The first thing most people hurt crossing a Bakersfield street are told is that it was their own fault. Sometimes an officer says it at the scene. More often it is the driver’s insurance adjuster, a few days later, asking where exactly you were standing and whether you were in a crosswalk. The question sounds procedural. It is not.
Being outside a crosswalk does not relieve the driver of anything, and the Vehicle Code says so in its own words. Section 21954 requires a pedestrian outside a crosswalk to yield, and then subdivision (b) states that “the provisions of this section shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.” Since January 2023 the same section goes further: an officer “shall not stop a pedestrian” for it at all unless a reasonably careful person would realize a collision was about to happen. So the thing the adjuster is building their file around is, in most cases, no longer even a stop, and it never was a defense.
Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting for injured people in California. We work on contingency, we advance the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we win. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour, including tonight.
Does Crossing Outside a Crosswalk End My Claim?
No, and it is worth being precise about why, because this is where most pedestrian claims are won or lost.
Vehicle Code 21954 has three parts and almost everyone is only told about the first.
(a) is the part you have heard. A pedestrian on a roadway outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk must yield to vehicles “so near as to constitute an immediate hazard.”
(b) is the part that matters to your claim. In the statute’s own words, that duty “shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.” The driver’s obligation does not switch off because of where you were.
(c) is new, and it changed the ground in 2023. Under the Freedom To Walk Act, AB 2147, a peace officer “shall not stop a pedestrian” for crossing outside a crosswalk unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of a collision. The same amendment made the same change to Vehicle Code 21955, which covers crossing between two signaled intersections. Both sections then repeat, twice each, that none of this relieves a driver of the duty of care.
The practical consequence is that many people struck outside a crosswalk in Bakersfield since 2023 were never cited, and the absence of a citation is a fact worth putting in front of an adjuster who is implying otherwise. Both sections write the limit in terms of “a moving vehicle or other device moving exclusively by human power”, so the same reasoning reaches someone struck while riding as well as someone on foot.
Where you genuinely share some fault, California reduces the claim rather than ending it. If a case is worth $400,000 and you are found 25 percent responsible, you recover $300,000. An adjuster’s percentage is an opening position, not a finding.
When Does a Driver Have to Yield?
Vehicle Code 21950 requires a driver to yield to a pedestrian crossing “within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection.”
Unmarked crosswalk is the phrase that decides a lot of these cases and that almost nobody knows. A crosswalk exists at an intersection whether or not anyone has painted lines on it. Being at a corner with no paint does not put you outside a crosswalk, and a driver who did not yield there was required to.
The section also carries duties running the other way: a pedestrian may not suddenly leave a curb into the path of a vehicle that is close enough to be an immediate hazard, and may not unnecessarily stop or delay traffic while in a crosswalk. Those are real, and they are the provisions a defense will reach for.
Were you told you were jaywalking?
Since 2023 an officer cannot even stop you for it unless a collision was imminent. Find out what that means for your claim.
Pedestrian Injuries in Bakersfield Are Rising
This is not an impression. The California Office of Traffic Safety publishes crash rankings for every city, drawn from statewide collision data, and Bakersfield is measured against the 15 California cities with populations over 250,000. In these tables a rank of 1 is the worst.
Pedestrians killed or injured in Bakersfield, by year:
| Year | Pedestrians killed or injured | Rank of 15 similar cities |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 112 | 8 of 15 |
| 2021 | 135 | 8 of 15 |
| 2022 | 136 | 9 of 15 |
| 2023 | 170 | 7 of 15 |
Four consecutive years, rising every year, and 2023 is the most recent published. The 2023 figure is a 52 percent increase on 2020. Victims under 15 rose from 7 to 15 over the same period.
For context on the same page, total crash victims of every kind in Bakersfield were 1,958 in 2020 and 2,073 in 2023, a rise of under 6 percent. Pedestrian injuries are climbing far faster than crashes generally, which is the fact worth knowing if you were hit walking in this city.
One thing about that number that almost nobody says
Every figure above counts people killed and people injured together. Over the same period the police department reported that pedestrian deaths in the city fell 53% in 2023 against the year before, alongside a 17% drop in fatal crashes overall. The city has also publicised a national study ranking Bakersfield among the safest large cities in the country for pedestrians on a per-resident basis.
Both pictures are real, and they are measuring different things. More people are being struck and hurt. Fewer of them are dying. If an adjuster or an opposing lawyer quotes you the safety ranking, that is what it is measuring, and it says nothing at all about whether the driver who hit you was careless.
What the police department says actually causes fatal crashes here
The department names four factors: speed, driving under the influence, a pedestrian in the roadway, and red-light violations.
Read that third one carefully, because it is the fight in most of these cases. The investigating agency’s own list includes the pedestrian’s presence as a cause, and an insurer will reach for that before it reaches for anything else. It is not a finding about you. Being in the roadway is not the same as being at fault for being there, California reduces a recovery in proportion to fault rather than barring it, and the yield rules below decide far more of these cases than an adjuster’s opening position does.
Who Is Liable Besides the Driver?
Often nobody. Sometimes it matters enormously, because the answer changes your deadline.
A public road or a missing signal. Where the roadway itself contributed, through a failed signal, an obscured sign or a crossing designed badly, the defendant is a public entity: the City of Bakersfield on city streets, Kern County on county roads, or Caltrans on Highway 99, Interstate 5 and State Route 58. That puts the claim on a six-month clock rather than two years. The same question decides who answers for a fall caused by a broken sidewalk, which is a different claim run on the same short deadline.
A bus. A pedestrian struck by a Golden Empire Transit vehicle is making a claim against a public entity, with the same six-month deadline that governs a claim brought by a bus passenger.
A commercial vehicle. A delivery van or a tractor unit brings an employer into the case, and with it the driver files and electronic records that drive a truck accident claim.
A driver who left. 238 people were killed or injured in hit-and-run crashes in Bakersfield in 2023, ranking the city 8th of the 15. An uninsured motorist claim on your own policy can respond even where the driver is never identified, and that is worth checking before assuming there is nothing to pursue. It is also worth knowing that the police department runs a dedicated Hit and Run Detail whose officers follow up on every hit-and-run collision in the city and review every hit-and-run report the traffic and motorcycle officers write. A driver leaving does not mean the file stops moving.
The injuries themselves tend to be severe, because there is nothing between a person and the vehicle. Head trauma is the most commonly under-recorded: someone who was walking and talking at the scene may have a brain injury that only declares itself over the following week, and a normal scan in the emergency room answers the emergency question rather than every question. Where a pedestrian is killed, California restricts who may bring a wrongful death claim, and against a public defendant the six-month rule applies to that claim too.
If you were struck while working, delivering, or crossing between job sites, a claim against the driver may run alongside your workers compensation case, which does not pay for pain and suffering.
How Long Do I Have to File?
Two years from the date of injury for a claim against a private driver, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months to present a written claim to a public entity, under Government Code 911.2, before any lawsuit is possible. This is the one that catches pedestrian cases, because a road defect or a public vehicle does not look different from a private defendant at the moment it hurts you.
Injured children. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while an injured person is under 18. The six-month government claim deadline is not paused in the same way. With pedestrian victims under 15 in Bakersfield having doubled between 2020 and 2023, that distinction is doing real work.
Has the driver’s insurer already blamed you?
Sharing fault reduces a claim in California. It does not end one. Get the number checked before you accept it.
The Report, the Hospital and the Courthouse
Three practical answers, because these are the questions people actually call with.
The report. Traffic collision reports come from the Bakersfield Police Department Records Unit at 1601 Truxtun Avenue, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., for a flat $7. The traffic report request line is (661) 326-3883. The department says reports usually take five to seven business days, and that injury and fatal collision investigations take several days to weeks. A pedestrian struck by a car is in the slower group by definition, so a delay is normal and is not a sign that something is wrong with your case. The officers who investigated it work out of the Traffic Section at 1301 Buena Vista Road, which is not the same address as the counter where the report is sold.
If there is no report because it was filed online, know what you have. The department is explicit that an online report is for documentation and insurance purposes only and does not bring an officer to the scene. You have a case number without an officer’s measurements, photographs or observations. Those have to be rebuilt from cameras, witnesses and vehicle damage, and every one of those has a shelf life.
The hospital. The most serious injuries in this county go to Kern Medical, 1700 Mount Vernon Avenue, a Level II trauma center designated in 2001 and re-verified by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. Where the ambulance took you decides who holds the imaging, the trauma activation record and the first responder narrative, and those are the records the claim runs on. Keep the paperwork from anywhere you were treated, urgent care included.
The courthouse. A pedestrian case seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case and is filed at the Metro Justice Building, 1215 Truxtun Avenue. It is heard in Kern County, before a Kern County jury.
Why Bakersfield Clients Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to drive, or a long way out in the county, we will meet you where you are. Someone who has just been hit by a car should not have to find transport to start a claim.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean. Explaining your own accident in your own words is not a convenience.
The economics are simple. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Bakersfield Pedestrian Accident FAQs
I was not in a crosswalk. Do I still have a case?
Usually yes. Vehicle Code 21954(b) states that a pedestrian’s duty to yield outside a crosswalk “shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.” Where you do share some responsibility, California reduces the recovery by your percentage rather than barring the claim.
Was I even breaking the law by crossing there?
Since January 2023, in most situations, an officer may not stop you for it. AB 2147 amended Vehicle Code 21954 and 21955 so that a peace officer “shall not stop a pedestrian” for crossing outside a crosswalk unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of a collision. If you were not cited, that is worth stating plainly to the insurer.
There were no painted lines at the corner. Does that mean I was not in a crosswalk?
An unmarked crosswalk still exists at an intersection. Vehicle Code 21950 requires a driver to yield to a pedestrian “within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection”, so the absence of paint at a corner does not put you outside a crosswalk.
The driver drove off and was never found. Is there anything left to claim against?
You may still have a route. An uninsured motorist claim under your own policy can respond to a hit and run even where nobody is identified. In 2023, 238 people were killed or injured in hit-and-run crashes in Bakersfield, so this situation is common and it is not a dead end. The police department also has officers assigned specifically to hit and run, and they review every hit-and-run report written in the city.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either. It cannot be raised at trial and it cannot be asked about beforehand. It is not a question we ask you, and it is not a question the other side gets to ask.
Contact a Culver Legal Bakersfield Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
The version of events that reaches the insurer first tends to stick, and in pedestrian cases that version is usually the driver’s. Scene photographs, nearby business cameras and witness details all have a short life. If you were struck while walking anywhere in Bakersfield or Kern County, reach us at (310) 600-7881, at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
