How North Carolina law treats a pedestrian hit by a car in Raleigh

Most of what decides a pedestrian claim in North Carolina is written down in a short run of statutes. They say who yields at signals and crosswalks and away from them. One of them puts a duty on every driver toward any pedestrian on any roadway.

I read those statutes against the exact place the client was crossing. This post covers them in that order and then turns to the insurance that usually applies.

What kind of claim does a pedestrian have in North Carolina?

A pedestrian hit by a car has a negligence claim against the driver. The claim is built from the same pieces as any crash claim in this state. The pedestrian statutes in Chapter 20 decide who had the right-of-way when the car and the pedestrian met.

G.S. 20-172 and G.S. 20-173 cover signals and crosswalks. G.S. 20-174 covers crossing anywhere else and walking along a road. It closes with a duty every driver owes any pedestrian on any roadway.

The driver's insurer reads the same statutes. In North Carolina, the adjuster on a pedestrian claim looks for any opportunity to raise contributory negligence, and these statutes give the adjuster more to point to than a two-car crash does. The first thing I want to know is the exact spot where the client was crossing, because that spot decides which section applies.

What do the crosswalk and signal statutes say?

The table sets out who yields in each situation the statutes name. Each line paraphrases the subsection cited beside it.

Situation	Who yields	Statute
Pedestrian facing a WALK signal	Drivers of all vehicles give the pedestrian the right-of-way	G.S. 20-172(b)(1)
Pedestrian facing DON'T WALK	No pedestrian starts across. One already partly across on WALK continues to a sidewalk or safety island	G.S. 20-172(b)(2)
Traffic lights with no pedestrian signal	The pedestrian follows the vehicle signals as they apply to pedestrian traffic	G.S. 20-172(c)
Marked crosswalk, or unmarked crosswalk at or near an intersection, with no signal in operation	The driver yields and slows or stops if need be	G.S. 20-173(a)
A car stopped at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross	A driver coming from behind does not pass the stopped car	G.S. 20-173(b)
Driver leaving or entering a driveway, alley, private road or building entrance	The driver yields to a pedestrian on the sidewalk or walkway across it	G.S. 20-173(c)
Crossing outside a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection	The pedestrian yields to vehicles on the roadway	G.S. 20-174(a)
Any pedestrian on any roadway	The driver still uses due care to avoid colliding with the pedestrian	G.S. 20-174(e)

Most of these rules depend on the signal at the crossing. That makes the signal equipment at a Raleigh intersection a piece of evidence in its own right. The City of Raleigh's Vision Zero page says intersection improvements that include Accessible Pedestrian Signals are underway at five locations, with construction expected to finish by fall 2026. The same page schedules pedestrian safety and signal upgrades on MLK Jr. Blvd from Salisbury to Poole Road, with design set for summer 2026 and construction anticipated in fall 2027.

Equipment at a crossing changes over time. We photograph the signal heads and the crosswalk markings early, because the claim turns on what the client faced on the day of the crash and not on what stands there a year later.

What if I was crossing outside a crosswalk?

Crossing outside a crosswalk shifts the right-of-way to the cars. G.S. 20-174(a) requires a pedestrian crossing anywhere other than a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection to yield to all vehicles on the roadway. G.S. 20-174(b) applies the same duty where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead crossing has been provided.

G.S. 20-174(c) is stricter on one kind of block. Between adjacent intersections where traffic-control signals are in operation, a pedestrian does not cross anywhere except in a marked crosswalk.

Walking along a road follows its own rule. Where sidewalks are provided, G.S. 20-174(d) makes it unlawful to walk along the adjacent roadway. Where there is no sidewalk, the pedestrian walks on the far left of the roadway or its shoulder facing oncoming traffic when practicable and yields to approaching traffic.

None of that ends the claim on its own. G.S. 20-174(e) opens with the words "Notwithstanding the provisions of this section" and requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian on any roadway. The driver also gives warning with the horn when necessary and takes proper precaution on seeing a child or a confused or incapacitated person in the road.

The pattern jury instruction for this situation is N.C.P.I. Motor Vehicle 211.40. It tells the jury that a pedestrian's failure to yield "is not negligence within itself." It becomes negligence when a reasonably careful and prudent person in the same circumstances would have yielded. That is a question about the facts of the crossing.

How does contributory negligence affect a pedestrian's claim?

Contributory negligence is the defense that follows a pedestrian claim from the first call. The rule and its exceptions are on the page about contributory negligence in North Carolina. This section covers only how the defense gets built against someone who was walking.

A driver in a two-car crash is accused of following too close or running a light. A pedestrian is usually accused of crossing outside a crosswalk or starting across against DON'T WALK. Based on my experience the insurer pulls those accusations straight from G.S. 20-174 and G.S. 20-172, and it raises them in the first recorded statement it asks for.

Footnote 3 to instruction 211.40 shows both sides of the defense. It cites cases holding that a pedestrian's failure to yield is not negligence in itself. It also cites Blake v. Mallard, 262 N.C. 62 (1964), for the point that the evidence in a pedestrian case can show contributory negligence as a matter of law. The difference between those lines of cases is the facts of the crossing.

Instruction 211.40A covers the driver's side. It describes a duty that arises when the driver sees, or using reasonable care would see, that the pedestrian is not aware of the approaching danger. We gather the evidence that answers both questions while it still exists.

• Photographs of the crosswalk markings, the signal heads and any push buttons at the crossing.
• The distance from the point of impact to the nearest marked crosswalk.
• Video from businesses and homes near the crossing, requested before it is recorded over.
• The names of people who saw the signal phase when the client stepped off the curb.

Which insurance applies when a pedestrian is hit by a car?

The driver's liability coverage is the first policy. G.S. 20-279.21(b)(2) sets the minimum bodily injury limits a North Carolina liability policy carries, and the car accident page lays out those limits along with the caps on UM and UIM coverage.

The pedestrian's own household auto policy usually comes next. G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3) defines "persons insured" to include the named insured and, while resident of the same household, the spouse of any named insured and relatives of either "while in a motor vehicle or otherwise." G.S. 20-279.21(b)(4) applies the provisions of subdivision (3) to UIM coverage.

The words "or otherwise" are the reason a pedestrian's own policy comes into the conversation at all. Whether a particular policy reaches a particular client is a question for the policy language. We read the declarations page and the full policy before I say anything about coverage. A client who owns no car is not always without a policy to look at, because the same definition reaches relatives who live in the named insured's household.

UM coverage is also written for a driver who leaves. The statute writes it for persons insured who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles and hit-and-run motor vehicles. G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3)b. covers a claim where the identity of the driver or owner cannot be ascertained, and it is worded for bodily injury from a "collision between motor vehicles." It calls for the insured or someone on the insured's behalf to report the accident within 24 hours, or as soon after as practicable, to a police officer, peace officer, other judicial officer or the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. We read the policy on that point before I say how it applies to someone who was walking.

The phrase "legally entitled to recover" matters to a pedestrian. I read it to carry the fault question onto the client's own UM claim, so the contributory negligence facts get the same attention there as on the claim against the driver.

How many pedestrian crashes does Wake County record?

NCDOT's 2024 crash profile for Wake County counts 276 reportable pedestrian crashes in 2024. It is the newest county profile I could find posted, and 2024 is the highest yearly total in its five years of figures.

Wake County	Reportable pedestrian crashes	Non-fatal injury crashes	Fatal crashes
2020	210	180	25
2021	186	166	15
2022	264	229	34
2023	248	224	18
2024	276	250	21

The totals also count a few property-damage-only crashes each year. These counts describe the county as a whole. None of them says anything about a single crash or the value of your case.

Raleigh City Council adopted the city's safety action plan in April 2026. The plan's goal is to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes by 50 percent by 2040, and the city's Vision Zero page links to the plan and describes the pedestrian signal work above.

My office is in Graham and there is no Raleigh office. The first conversation with a Wake County client is by phone or video, and I also meet clients in person. The officer's crash report is one of the first documents we request, and the steps for getting a Raleigh report are in the guide on what to do after a car accident in Raleigh.