The injuries pedestrians suffer in car accidents are shaped by physics more than by luck. A person on foot has no frame, no airbag, no belt, and no crumple zone. All of the energy in the collision goes somewhere, and where it goes depends on the height of the vehicle’s front end, the speed at the moment of contact, and the pedestrian’s position when they were struck.
Understanding that sequence matters for more than medical reasons. The injuries themselves become evidence, and in Oklahoma City cases where a driver insists the pedestrian appeared out of nowhere, the pattern of injuries is often the thing that contradicts them.
What Happens to the Body When a Vehicle Strikes Someone on Foot?
A pedestrian struck by a car is usually hit three times in about a second: once by the bumper, once by the hood or windshield, and once by the pavement. Each contact injures a different part of the body, which is why pedestrian injuries fall into a recognizable pattern. That pattern also tells investigators how fast the vehicle was moving.
Three Impacts, Not One
Most pedestrian collisions involve a sequence rather than a single blow, and the sequence explains why someone can have a broken leg, a shoulder injury, and a head injury from the same crash.
The first impact: bumper to leg
The front bumper strikes first, and on a sedan it strikes at roughly knee height. This produces the fractures most closely associated with pedestrian crashes: tibia and fibula fractures, knee ligament damage, and femur fractures in higher-speed contacts.
Where the fracture sits on the leg often indicates the height of the striking surface, which is one reason treating records get read closely later.
The second impact: hood and windshield
The force of that first contact typically sweeps the person’s legs out from under them and rotates the upper body onto the vehicle. The pelvis or hip strikes the leading edge of the hood, and the torso, shoulder, and head follow onto the hood surface or the windshield.
This is where the serious injuries usually happen. Traumatic brain injuries, skull fractures, rib fractures, collapsed lungs, spinal injuries, and abdominal organ damage most often come from this phase rather than from the initial bumper strike.
The third impact: the ground
The person then comes off the vehicle and hits the pavement, sometimes after being carried on the hood for a distance. Head injuries, facial fractures, wrist and forearm fractures from bracing, and spine injuries frequently originate here.
A pedestrian can sustain two separate head impacts in one collision, one on the vehicle and one on the road. That possibility is worth mentioning to the emergency department, because it changes how they evaluate.
Why Vehicle Height Changes the Injury
The taller the front end, the worse the outcome, and the research on this is specific. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analyzed nearly 18,000 crashes involving a single vehicle and a single pedestrian and found that vehicles with a hood more than 40 inches off the ground at the leading edge were 45% more likely to kill the pedestrian than vehicles with hood heights of 30 inches or less.
The mechanism is straightforward. A low front end strikes the legs and rotates the body up onto the hood, which absorbs some energy. A high, blunt front end strikes the pelvis or torso directly and pushes the person forward and down, often underneath the vehicle rather than over it.
In a metro area where pickups and full-size SUVs make up a large share of traffic, this is not an abstract point. The same crash at the same speed produces meaningfully different injuries depending on what hit the person.
How Much Does Speed Change the Outcome?
Enormously, and not in a straight line. Research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety measured the relationship directly:
| Impact speed | Risk of severe injury | Risk of death |
|---|---|---|
| 16 mph | 10% | Under 10% |
| 23 mph | 25% | 10% |
| 31 mph | 50% | Around 20% |
| 32 mph | Over 50% | 25% |
| 39 mph | 75% | Around 40% |
| 42 mph | Over 75% | 50% |
| 46 mph | 90% | Around 60% |
| 50 mph | Over 90% | 75% |
The same research found that age compounds the effect. A 70-year-old pedestrian struck at 25 mph faces roughly the risk a 30-year-old faces at 35 mph.
Ten miles per hour is the difference between a survivable injury and a fatal one across most of that range, which is why speed evidence is usually the most contested issue in a serious pedestrian case.
Why Darkness Matters So Much
Most fatal pedestrian crashes happen after dark. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows 77% of pedestrian deaths occurred in darkness, with only 19% in daylight, and half of all pedestrian fatalities fall in the hours between 6:00 p.m. and midnight.
Oklahoma City’s own findings line up. The OKC Vision Zero Plan, adopted by the City Council in February 2025, reports that most traffic fatalities in the city occur on streets where speeds are 45 miles per hour or above, or on streets with limited lighting.
That combination, wide arterials posted at 45 and gaps in street lighting, describes a lot of the metro. It also sets up the argument defense attorneys make most often in these cases, which is that the pedestrian was invisible and the driver could not have avoided it.
What the Injury Pattern Proves About the Crash
This is where the medicine becomes evidence, and it is the first thing AP Injury Lawyers looks at in a disputed pedestrian case.
Injury location tells a reconstructionist where on the vehicle the contact occurred, which tells them where in the road the pedestrian was standing. Injuries concentrated on one side of the body indicate the person was struck from that side, meaning they were moving across the lane rather than stepping directly into it.
Fracture height on the leg indicates the height of the striking surface. The severity of the injuries taken together correlates with impact speed, which can contradict a driver’s estimate of how fast they were going. Whether the person went over the vehicle or under it says something about both speed and front-end geometry.
A driver who reports traveling 30 miles per hour in a crash that produced injuries consistent with a much higher speed has a problem, and the medical records are where that problem shows up. Vehicle damage, the throw distance, and any event data recorded by the car fill in the rest.
Where Does Fault Land If the Pedestrian Was Not in a Crosswalk?
Not automatically on the pedestrian. This is the most common misunderstanding in these cases.
Oklahoma does require a pedestrian crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk to yield the right of way to vehicles under 47 O.S. § 11-503. That is a real duty and it matters.
It is not the end of the analysis, because 47 O.S. § 11-504 begins with the word “notwithstanding.” It provides that notwithstanding the other provisions in the chapter, “every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian upon any roadway,” must sound the horn when necessary, and must exercise proper precaution upon observing any child or any confused or incapacitated person on a roadway.
The driver’s duty survives the pedestrian’s violation. Oklahoma then splits the fault by percentage, and recovery is barred only when the injured person’s share is greater than the combined share of everyone else. A pedestrian who was 40% at fault for crossing mid-block still has a claim.
What Oklahoma's Numbers Look Like
Oklahoma recorded 87 pedestrian deaths in a recent reporting year, accounting for 12.1% of the state’s total traffic fatalities, at a rate of 2.15 per 100,000 residents. That rate sits just below the national figure of 2.18.
Nationally, NHTSA reports 7,080 pedestrians killed and more than 71,000 injured in 2024, which works out to one pedestrian death every 74 minutes. The agency’s detailed pedestrian data also shows that 84% of pedestrian deaths happen in urban areas rather than rural ones.
What Tends to Help in the First Weeks
A few things are easier to do early than later.
Getting a full trauma evaluation matters more for pedestrians than for vehicle occupants, because internal injuries and brain injuries are common and neither one announces itself reliably in the first hours. Tell the doctor about every point of contact you remember, including the ground, so the record reflects the full sequence.
The scene itself is worth documenting. Lighting conditions, the position of any parked vehicles, sight lines, and the condition of crosswalk markings all change over time and are difficult to reconstruct later. Photographs taken at the same hour of the same day of the week are more useful than photographs taken at noon.
The striking vehicle also matters. Its front-end damage and any recorded data help establish speed and impact point, and both become unavailable once the vehicle is repaired.
Pedestrian Injury Questions People Ask
I walked away from the scene and felt fine. Can I still have a serious injury?
Yes, and it happens often. Adrenaline masks pain for hours, and internal bleeding, brain injuries, and some spinal injuries develop or become apparent over the following days. A pedestrian who declined transport and later develops symptoms has not lost their claim, though the gap in the record becomes something the other side argues about.
The driver says I stepped out in front of them. Does that end my case?
No. It is an account that has to be tested against the physical evidence, and injury pattern is part of that evidence. Whether you were struck squarely from the front or from the side is a factual question the medicine often helps answer.
My child was hit while crossing to a school bus. Is that treated differently?
The statute requiring drivers to exercise proper precaution upon observing any child on a roadway is directly relevant, and children are held to a different standard of care than adults in negligence cases generally. These cases warrant a conversation with a lawyer early.
Does it matter that the street had no sidewalk?
It can. Oklahoma law addresses where a person may walk when no sidewalk is provided, and it also bears on whether the roadway design contributed. Where a public entity may be involved, a much shorter notice deadline applies than the usual two years, so timing becomes important.
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The Injuries Are Also the Record
Nobody thinks of a hospital chart as evidence while they are lying in one. In a pedestrian case it is often the most detailed account of the crash anyone will ever produce, written by people with no stake in the outcome, hours before any adjuster opens a file.
If you or someone in your family was struck while walking in the Oklahoma City metro, AP Injury Lawyers can look at what the records and the scene actually show. Consultations are free and there is no obligation. Call or text +1 (405) 336-3000, or reach us through our contact page.
