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Pedestrian crossing along US-85 in Brighton, Colorado. CGH Injury Lawyers represents people struck while walking in Brighton and Adams County from our Denver office.
Brighton, Colorado

Brighton Pedestrian Accident Lawyers Who Fight for People Struck on US-85, I-76, and SH-7

Being struck by a vehicle while walking in Brighton can cause fractures, a traumatic brain injury, or far worse. CGH Injury Lawyers serves Brighton pedestrian accident victims from our Denver office, files in the Adams County District Court when insurers refuse to be fair, and collects nothing unless we win for you.

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Serving Brighton from our Denver Office CGH Injury Lawyers 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201 Denver, CO 80205 (303) 209-9395 Se habla espanol
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  • Colorado law requires every driver in Brighton to yield to pedestrians at all marked and unmarked crosswalks under C.R.S. 42-4-802. That duty applies on US-85 through Brighton's commercial corridor, at SH-7 intersections, and at every neighborhood intersection where sidewalks meet the road. The absence of painted lines is not a legal defense for a driver who fails to yield.
  • Colorado's modified comparative fault rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111) means you can still recover even if you were partly at fault for the accident. As long as you were less than 50 percent responsible, your award is reduced by your share of fault rather than eliminated entirely. A driver's speed, distraction, or failure to see you still counts against them.
  • Brighton pedestrian accident lawsuits above the county-court jurisdictional limit are filed at the Adams County District Court, 1100 Judicial Center Dr., Brighton, CO 80601, in the 17th Judicial District. Brighton is the seat of Adams County, so the courthouse sits within the city itself. CGH Injury Lawyers files and tries Adams County pedestrian cases directly from our Denver office.

Brighton sits at the junction of Interstate 76, US Highway 85, and State Highway 7, three corridors that carry a mix of commuter traffic, commercial freight, and agricultural vehicles through a city of about 40,000 people. When those vehicles interact with people walking across intersections or along commercial corridors in Brighton, the results can be catastrophic. CGH Injury Lawyers investigates Brighton pedestrian accident cases, challenges incomplete police reports, pursues every available insurance policy, and prepares every case for trial in Adams County. You pay nothing unless we recover for you.

Your right of way

Colorado pedestrian right-of-way law and how it applies in Brighton (C.R.S. 42-4-802)

Colorado Revised Statutes 42-4-802 is the foundational statute for pedestrian protection across every road in the state, including every intersection in Brighton. It sets out exactly when a driver must stop and wait for a person on foot, and it is the core of nearly every pedestrian liability claim in Adams County.

Under C.R.S. 42-4-802, any driver approaching a crosswalk in Brighton must yield the right of way to a pedestrian who is in the crosswalk or close enough to be in immediate danger. Once you have entered the crosswalk, every driver moving the same direction must stop and remain stopped until you have safely crossed. A driver in a second or third lane may not pass a vehicle that has already stopped to let you cross.

  • The yielding duty applies at painted crosswalks and at unmarked crosswalks at intersections where sidewalks exist. There is no requirement that paint be visible on the pavement. On Brighton's commercial routes, many crossings have faded markings or no paint at all, but the law still requires drivers to yield.
  • Pedestrians also carry duties under C.R.S. 42-4-803: a person crossing mid-block must yield to vehicles, and traffic signals control the crossing when present. Even a pedestrian who violates one of these rules does not automatically lose the right to compensation if the driver was also negligent.
  • On a multi-lane road like US-85, a driver in the far lane who passes a stopped vehicle in the first lane without seeing you is violating C.R.S. 42-4-802, not just a general duty of care. That specific statutory violation makes liability clearer and harder for an insurer to dispute.

Drivers and their insurers routinely argue that a Brighton pedestrian was jaywalking, crossing against the light, or not paying attention. Our job is to counter those arguments with the statute, with camera footage from Brighton intersections, and with the physical evidence from the scene.

Where Brighton pedestrian accidents happen

The Brighton roads and crossings behind the most serious pedestrian injury claims

Pedestrian accidents in Brighton concentrate on corridors where vehicle speeds are high, turning movements are frequent, and foot traffic mixes with heavy commercial traffic. Understanding where your accident happened is the first step toward identifying every responsible party.

  1. US-85 Commercial Freight Corridor

    US Highway 85 runs north-south through Brighton as the city's primary commercial freight artery, carrying semi-trucks, tankers, and oversized vehicles alongside passenger traffic. At Brighton's signalized intersections along this corridor, stopping distances for loaded commercial vehicles extend far beyond what most drivers anticipate. The multi-lane design creates the classic wave-through scenario: a driver in the first lane stops for a pedestrian crossing, a driver in the second lane does not see you and does not stop. That second-lane failure is a direct violation of C.R.S. 42-4-802 and a common source of serious pedestrian injuries in Brighton. When a commercial vehicle is involved, federal trucking regulations, driver logs, and the trucking company's maintenance records all become part of the investigation, and liability can extend to parties beyond the driver.

  2. I-76 On-Ramps, Off-Ramps, and Frontage Roads

    Interstate 76 runs east-west through Brighton, and its on-ramps and off-ramps create zones where drivers are accelerating or decelerating while also watching for merge opportunities. Pedestrians crossing frontage roads near I-76 interchanges in Brighton face drivers whose attention is split between merging vehicles and the pedestrian in front of them. High-speed lane changes and rear-end crashes involving commercial freight are concentrated on this corridor. When a crash occurs near an I-76 interchange, the investigation often needs to account for brake conditions, vehicle loads, and whether a truck driver had adequate sight lines.

  3. SH-7 Speed-Transition Zones and Neighborhood Crossings

    State Highway 7 is a regional connector that carries commuter and agricultural traffic through Brighton and links Adams County communities to the broader Front Range. Where SH-7 transitions from a higher-speed approach into the city's commercial and residential areas, drivers routinely carry highway speeds into zones where pedestrian crossings appear. Crossings on SH-7 that intersect Brighton's local street grid can be underlit or lack dedicated pedestrian phases, creating real exposure for people on foot at any time of day, and particularly after dark. Agricultural equipment moving along SH-7 also creates visibility hazards at crossings where the profile of a slow-moving vehicle is very different from what a pedestrian expects.

  4. Intersections Where US-85, I-76, and SH-7 Cross Local Roads

    Brighton's grid of local roads crosses all three of its major corridors at intersections where relative vehicle speeds, turning conflicts, and pedestrian exposure all converge. A turning driver on US-85 watching oncoming traffic can miss a person already in the crosswalk, which is the left-hook-turn pattern that C.R.S. 42-4-802 is specifically designed to address. Commercial properties lining these intersections generate foot traffic from workers and shoppers who cross multiple lanes of traffic with varying signal protection. These intersection crashes tend to produce some of the most serious pedestrian injuries in Adams County, and they are also the cases where fault disputes are most common.

  5. Agricultural and Construction Equipment Sharing Brighton Roads

    Brighton and the surrounding Adams County agricultural land mean that slow-moving farm equipment regularly shares roads with standard passenger and commercial traffic, particularly on US-85 and SH-7. Construction equipment serving Brighton's ongoing residential and commercial development also moves through city corridors, creating wide-load hazards, rear-view blind spots, and road debris conditions. A pedestrian struck near a piece of construction or farm equipment faces a distinct liability chain, one that can extend to equipment owners, operators, and contractors, and that chain needs to be traced correctly from the start of the claim.

Partly at fault?

What if you were partly at fault for the Brighton pedestrian accident?

Insurers almost always try to shift blame onto the pedestrian. Even when you were crossing against a light, stepping off the curb suddenly, or walking near rather than in a crosswalk, you may still be owed significant compensation under Colorado law.

The 50 percent bar rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111)

Colorado follows a modified comparative negligence system. If you are less than 50 percent at fault, you recover, but your award is reduced by your share. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing.

  • Found 0 percent at fault: you recover 100 percent of your damages.
  • Found 25 percent at fault: you recover 75 percent of your damages.
  • Found 49 percent at fault: you recover 51 percent of your damages.
  • Found 50 percent or more at fault: you recover nothing.

The word "jaywalking" is an adjuster's standard opening move. It pushes your assigned fault percentage upward without necessarily placing you above 49 percent. A driver who was speeding on US-85, looking at a phone, or executing a left turn without watching the crosswalk can still carry the majority of fault even when you were crossing outside a marked line. We use accident reconstruction, witness statements, and traffic camera footage from Brighton corridors to challenge inflated fault assignments in Adams County cases.

Compensation

What you can recover after a Brighton pedestrian accident

When a vehicle strikes a person on foot, the injuries are often catastrophic. Colorado law lets injured pedestrians recover the full documented financial loss and the human cost of a serious injury across two main categories of damages.

Economic damages (no cap)

  • Emergency care and hospitalization at Platte Valley Medical Center and any transfer facility
  • All future medical treatment, surgeries, and rehabilitation
  • Lost wages from the time you could not work during recovery
  • Lost earning capacity when the injury changes what you can do for work long-term
  • Assistive devices, home modifications, and long-term care expenses
  • Out-of-pocket costs tied directly to the accident and recovery

Non-economic and other damages

  • Pain and suffering during treatment and the long recovery that follows a pedestrian strike
  • Emotional distress, PTSD, and anxiety caused by the accident
  • Loss of enjoyment of life when injuries limit activities you valued before the crash
  • Disfigurement and scarring, which are uncapped under Colorado law
  • Compensation for physical impairment, which is also uncapped and often the highest-value category in serious pedestrian cases
  • Loss of consortium for a spouse affected by the injury

For claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, Colorado caps non-economic damages such as pain and suffering at $1,500,000 under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5. Economic damages, including every medical bill and every dollar of lost income, are never capped. Compensation for physical impairment and disfigurement carries no cap at all, which means that in a serious Brighton pedestrian case involving broken bones, spinal injury, or permanent disability, those uncapped categories can represent the largest portion of the claim. When a pedestrian accident takes a life, surviving family members may pursue a wrongful death claim for funeral costs, lost financial support, and loss of companionship.

Who pays

Insurance coverage for Brighton pedestrian accident victims

Pedestrian accident victims are often surprised that more than one insurance policy may cover their injuries. Understanding the sources of coverage before you talk to any adjuster is critical.

  • The at-fault driver's liability policy is the primary source of recovery. Colorado's minimum bodily injury liability requirement is $25,000 per person, but commercial trucking companies operating on US-85 and I-76 often carry far higher limits, and identifying the full policy stack is one of the first things we do on every Brighton pedestrian case.
  • Your own auto policy may cover you even though you were on foot. Uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage applies to pedestrians in Colorado. It provides compensation when the at-fault driver has no insurance, too little insurance, or flees the scene. Colorado UM/UIM claims are governed by C.R.S. 13-80-107.5 under Pham v. State Farm, 2013 CO 17.
  • When a City of Brighton vehicle, an Adams County road defect, or a CDOT maintenance failure contributed to the accident, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act becomes relevant. For claims accruing on or after January 1, 2026, CGIA caps recovery from a public entity at $505,000 per person and $1,421,000 per occurrence (C.R.S. 24-10-114). A written notice of claim must be served within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Missing that 182-day window bars the claim against the government entity entirely.
  • Health insurance and any medical payments (MedPay) coverage on an auto policy can pay early medical bills at Platte Valley Medical Center. Health insurers typically hold subrogation rights, and we negotiate those liens so you keep more of your recovery.

Insurance companies, including your own, act in their financial interest first. Do not give a recorded statement, sign a medical authorization, or accept any settlement offer before speaking with an attorney who can evaluate every policy in play and protect your fault percentage from the start.

After the accident

What to do after being struck on foot in Brighton

The decisions you make in the minutes and hours after a pedestrian accident in Brighton shape what evidence is available and what compensation you can ultimately recover. These steps protect your health and your legal rights.

  1. Call 911 from the scene

    A Brighton Police Department report creates an official record of the location, the vehicle, and the driver's information. On busy corridors like US-85 and I-76 frontage roads, arriving officers can preserve any traffic signal or camera footage before it is overwritten. Request medical response even if you believe your injuries are minor, because pedestrian strikes often conceal internal or neurological damage that does not appear until days later.

  2. Get evaluated at Platte Valley Medical Center

    Platte Valley Medical Center is the primary hospital serving Brighton and the surrounding Adams and Weld County communities. Traumatic brain injuries, spinal damage, and internal bleeding may not be obvious at the scene. Getting examined immediately protects your health and creates the medical record that connects your injuries to the accident. For very serious injuries requiring a higher level of trauma care, transfer to a Denver-area Level I facility may be arranged. We coordinate records from every treating facility to build a complete picture of your harm.

  3. Document everything you can at the scene

    Photograph the vehicle, the road, crosswalk markings or the absence of them, traffic signals, and your visible injuries. Note exactly where the crossing occurred, whether it was at an intersection or mid-block, and the road conditions at the time. Get the names and contact information of any witnesses before they leave. On Brighton's highway corridors, skid marks, vehicle positions, and road debris can disappear or be moved within hours.

  4. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurer

    The at-fault driver's insurer, or the claims department of a commercial trucking company, will likely call within days of the Brighton accident. They are not on your side. Do not agree to a recorded statement, accept a fast offer, or sign any release before you have spoken with a pedestrian accident attorney. Early settlements on pedestrian cases routinely fail to account for future medical treatment and permanent disability.

  5. Watch the government-entity clock

    If a City of Brighton vehicle, an Adams County road crew, or a CDOT failure caused or contributed to the accident, a written notice of claim must be served within 182 days of discovering the injury under C.R.S. 24-10-109(1). That clock runs from the date of discovery, not the date of the crash. Missing it bars the claim against the government entity entirely, regardless of how strong the other facts are.

  6. Contact a Brighton pedestrian accident attorney

    Traffic camera footage from the US-85 corridor and nearby Brighton intersections can be overwritten within days. The three-year filing deadline for a motor vehicle pedestrian case under C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n) gives you time to plan, but evidence preservation has to start now. A free consultation with CGH Injury Lawyers costs you nothing and starts the investigation.

Local knowledge

Brighton courts. Brighton trauma care. Brighton pedestrian corridors.

A Brighton pedestrian accident case lives in Brighton: the road where you were struck, the hospital that treated you, and the courthouse where a lawsuit is filed. Here is the local ground we work on for every Adams County pedestrian client.

Courthouse

Adams County District Court, Brighton (17th Judicial District)

Brighton pedestrian accident lawsuits above the county-court jurisdictional limit are filed at the Adams County District Court, 1100 Judicial Center Dr., Brighton, CO 80601, in Colorado's 17th Judicial District. Brighton is the seat of Adams County, which means the District Court is located within the city itself. That is a meaningful distinction: a Brighton pedestrian case draws from a Brighton-area jury pool, is subject to the procedural norms of the 17th Judicial District, and is tried before judges who regularly handle Adams County traffic cases. CGH Injury Lawyers files and tries 17th Judicial District pedestrian cases directly from our Denver office, with no additional cost to Brighton clients.

Trauma Care

Platte Valley Medical Center

Platte Valley Medical Center is the primary hospital serving Brighton and the surrounding Adams and Weld County communities. When a Brighton pedestrian accident sends someone to Platte Valley, those emergency room records, imaging studies, operative reports, and discharge summaries become the evidentiary core of the damages claim. We work with those medical records and billing documentation from the start of every Brighton pedestrian case. For injuries requiring a higher level of trauma care, patients may be transferred to a Level I or Level II facility in the Denver metro area, and we coordinate documentation from every treating location to ensure the full injury picture is captured and presented correctly.

High-Risk Pedestrian Corridors

US-85, I-76, and SH-7: Brighton's Three-Corridor Pedestrian Risk Environment

Brighton sits at the junction of Interstate 76, US Highway 85, and State Highway 7, three corridors that each carry a distinct mix of commercial freight, agricultural equipment, and commuter traffic through a city of about 40,000 people. US-85 is Brighton's north-south commercial spine, where semi-trucks and heavy freight share lanes with passenger vehicles at intersections that pedestrians must cross. I-76 runs east-west through Adams County, with on-ramp and off-ramp zones adjacent to the city where merging traffic and pedestrian crossings on frontage roads create conflicting movements. SH-7 connects Brighton with surrounding Front Range communities and sees speed-transition hazards where highway-conditioned drivers encounter crossings in commercial and residential zones. The places where these corridors cross each other and cross Brighton's local street grid are where pedestrian accident severity tends to be highest and where fault is most often disputed.

Your team

The Brighton pedestrian accident team behind your case

CGH Injury Lawyers is a eight-attorney Colorado firm founded in 2016, formerly Cheney Galluzzi and Howard. Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and has tried over 25 cases to verdict. Timothy G. Tarr has been recognized by Best Lawyers every year since 2023. Pedestrian accident cases require fast action: scene investigation, traffic camera preservation, and reconstruction analysis all need to happen before evidence disappears. Our team moves immediately on all three. Every Brighton pedestrian case is handled by a licensed Colorado attorney who files and tries cases in the 17th Judicial District, not by a paralegal.

ABOTA member on the team Tim Tarr: Best Lawyers in America since 2023 Over 25 cases to verdict 17th Judicial District experience Bilingual EN / ES Free consultation No fee unless we win

One thing we will tell you upfront: CGH Injury Lawyers does not have a Brighton office. We serve Brighton pedestrian accident clients from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We come to you for meetings when needed, file at the Adams County District Court in Brighton, and try cases in the 17th Judicial District. What you get is the investigation and the result, not a storefront on a Brighton street.

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Frequently asked questions

Brighton pedestrian accident frequently asked questions

How long do I have to file a pedestrian accident lawsuit in Brighton?

Colorado gives you three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit when a motor vehicle struck you as a pedestrian (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). That deadline runs from the day of the collision. If a government entity such as the City of Brighton, Adams County, or a CDOT vehicle contributed to the accident, you must also serve a written notice of claim within 182 days of discovering the injury under C.R.S. 24-10-109(1), or the claim against that entity is barred entirely. Traffic camera footage from Brighton's US-85 and I-76 corridors can disappear in a matter of days, so starting the investigation early is critical.

What if the driver who struck me in Brighton had no insurance or fled the scene?

Your own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage can apply to pedestrian accidents even though you were not in a vehicle at the time. If the driver had too little insurance to cover your full damages, your underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage fills the gap. Colorado UM/UIM claims are governed by C.R.S. 13-80-107.5 under Pham v. State Farm, 2013 CO 17. We also investigate whether the vehicle's owner, an employer, or another third party shares responsibility for the harm.

Can I recover if I was crossing outside a marked crosswalk on US-85 or SH-7?

Yes, in many cases. Colorado's modified comparative fault rule under C.R.S. 13-21-111 lets you recover as long as you were less than 50 percent at fault, and your damages award is reduced by your share of responsibility. Mid-block crossings under C.R.S. 42-4-803 place a duty to yield on the pedestrian, but a driver who was speeding, distracted, impaired, or had time and distance to stop can still carry the majority of fault. We use accident reconstruction and witness testimony to challenge the inflated fault percentages that insurers routinely assign to pedestrians in order to reduce payouts on Adams County claims.

Does Colorado cap what a Brighton pedestrian accident victim can recover?

Economic damages such as medical bills, lost wages, and future care costs are never capped in Colorado. Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are capped at $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Compensation for physical impairment and disfigurement carries no cap at all, which is why serious pedestrian cases involving permanent disability or lasting scarring often build the core of their claim value in those uncapped categories. If a government entity is involved, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act separately caps recovery at $505,000 per person and $1,421,000 per occurrence for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2026 (C.R.S. 24-10-114).

Where would my Brighton pedestrian accident lawsuit be filed?

A Brighton pedestrian accident case above the county-court jurisdictional limit is filed in the 17th Judicial District at the Adams County District Court, 1100 Judicial Center Dr., Brighton, CO 80601. Brighton is the Adams County seat, so the courthouse is located within the city itself. Most cases settle before any lawsuit is filed, but where a case would be tried affects the local jury pool, the procedural rules, and the defense attorneys who regularly appear there. CGH Injury Lawyers files and tries 17th Judicial District cases directly from our Denver office with no additional cost to Brighton clients.

Does CGH Injury Lawyers have an office in Brighton?

No. CGH Injury Lawyers has one office, at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205, (303) 209-9395. We serve Brighton and Adams County pedestrian accident clients from that office, file cases at the Adams County District Court in Brighton, and meet you wherever is most convenient. There is no additional charge for Brighton clients. We are available in English and Spanish.

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Read next: Colorado pedestrian accident law: what you need to know statewide

CGH Injury Lawyers · 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205 · Serving Brighton and Adams County