Can I Sue if a Car Hit Me in a Denver Crosswalk?

Colorado law allows a person injured by another’s negligence to bring a civil claim for their losses. Whether a particular crosswalk collision supports such a claim depends on facts that have to be examined individually: who had the right of way, what each person did in the moments before impact, what the evidence shows, who the driver was working for, and whether the applicable deadline has passed.

What Colorado law does provide is a clear starting framework. Drivers owe specific, statutory duties to pedestrians in crosswalks, and those duties apply whether or not the crossing is painted. That last point surprises a lot of people, and it changes how these cases are argued.

This article walks through what Colorado law says about crosswalk collisions, what can reduce or defeat a claim, and the deadlines that matter. If you were struck while walking in Denver and want your own situation reviewed, CGH Injury Lawyers is based downtown. You can contact our office or call (303) 209-9395.

The content on this page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to your situation.

Table of Contents

1. What Counts as a Crosswalk in Colorado
2. The Duties Colorado Places on Drivers
3. When the Pedestrian Has to Yield
4. A Ticket Does Not Decide a Civil Claim
5. How Shared Fault Affects the Outcome
6. When a City, Bus, or Public Vehicle Is Involved
7. The Ordinary Deadline
8. What a Claim Can Cover
9. The Denver Context
10. Speak With a Denver Pedestrian Accident Attorney
11. Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

• A crosswalk does not have to be painted. Colorado’s statutory definition includes the area formed by the prolongation or connection of sidewalk lines at an intersection, as well as any portion of a roadway marked for pedestrian crossing.
• Drivers must yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk when traffic control signals are not in place or operating, and must exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian on any roadway.
• Pedestrians have duties too. Crossing outside a crosswalk, or stepping suddenly into the path of a vehicle that is too close to stop, shifts the right of way.
• Colorado reduces damages by the injured person’s share of fault and bars recovery entirely if that share is as great as the other party’s.
• If a city, transit, or other public vehicle was involved, written notice is required within 182 days, and that requirement is jurisdictional.

What Counts as a Crosswalk in Colorado

This is the most misunderstood part of pedestrian law, and it is often where these claims turn.

Colorado defines a crosswalk as “that portion of a roadway ordinarily included within the prolongation or connection of the lateral lines of sidewalks at intersections or any portion of a roadway distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other marking on the surface.”

Read that carefully, because it describes two separate things:

• Marked crosswalks — the painted crossings most people picture.
• Unmarked crosswalks — the area at an intersection where the sidewalk lines, extended across the road, would meet the sidewalk on the other side.

An unmarked crosswalk is a real crosswalk. A driver who strikes someone crossing at an intersection with no paint on the road cannot rely on the absence of markings alone as a defense, because the statutory definition does not require markings at that location.

One qualification matters and is often skipped over: the unmarked crosswalk in the definition is tied to the prolongation or connection of sidewalk lines at intersections. Where an intersection has no sidewalks to project, the analysis is different. This is fact-specific, and it is one of the first things worth checking after a crossing collision.

The Duties Colorado Places on Drivers

Two statutes do most of the work.

The right-of-way rule. Colorado provides that when traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation, “the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is upon the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger.”

The same statute adds a rule that comes up constantly in multi-lane collisions: “Whenever any vehicle is stopped at a marked crosswalk or at any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass such stopped vehicle.” Crashes where one car stops and a second overtakes it into the crossing fall directly under this provision.

The general duty of care. Separately, Colorado requires that “every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian upon any roadway and shall give warning by sounding the horn when necessary and shall exercise proper precaution upon observing any child or any obviously confused or incapacitated person upon a roadway.”

That duty is not limited to crosswalks. It applies on any roadway, which matters when a collision happens somewhere a crosswalk analysis would not help.

When the Pedestrian Has to Yield

Colorado law does not put the entire burden on drivers, and understanding the other side of it is important before assuming how a claim will be viewed.

Colorado provides that a pedestrian crossing a roadway “at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.” It also states that between adjacent intersections where traffic control signals are operating, “pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk,” and prohibits crossing an intersection diagonally unless official traffic control devices authorize it.

There is one more provision that insurers raise frequently. Even within a crosswalk, “a pedestrian shall not suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and ride a bicycle, electrical assisted bicycle, or electric scooter, or walk or run into the path of a moving vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard.”

None of these provisions automatically defeat a claim. They shape the fault analysis, which is a different thing.

A Ticket Does Not Decide a Civil Claim

Whether the driver was cited matters less than most people expect, and Colorado law is unusually direct about why.

A citation is an accusation. It records what an officer believed at the scene, and on its own it settles nothing.

A conviction goes further, and Colorado still keeps it out of the civil case. The statute provides that “no record of the conviction of any person for any violation of this article shall be admissible as evidence in any court in any civil action,” subject to narrow exceptions. Violations of the crosswalk right-of-way statute are classified as traffic infractions, and a driver convicted of one does not thereby hand the injured person proof of the civil claim.

That cuts both ways, and it is the part worth understanding. A conviction is not a shortcut to recovery. The absence of a ticket does not defeat a claim either. What has to be established in the civil case is the underlying conduct — what each person actually did — proved through the ordinary evidence of the case. The statute excludes the conviction record. It does not remove the facts.

Officers at a scene are working with limited information, often at night, often with one participant unable to give a statement. Independent evidence — surveillance or doorbell footage, signal timing data, vehicle damage patterns, and witness accounts gathered early — regularly tells a fuller story than the initial report.

Where a Denver crossing collision leaves you turns on the specifics. Call (303) 209-9395 or request a case evaluation to talk it through with a Colorado pedestrian accident attorney.

How Shared Fault Affects the Outcome

Colorado applies modified comparative negligence. Contributory negligence does not bar recovery “if such negligence was not as great as the negligence of the person against whom recovery is sought, but any damages allowed shall be diminished in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to the person for whose injury, damage, or death recovery is made.”

Two consequences follow:

• Damages are reduced by the injured person’s percentage of fault.
• If that percentage equals or exceeds the other party’s, the statute directs judgment for the defendant.

In crosswalk cases, insurers commonly argue that the pedestrian was distracted, wearing dark clothing, crossing against a signal, or stepped out too late. Those arguments are about moving the percentage, and the percentage is often the most consequential number in the case.

When a City, Bus, or Public Vehicle Is Involved

This is the point most likely to cost someone their claim without them realizing it.

Denver is a dense urban environment with municipal vehicles, transit buses, and city-maintained streets and signals. If a public entity or its employee is involved, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act applies, and it imposes a much shorter deadline than the ordinary limitation period.

Written notice must be filed “within one hundred eighty-two days after the date of the discovery of the injury.” The statute is explicit about the consequence: compliance “shall be a jurisdictional prerequisite to any action brought under the provisions of this article, and failure of compliance shall forever bar any such action.”

One hundred eighty-two days is roughly six months. Someone seriously injured in a crossing collision can spend that period in treatment and never learn the requirement existed. Separate statutory limits also apply to the amount recoverable against a public entity, and those figures are periodically adjusted, so they should be confirmed as of the date a claim arises.

If a transit or municipal bus was involved, our bus accident page covers how those claims differ.

The Ordinary Deadline

Where no public entity is involved, Colorado applies a three-year limitation period to “all tort actions for bodily injury or property damage arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle.” A pedestrian struck by a car falls within that language. Other kinds of claim run on different clocks, so the deadline that applies is worth confirming early rather than assumed.

Deadlines are not the kind of detail to estimate from a blog post. We have written in more depth about how long after an accident you can sue in Denver.

What a Claim Can Cover

Colorado divides recoverable damages into economic losses, such as medical treatment, rehabilitation, and lost income, and noneconomic losses, which the statute describes as “nonpecuniary harm… including pain and suffering, inconvenience, emotional stress, and impairment of the quality of life.”

Colorado caps noneconomic damages. For civil actions filed on or after January 1, 2025, the cap is $1.5 million, with inflation adjustments beginning January 1, 2028. Economic damages are not subject to that cap, and wrongful death claims are governed by a separate statute with its own limit.

Pedestrian collisions can involve the injury categories with the longest recovery, including traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.

The Denver Context

Denver has been losing ground on pedestrian safety. City Vision Zero figures reported in January 2026 recorded 93 traffic deaths on Denver streets in 2025, the highest tally since 2013, of which 35 were pedestrians — a 35 percent rise and the highest pedestrian total in ten years.

The City and County of Denver’s own Vision Zero program states that “Vision Zero means zero traffic fatalities or serious bodily injuries,” that Denver “has defined a High Injury Network (HIN) representing dangerous streets in need of safety improvements,” and that “speeding is the most significant factor in the likelihood of severe injury or death in a crash.”

Where a collision happened on a corridor already identified as part of that network, that context is worth raising with an attorney alongside the driver’s conduct.

Speak With a Denver Pedestrian Accident Attorney

Whether a crosswalk collision supports a claim, and what that claim involves, depends on facts that need to be looked at properly — the crossing itself, the signal state, the driver’s conduct, the available evidence, who the driver was working for, and which deadline applies.

CGH Injury Lawyers is a Denver personal injury firm founded in 2016, based at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201. Our attorneys handle pedestrian accident claims throughout Colorado.

Call (303) 209-9395 or request a case evaluation to discuss what happened.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do pedestrians always have the right of way in Colorado?

No. Colorado gives pedestrians the right of way in a crosswalk when traffic control signals are not in place or not operating, and requires drivers to exercise due care generally. But a pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk must yield to vehicles, must not cross between adjacent signalized intersections except in a marked crosswalk, and must not suddenly leave a curb into the path of a vehicle that is too close to stop.

What is an unmarked crosswalk?

Colorado’s definition of a crosswalk includes the portion of roadway “ordinarily included within the prolongation or connection of the lateral lines of sidewalks at intersections,” as well as areas marked by lines or other surface markings. In other words, an intersection can contain a legally recognized crosswalk even with no paint on the road, where sidewalk lines project across it.

The driver was not ticketed. Does that end my claim?

No. A citation is an accusation rather than proof, and Colorado separates traffic enforcement from civil liability. The statute provides that no record of a conviction for a violation of the traffic article is admissible as evidence in a civil action, subject to narrow exceptions. Claims proceed where no ticket was issued, and a ticket does not relieve the injured person of proving what happened and what it cost.

What if I was partly at fault for crossing when I did?

Colorado reduces damages in proportion to the injured person’s share of negligence, and bars recovery if that share is as great as the other party’s. Being partly at fault does not automatically end a claim, but the percentage assigned matters a great deal, and it is usually contested.

What if I was hit by a city vehicle or a bus?

A shorter and stricter deadline applies. Under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, written notice must be filed within 182 days after the date of discovery of the injury, and compliance is a jurisdictional prerequisite. Failure to comply permanently bars the action.

How long do I have to bring a claim after being hit in a crosswalk?

Where no public entity is involved, Colorado applies a three-year limitation period to tort actions for bodily injury arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle. Because exceptions and shorter public-entity deadlines exist, the applicable date should be confirmed for the specific circumstances.

Written by CGH Injury Lawyers.

Last updated: [DATE: set at publication].

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