If a car, truck, bus, or e-bike hit you while you were walking anywhere in Queens, a Queens pedestrian injury lawyer at Silver Law Group will review what happened at no cost. The consultation is free, we answer 24/7, and we take calls in English, Spanish, and Russian. You pay nothing unless we recover money for you. We handle cases across the whole borough, from Astoria down to the Rockaways, and if you are in a hospital bed or laid up at home, the attorney comes to you. Finding a lawyer for a pedestrian hit by a car should not depend on whether you can travel to an office.
How Common Pedestrian Accidents Are on Queens Streets
Queens recorded 57 traffic deaths in 2025, down from 74 in 2024, according to NYC DOT’s Vision Zero data. Citywide pedestrian deaths dropped to 111, a record low. The trend is moving the right way. It still adds up to about one person a week killed on a Queens street.
Most of that risk sits on a few corridors:
- Queens Boulevard, known for decades as the Boulevard of Death, until the 2024 redesign added protected lanes through Sunnyside and Long Island City
- Northern Boulevard, a wide arterial carrying fast traffic straight through dense residential blocks
- Roosevelt Avenue, where the elevated 7 train structure cuts sightlines above crowded sidewalks
Crashes cluster in Flushing, Jamaica, Corona, Jackson Heights, and Astoria. These are the neighborhoods where subway riders, shoppers, and delivery drivers all use the same intersections at the same hours of the day.
Do You Have a Pedestrian Accident Case in Queens
Most cases turn on one question: did the driver fail to do something the law required? Two sections of the Vehicle and Traffic Law usually supply the answer. VTL 1151 requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, marked or unmarked, whether or not a signal governs the crossing. VTL 1146 reaches wider, requiring every driver to use due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian anywhere on the roadway, including someone nowhere near a crosswalk.
A driver who breaks either duty and injures you is negligent under New York law. That negligence is what a claim is built on, and it is often established by the police report, the signal timing at the intersection, and what nearby cameras recorded. A free case review will tell you whether the facts of your crash support a claim before you spend anything.
Common Causes of Queens Pedestrian Crashes
The same driver behaviors show up again and again in these cases:
- Distracted driving, usually a phone in a hand at the moment of impact
- Failure to yield at a crosswalk, especially on a green light with a walk signal
- Speeding, which shortens stopping distance and multiplies the force of impact
- Dangerous left turns, where the driver watches oncoming traffic instead of the crosswalk ahead
- Running red lights
- Drunk driving
Turning vehicles cause a large share of pedestrian injuries because the driver’s attention is aimed away from the person in front of the bumper. Vehicle size matters just as much. Transportation Alternatives found that SUVs and pickup trucks kill more than twice as many pedestrians as sedans, since the higher hood strikes the torso and head rather than the legs. Put those two factors on Queens Boulevard, Northern Boulevard, or Roosevelt Avenue during evening foot traffic and the result is the crash pattern the borough sees every month.
Who Can Be Held Liable
The driver is rarely the only party responsible:
- The City of New York or NYC DOT, when a broken or mistimed signal, a missing crosswalk marking, or a street design that hides pedestrians contributed to the crash
- The MTA or NYC Transit, when a city bus struck you
- Rideshare companies such as Uber and Lyft, whose drivers carry layered coverage that changes depending on whether the app was on and a passenger was aboard
- Property owners, when overgrown hedges, scaffolding, or a construction fence blocked the driver’s view of you or yours of the driver
Each defendant brings its own insurance policy. Identifying all of them is how a claim reaches the full amount your injuries are worth instead of stopping at one driver’s minimum coverage.
Injuries Pedestrians Suffer and the Serious Injury Threshold
A pedestrian has nothing between their body and two tons of moving steel. The injuries reflect that: traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple fractures, internal bleeding, and amputation.
New York limits who may sue a driver for pain and suffering. Under Insurance Law 5102(d), you must have a “serious injury,” which the statute defines to include death, a fracture, significant disfigurement, permanent or significant limitation of the use of a body part or system, or an injury that keeps you from your usual activities for 90 of the first 180 days after the crash. Most pedestrian injuries clear that bar without difficulty, because being struck on foot tends to produce exactly the fractures and lasting limitations the statute describes.
Get Examined Immediately, Even If You Feel Fine
Adrenaline hides pain for hours. A brain bleed can develop quietly overnight, and internal bleeding sometimes announces itself two days later. Accept the ambulance.
Queens has two Level I trauma centers: Elmhurst Hospital Center on Broadway and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center off the Van Wyck Expressway service road. Both handle the head, chest, and orthopedic injuries pedestrians arrive with.
The medical record created in the first 24 hours also becomes the spine of your claim. When treatment starts a week after the crash, the insurer argues the injury came from something else, and that gap in the chart is the argument they build on.
What a Queens Pedestrian Accident Claim Is Worth
Value depends on how badly you were hurt, what your treatment costs, how much work you lost, and whether the injury is permanent. A fractured wrist that heals in eight weeks and a spinal injury that ends your career are not the same case, even if the crash looked identical.
Recoverable damages include:
- Past and future medical bills, including surgery, rehabilitation, and home care
- Lost wages and lost earning capacity if you cannot return to the same work
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Permanent disability or disfigurement, including scarring
New York places no cap on pain-and-suffering awards in personal injury cases. No lawyer can give you a number from a phone description, and any who does is guessing. A free consultation, with your records in front of us, is where a realistic assessment starts.
No-Fault (PIP) Benefits Available Right Away
You do not need to own a car to use no-fault. A pedestrian struck by an insured vehicle is a covered person under that driver’s policy, which means Personal Injury Protection benefits pay your medical bills and up to 80 percent of your lost earnings under Insurance Law 5104, regardless of who caused the crash.
The catch is the clock. The written No-Fault application generally has to reach the insurer within 30 days of the accident. Miss it and you can lose benefits you were otherwise entitled to, while your hospital bills go to collections.
If a Pedestrian Accident Is Fatal
When a pedestrian is killed, the claim belongs to the estate. Under EPTL 5-4.1, a wrongful death action must be brought within two years of the date of death, and it can recover funeral and burial costs, the income and services the family lost, and the survivors’ loss of parental guidance. A separate claim covers the conscious pain and suffering your family member experienced between the impact and death.
Families call us in the first week, and they call us months later. Either way the consultation is free and carries no obligation.
What to Do After Being Hit by a Vehicle in Queens
- Call 911 and make sure the NYPD responds and prepares a police accident report (MV-104). The report fixes the location, the vehicle, and the driver’s account in writing.
- Accept ambulance transport, ideally to a trauma center such as Elmhurst Hospital Center or Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.
- Photograph everything you can reach: the vehicle’s license plate, the position of the car, the crosswalk, the signal, your injuries.
- Get names and phone numbers from witnesses before they walk away. The police report often lists none.
- Refuse to give a recorded statement to any insurance company, including the driver’s carrier. The adjuster usually calls within days, sounds sympathetic, and is building a comparative-fault argument out of your answers.
- Call a lawyer before the no-fault and notice-of-claim deadlines pass.
If you are still in the hospital, someone else can take the first four steps for you. We answer the phone 24 hours a day and will come to your hospital room or your home anywhere in Queens.
What It Costs to Hire a Queens Pedestrian Injury Lawyer
Nothing out of pocket, at any stage. Here is the whole mechanism:
The consultation is free. If we take your case, you pay no retainer and no hourly bill. Silver Law Group advances the costs of building the claim, including medical record fees, filing fees, accident reconstruction, and expert witnesses. Our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you, taken only out of that recovery. If we recover nothing, you owe us no fee.
That structure exists so a family that just lost a paycheck can still hire a lawyer the week after the crash. The intake line runs 24/7 in English, Spanish, and Russian.
Deadlines That Can End Your Queens Pedestrian Claim
Under CPLR 214, you generally have three years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit in New York. Three years sounds like plenty of room. It disappears while you are in treatment, arguing with a no-fault insurer, and waiting to see whether your shoulder recovers.
The bigger danger is that the three-year rule does not apply to every defendant. When a government entity is involved, the real deadline can be a fraction of that, and government involvement is common in Queens because so many pedestrians are struck by city buses or hurt by street and signal defects.
The 90-Day Notice of Claim for City and MTA Cases
If your case names an NYC agency, NYC DOT, the MTA, or NYC Transit, General Municipal Law 50-e requires you to serve a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the accident. Under GML 50-i, the lawsuit itself generally must be filed within one year and 90 days.
Missing the 90-day window usually ends the claim outright, no matter how badly you were injured or how clearly the bus driver was at fault. Late notice can sometimes be excused by court permission, but that is a motion you can lose.
A Queens pedestrian lawsuit is filed in Queens County Supreme Court, Civil Term, at 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica.
Special Situations in Queens Pedestrian Cases
Some crashes do not fit the standard pattern of an insured driver who stayed at the scene. Each of the situations below has its own rules, and none of them means you are out of options.
Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers
A driver who fled does not take your claim with them. If you or a family member in your household carries auto insurance, that policy’s uninsured motorist coverage can pay for injuries caused by a hit-and-run or uninsured driver. If no such policy exists anywhere in your household, MVAIC, the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation, was created for exactly this situation.
Both paths depend on prompt reporting. Report the hit-and-run to the NYPD right away and get the report number, because MVAIC requires proof that the crash was reported to police, and a late report can cost you the claim.
If You Were Partly at Fault or Crossing Outside the Crosswalk
Jaywalking does not end your case. New York follows pure comparative negligence under CPLR 1411, which reduces your recovery by your share of fault and nothing more. A pedestrian found 30 percent responsible for crossing mid-block still recovers 70 percent of the damages.
This is exactly what the adjuster who calls you is trying to move. Every percentage point of fault shifted onto you comes off the check. Remember that VTL 1146 still requires the driver to use due care to avoid hitting you, and that duty does not switch off because you stepped off the curb in the middle of the block.
When a Child Is Injured
The three-year clock works differently for a minor. New York’s infancy toll pauses the statute of limitations until the child turns 18, and the normal limitations period runs from there, so a claim can be viable years after the crash.
Drivers also owe heightened care around schools, playgrounds, and anywhere children are likely to be, because a child darting into the roadway is a foreseeable thing rather than a surprise.
One procedural point parents should know: any settlement for a child requires court approval, and the funds are typically held for the child until adulthood. The consultation costs you nothing.
Why Choose Silver Law Group for Your Queens Pedestrian Case
- Free consultations, 24/7, in English, Spanish, and Russian
- No fee unless we recover for you, with case costs advanced by the firm
- Attorneys who travel to your hospital room or your home anywhere in Queens
- Cases prepared for trial from the start, which is the only thing that changes how an insurer values a file
- Direct partner attention on your case, not a file handed to an assistant
Our office is at 49 West 37th Street, 7th Floor, in Midtown Manhattan, one subway ride from Queens and a short trip to Queens County Supreme Court in Jamaica, where your case would be filed. Call 212-470-4544.
Speak With a Queens Pedestrian Injury Lawyer Today
Call 212-470-4544 or request a free consultation online. We answer 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in English, Spanish, and Russian, and there is no fee unless we recover money for you. If you cannot come to us, tell us where you are in Queens and we will come to you.