Pedestrian Accidents
Niagara Falls spent roughly a decade and tens of millions of dollars tearing out expressways and rebuilding them as slow streets, precisely because too many people on foot were sharing space with cars moving at highway speed.
That work is real and it helped. It also did not finish the job, and a Niagara Falls pedestrian accident lawyer still spends most of the year on crashes in the few blocks where 8.9 million annual park visits collide with local traffic, delivery vans, and drivers reading their phones instead of the road.
Lewis & Lewis, P.C. has an office on Niagara Falls Boulevard and has represented injured people across Western New York for over 80 years. If a vehicle hit you, call (716) 284-7126 before you give a statement to anyone’s insurer.
Who Pays Your Medical Bills First?
The insurance company for the vehicle that hit you, not your health insurer and not you.
New York’s no-fault system covers people struck by a motor vehicle even though they were on foot. The Department of Financial Services tells consumers directly that if you were a pedestrian, you file your no-fault claim with the insurer of the car that struck you. Those benefits pay medical treatment and a portion of lost earnings regardless of who was at fault.
If the striking vehicle had no insurance, a household auto policy may respond next. If there is no coverage anywhere, the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation exists for exactly that gap, and its deadlines are unforgiving.
| Situation | Deadline to file with MVAIC |
| Uninsured vehicle identified | 180 days from when the claim accrued |
| Hit and run, driver never identified | Report to police within 24 hours, then file within 90 days |
| Insurer disclaims coverage | 180 days from receiving the disclaimer |
Those periods come from Insurance Law Section 5208. The 24-hour police reporting rule is the one that quietly destroys hit-and-run claims, because injured people go to the hospital and file a report two days later.
The 2026 Rule Change That Decides Whether You Recover for Pain and Suffering
New York narrowed the door in 2026, and most people have not heard about it.
Because you are entitled to no-fault benefits, the law treats you as a “covered person” under Insurance Law Section 5102. That means you can only recover damages for pain and suffering from the driver if your injury qualifies as a serious injury. Medical bills and lost wages are handled through no-fault. Everything else depends on clearing that threshold.
Here is what currently counts:
| Serious injury categories under Section 5102(d) |
| Death |
| Dismemberment |
| Significant disfigurement |
| A fracture |
| Loss of a fetus |
| Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system |
| Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member |
| Significant limitation of use of a body function or system |
Notice what is missing. The category that used to cover a person medically unable to perform substantially all of their usual activities for 90 out of the 180 days after the crash was removed from the statute in the 2026 amendment. Soft tissue injuries that once qualified through that route no longer have it.
Insurance Law Section 5104(a) was also changed so that a jury decides fault before it decides whether the injury is serious.
One detail matters more than any other here. The new rules apply to actions commenced on or after their effective date, not to accidents that happen after it. An older claim that has not been filed yet can fall under the new rules depending on when suit is brought. Retroactivity is being litigated, so the filing date is the first thing we look at.
Call (716) 284-7126 and ask how the current rules apply to your injury.
New York Counts Crosswalks You Cannot See
There does not have to be paint on the road. This is the most useful thing a pedestrian in Niagara Falls can know.
Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 110 defines a crosswalk two ways. One is any portion of a roadway “distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings.” The other is the part of the roadway at an intersection “included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway.” That second definition requires no markings at all.
So when an adjuster says you were not in a crosswalk, the first question is whether you were at an intersection.
Where there is no traffic signal, or the signal is not working, Section 1151 requires a driver to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, marked or unmarked, “slowing down or stopping if need be.”
It also prohibits a second driver from overtaking and passing a vehicle that has stopped at a crosswalk. That is how a lot of serious Niagara Falls crashes actually happen: one car stops for a family, the car behind it swings around.
Outside a crosswalk, Section 1152 requires the pedestrian to yield. Read carefully, that is a duty to yield, not a prohibition on crossing.
It also does not cancel the driver’s separate duty under Section 1146 to “exercise due care to avoid colliding with any bicyclist, pedestrian, or domestic animal upon any roadway.” Where a driver’s failure of due care causes physical injury, Section 1146 attaches a rebuttable presumption that the failure caused the injury.
How Much Fault Can Be Put on You Before the Claim Dies?
Up to half of it. Past that, New York now bars recovery in these cases.
CPLR 1411 was amended in 2026 to add a second subdivision. In an action for personal injury subject to the no-fault article of the Insurance Law, a claimant’s own culpable conduct now bars recovery entirely if it is greater than the fault of the person or persons being sued.
Under that threshold, the old rule still governs: your damages are reduced in proportion to your share of fault, not eliminated.
This is why the fault fight matters more than it used to. An adjuster who can push you to 51 percent does not just shrink the claim, they end it. Under CPLR 1412, the burden of pleading and proving your fault sits with the defense, not with you. That is a real protection when it is actually enforced.
Speed is usually the counterweight. Research compiled by the Federal Highway Administration found that at 25 mph a struck pedestrian faces roughly a 30 percent risk of severe injury, and at 30 mph roughly 47 percent, with fatality risk rising from about 12 to about 20 percent across that same 5 mph.
Why so many of these crashes happen after dark
Because visibility collapses and speed does not. Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counted 7,080 pedestrians killed in 2024 and found that 76 percent of those deaths occurred in dark conditions, with 73 percent happening away from intersections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that in 2021, 60 percent of pedestrian deaths occurred on higher-capacity urban roads with posted limits of 45 to 55 miles per hour. That is the profile of the roads Niagara Falls spent a decade dismantling, and the profile of the ones it has not.
Deadlines Get Much Shorter When a Government Is Involved
This is not a theoretical risk in Niagara Falls. The falls themselves sit inside a state park, the parkway was a state road, and city streets carry the tourist district.
| Defendant | What you must do | Authority |
| Private driver | Sue within 3 years | CPLR 214 |
| City, county, or school district | Notice of claim within 90 days, suit within 1 year and 90 days | GML 50-e and 50-i |
| State of New York | Claim or notice of intention within 90 days | Court of Claims Act 10 |
Ninety days goes fast when you are having surgery. A crash on park land, at a state-maintained intersection, or involving a municipal vehicle can carry that deadline without anyone telling you.
If You Were Visiting When It Happened
Being hurt 400 miles from home creates a set of problems that has nothing to do with the law.
The treating hospital is here. Your follow-up care is not. Your auto policy is from another state, the driver’s policy is from New York, and the no-fault claim has to be opened here regardless of where you live.
The police report sits with the Niagara Falls Police Department or the New York State Police depending on where the crash happened, and getting it is easier from inside the state than from outside it.
None of that requires you to come back for a lawyer meeting. It does mean the paperwork should be opened before you leave town if that is possible, and it means somebody local should be requesting the report and the scene evidence while it still exists.
Niagara Falls State Park drew about 8.9 million visits in 2025, the most of any state park in New York, in a downtown footprint of a few walkable blocks. A meaningful share of the people struck here are not from here.
Why Lewis & Lewis Handles These Cases
Because the firm was built on the plaintiff’s side and has stayed there.
Michael T. Coutu has over 20 years as an injury lawyer and spent part of his career as a defense attorney, which is useful when the argument turns to what a carrier will and will not concede. Emily F. Janicz, the firm’s president, has been named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100.
The one thing we say to every pedestrian client early: do not accept the first offer. An unrepresented person is routinely handed a figure that bears no relationship to what the claim is worth, and a signed release cannot be undone afterward.
Published results include $162,500 for a pedestrian struck by a car who sustained shoulder and hip injuries, and a $3,900,000 settlement reached on the eve of jury selection in a motor vehicle case. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
I was hit inside Niagara Falls State Park. Does that change anything?
It can change a great deal. If a state entity or its vehicle is involved, the Court of Claims deadlines apply and they are far shorter than three years. It also affects which agency holds the incident report.
I live in Ontario and was walking downtown when a car hit me. Can I bring a claim in New York?
Generally yes. The crash happened here, the vehicle is insured here, and no-fault benefits come from the New York policy. Cross-border cases add coordination with your own health coverage, which is worth handling deliberately rather than improvising.
A tour trolley or shuttle hit me, not a private car. Is that different?
Often it is. Commercial and municipal operators carry different coverage, sometimes have their own incident procedures, and may trigger the government notice deadlines. Identifying the correct owner and operator early is the whole ballgame.
The driver said the sun was in his eyes. Does that get him off the hook?
No. Sun glare, weather, and dark clothing are explanations, not defenses. The duty under Section 1146 is to exercise due care in the conditions that actually exist, and reduced visibility is a reason to slow down, not a reason to be excused.
My injury does not look permanent yet. Should I wait to see how it heals before calling anyone?
Waiting is the risk. Evidence disappears, the 90-day government deadline can pass, and whether an injury meets the serious injury threshold is a medical question that depends on how well it is documented from the beginning.
Get the Report Pulled Before It Goes Cold
The most valuable thing that happens in the first two weeks is unglamorous: somebody requests the police report, photographs the intersection, identifies the coverage, and opens the no-fault claim correctly.
Lewis & Lewis, P.C. is at 8803 Niagara Falls Blvd, Niagara Falls, NY 14304. Call (716) 284-7126 for a free consultation. You can also read about Buffalo pedestrian accident claims, Niagara Falls bicycle accident claims, and the broader NY personal injury process.
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