Pedestrian struck on I-35: right of way is a rule, not a verdict
FOX 4 reported a collision involving a person on foot on I-35 in Dallas on August 17, 2025. Someone was killed. We had no involvement in it and we are not going to speculate about the facts. What we can do is set out the legal questions an incident of this kind raises in Texas, because families dealing with one are usually working it out from scratch at the worst possible moment.
Right of way is a rule, not a verdict
When someone on foot is struck, the first argument is almost always about where they were walking. Texas sets out where a person may and may not be on the roadway, and breaking that rule matters — it is evidence, and a jury weighs it.
What it is not is an automatic bar. Texas divides fault by percentage. A person on foot who should not have been there can carry a substantial share and still recover, reduced by that share, provided it does not exceed half. Above that, recovery disappears entirely.
The driver’s duty does not switch off
A driver with the right of way still has to exercise ordinary care, and Texas law obliges drivers to take care to avoid striking a person on the roadway. In practice, these questions decide the case:
- Speed that was reasonable for the light, weather and traffic — not merely legal.
- Attention. Phone and infotainment records establish what the driver was doing.
- Sight distance. Lighting, road geometry and headlight aim, all measurable.
- Reaction. Whether the vehicle braked at all, and when, is usually recoverable from its own data.
- Impairment, which shifts the analysis sharply.
Evidence with a short life
Debris is swept, vehicles are repaired or sold with their data intact, and camera footage is overwritten on cycles measured in days. Scene conditions themselves change — a burned-out street light gets replaced, and with it the best explanation of why a driver did not see anyone.
When someone does not survive
Texas limits wrongful death claims to a defined group — the surviving spouse, the children, and the parents of the person who died. They may file individually or together. Siblings cannot bring a wrongful death claim, however close they were. If no family member has filed within three months of the death, the estate’s representative may do so.
Two claims usually arise from one death. The wrongful death claim belongs to the family and covers what they lost: financial support, companionship, mental anguish, lost inheritance, household services. The survival claim belongs to the estate and covers what the person suffered before death, along with medical and funeral expenses.
Where the conduct exceeded ordinary negligence, Texas also permits exemplary damages, subject to a higher burden of proof and statutory limits.
Finding the insurance is often the case
In serious collisions, liability is frequently obvious and the real work is establishing what coverage exists. Texas requires only modest minimum liability limits, and a single hospital admission can exceed them.
- Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which exists for exactly this gap.
- Medical payments or PIP, which pays regardless of fault and arrives early.
- An employer’s policy, if the at-fault driver was working at the time.
- Commercial or umbrella policies sitting behind a personal one.
- A vehicle owner who entrusted the car to someone unfit to drive it.
One warning that costs people real money: do not settle with the at-fault driver’s insurer without your own underinsured carrier’s written consent. Doing so can void that larger claim.
A note on timing
None of the steps above require hiring anyone. They preserve options, and options are what disappear quietly in the first month while a family is dealing with everything else. The conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing; what it does is tell you which clocks are running.
Reporting that prompted this post
We write about incidents reported in the local press to explain the legal questions they raise. We don’t represent anyone involved unless we say so.
Our injury attorneys serving Garland handle matters like this every day. The case review is free.
This post is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it doesn’t make us your attorneys. Every case turns on its own facts.
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