those marks are evidence.

Photograph the intersection or road where you were hit. Capture crosswalk markings (or the lack of them), traffic signals, sight lines, lighting conditions, and any road hazards. Take wide shots that show the full scene and close-ups of specific details.

If witnesses saw what happened, get their names and phone numbers before they leave. Witness testimony is often the deciding factor in pedestrian cases, especially when the driver claims they didn’t see you. Also look for security cameras on nearby buildings and businesses — footage can be requested through your attorney or the police investigation.

Write down exactly where you were when you were hit. Were you in a crosswalk? At an intersection? Midblock? Which direction were you walking? Where was the car coming from? These details matter for determining right-of-way under Oklahoma law.

Oklahoma law gives pedestrians the right-of-way in crosswalks — both marked and unmarked. Under Okla. Stat. tit. 47, § 11-502, drivers must yield to pedestrians crossing within any crosswalk when the pedestrian is on the driver’s half of the roadway or close enough to be in danger. When a vehicle stops at a crosswalk for a pedestrian, other vehicles may not overtake and pass that stopped vehicle.

Pedestrians crossing outside a crosswalk must yield the right-of-way to vehicles (Okla. Stat. tit. 47, § 11-503). Between adjacent signalized intersections, pedestrians may not cross except in marked crosswalks. Pedestrians may not step into traffic creating an immediate hazard.

Critically, drivers must always exercise due care to avoid hitting pedestrians, regardless of who has the right-of-way (Okla. Stat. tit. 47, § 11-504). The statute specifically requires drivers to use the horn when necessary and exercise proper precaution around children or confused or incapacitated persons. A driver who hits a pedestrian cannot simply claim the pedestrian was in the wrong — the law requires drivers to take active steps to avoid a collision.

Oklahoma’s modified comparative negligence rule (Okla. Stat. tit. 23, § 13) applies to pedestrian accidents. If you’re found partially at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you’re 51% or more at fault, you get nothing.

Insurance companies will try to blame pedestrians. They’ll argue you were distracted by your phone, wearing dark clothing at night, crossing outside a crosswalk, or stepping into the road too suddenly. Some of these arguments carry weight; many don’t. The driver always has a statutory duty to exercise due care to avoid hitting pedestrians (Okla. Stat. tit. 47, § 11-504) — a driver who was speeding, texting, running a red light, or impaired carries the bulk of the fault regardless of what the pedestrian was doing.

Tulsa’s pedestrian fatality rate is disproportionately high for a city its size. The wide, high-speed arterials that define Tulsa’s road network — built for cars, not people — are a major contributing factor. A pedestrian hit at 40 mph has roughly an 85% chance of dying, compared to about 10% at 20 mph. Many of Tulsa’s surface streets carry traffic well above 35 mph with limited pedestrian infrastructure.

Pedestrian accident injuries tend to be severe and the damages reflect that. Oklahoma has no cap on compensatory damages in personal injury cases — the $350,000 non-economic damage cap was struck down as unconstitutional in 2019 (Beason v. I.E. Miller Services, Inc.).

Medical expenses include everything from the ambulance and ER visit through surgery, hospitalization, rehabilitation, and any future treatment. Pedestrian injuries — traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, pelvic fractures, internal organ injuries — often require months or years of ongoing care.

Lost wages cover time missed from work during recovery and any permanent reduction in your earning capacity. If a TBI or spinal injury prevents you from returning to the same type of work, the difference in lifetime earnings is compensable.

Pain and suffering accounts for the physical pain, emotional distress, anxiety, PTSD, and the lasting psychological impact of being hit by a car. Many pedestrian crash survivors develop a persistent fear of crossing streets that affects their daily life for years. You can also recover for property damage — your phone, laptop, glasses, clothing, or any mobility device you were using.

You have two years from the date of the pedestrian accident to file a personal injury lawsuit in Oklahoma (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 95(A)). If the crash was fatal, the wrongful death statute of limitations is also two years from the date of death (Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 1053).

If you were hit by a Tulsa Transit bus, a government vehicle, or on a road with a dangerous design defect maintained by the city or state, you must file written notice within 1 year under the Governmental Tort Claims Act. Government entity claims have shorter deadlines, specific procedural requirements, and capped damages ($125,000–$175,000 per claimant).

Don’t let the two-year window lull you into waiting. Evidence degrades. Witnesses forget. Surveillance footage gets overwritten — often within 30 to 90 days. The sooner you start, the stronger your case.

Pedestrian accident cases often involve higher damages, contested fault, and complicated insurance situations — especially when the driver fled or was uninsured. An attorney can investigate the crash, obtain surveillance footage and traffic camera data, hire accident reconstruction experts if needed, and negotiate with the insurance company.

If the driver fled, your attorney will pursue compensation through your uninsured motorist coverage and push for a thorough police investigation. If the crash was caused by a dangerous road design — no crosswalk, poor lighting, a missing sidewalk — there may be a claim against the municipality responsible for the road under the Governmental Tort Claims Act.

Most pedestrian accident attorneys in Tulsa work on contingency. No upfront cost, and they only get paid if you recover. A free consultation tells you whether you have a case and what it might be worth.