Contra Costa County · Pedestrian Accidents
Pedestrian accident lawyers serving Antioch
Lone Tree Way's long crossings, the Rivertown grid, the walk to the Antioch BART station — East County's walkers deal with wide roads and fast traffic. If a driver hit you, the case review is free and no fee unless we win.
Ask anyone who walks in Antioch and they will tell you the same thing: the distances between safe crossings are long. Lone Tree Way and Deer Valley Road are the spine of the newer city — wide arterials lined with shopping centers, schools, and Kaiser's medical campus — and their signalized crossings sit far apart. People cross where their lives actually are, not where the signals happen to be, and drivers moving at arterial speed are rarely expecting them.
The older city walks differently. The Rivertown district's grid around A Street and Second Street has short blocks and real sidewalks, with foot traffic toward the marina and the waterfront events. And since the Antioch BART station opened off Hillcrest Avenue, a new stream of commuters crosses the busy approaches around the station and the Highway 4 interchange on foot every weekday.
We represent injured pedestrians throughout East County. If a driver hit you or a family member in Antioch, we will investigate properly, handle the insurer's fault games, and give you a straight answer — free review, and you pay nothing unless we recover.
Antioch's long roads and the people who cross them
Lone Tree Way is the pattern-setter. Between Highway 4 and the Brentwood line it passes big-box centers, schools, and medical offices, with traffic moving fast between lights. Pedestrian collisions here split into two kinds: the crosswalk collision, where a turning driver fails to yield at a signal; and the mid-block collision, where someone crossing between distant signals is struck in the travel lanes. Insurers treat the second kind as open-and-shut against the pedestrian — California law says otherwise, and the facts usually say more.
Deer Valley Road adds school and hospital traffic, with students crossing near Deer Valley High and families around the Kaiser campus. In Rivertown, lower speeds mean survivable collisions, but older walkers hit near A Street or during waterfront events can suffer serious fractures from what a driver calls a tap. Around the BART station and Hillcrest Avenue, commute-hour turning traffic and interchange ramps concentrate risk into a few crossings.
Where you were hit tells us which agency wrote the report, which cameras might exist, and which arguments the insurer will reach for. We build the answer to those arguments early — beginning with a conversation that costs you nothing.
California law that protects people on foot
- Drivers must yield the right of way to pedestrians in marked crosswalks and in unmarked crosswalks at intersections — a crossing does not need painted lines to be legally protected.
- Even outside a crosswalk, drivers owe pedestrians due care. Crossing mid-block may affect the fault allocation, but it does not strip you of the right to recover.
- California's pure comparative negligence rule means partial fault reduces your recovery by your percentage — it never automatically bars the claim, no matter what an adjuster implies.
- Most pedestrian injury claims must be filed within two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.
- If a dangerous public condition contributed — a malfunctioning signal, an obstructed crosswalk, poor intersection design — a claim against the public entity generally must be presented within six months.
Frequently asked questions
I was hit crossing Lone Tree Way between signals. The insurer says it's entirely my fault.
That is a negotiating position, not California law. Under pure comparative negligence, crossing mid-block may assign you a percentage of fault, but it reduces your recovery rather than eliminating it — and drivers owe due care to pedestrians everywhere on the road. On a corridor where signals are far apart, the driver's speed, attention, and opportunity to avoid you are all squarely in play. Do not accept a zero from an adjuster.
What deadlines should I worry about after an Antioch pedestrian collision?
Two of them. Most injury claims must be filed within two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. But if a dangerous condition of public property contributed — a dark or obscured crossing, a malfunctioning signal, a design that strands walkers mid-road — a claim generally must be presented to the public entity within six months. That analysis is worth doing early on Antioch's arterials.
The driver who hit me near the BART station didn't stop. Now what?
Call the police and get medical attention immediately — the report and the medical record are the foundation of everything after. Then check for uninsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy or a household member's policy; it can apply to a pedestrian struck by a hit-and-run driver. Station areas and the Hillcrest corridor also have camera coverage that may identify the vehicle if requested fast. We can handle all of it.
I felt okay after being knocked down, but a week later I'm in real pain. Is it too late?
No — delayed symptoms are the norm in pedestrian impacts, not the exception. See a doctor now and describe the collision, so the medical record connects your symptoms to it. Legally your claim is intact well within the filing deadlines; practically, the sooner treatment and documentation start, the harder it is for an insurer to argue the injury came from somewhere else.
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Injured in Antioch? Talk to us first.
The case review is free and confidential, and you pay nothing unless we win. Tell us what happened, and we will tell you honestly where you stand.