Struck as a Pedestrian and Facing an Amputation? Understand Your Claim Before You Decide Next Steps

Amputee Pedestrian Hit by Car Albuquerque Lawyer

If you are an amputee pedestrian hit by a car in Albuquerque, you may have a claim against the people responsible. This page explains who can be responsible, how New Mexico judges fault, what damages can include, and which deadlines matter most. It can help you know what to ask and what to do first.

What an Amputee Pedestrian Claim Covers and Who It Is For

An amputee pedestrian claim covers a person who lost a limb after a vehicle struck them. After a fatal crash, it can also cover family members. These cases often start when a person crosses a street, walks along a road, or steps out from a parking lot and a driver fails to stop or yield. Some involve commercial trucks or work vehicles.

El Gringo Law handles car accidents, trucking accidents, premises liability, wrongful death, amputations, and catastrophic injuries. This page covers those matters together because one crash often touches several of them.

You can contact the firm in the first weeks, while medical decisions and insurance calls are piling up. You can ask questions while you are still in treatment. You do not need to decide on a lawsuit first.

What Damages May Include in an Amputation Claim

Damages can include past and future medical costs, prosthetic care, lost income, and pain and loss of enjoyment of life. The exact items vary by case.

• Medical care: emergency treatment, surgery, hospital stays, and follow-up visits.
• Prosthetics and mobility: artificial limbs, fittings, repairs, replacements over time, and wheelchairs or other aids.
• Rehabilitation: therapy needed to learn daily tasks again.
• Home and vehicle changes: ramps, bathroom changes, or vehicle modifications a lost limb may require.
• Lost income: wages lost during recovery, and lost ability to earn if you cannot return to the same work.
• Pain and loss of enjoyment: daily limits, lost activities, and emotional strain, shown through medical records and testimony.

Limb loss often brings lifelong needs.

After a death, damages can include funeral costs and the losses of surviving family. A close family member may have losses of their own. Under Thompson v. City of Albuquerque, loss of consortium damages belong to that family member, not to the injured person or the estate.

Who May Be Responsible for a Pedestrian Struck by a Vehicle

A driver is often the first party people think of. Other parties can also be responsible, depending on how the crash happened.

• The driver, when speeding, distraction, impairment, or failure to yield caused the crash.
• A trucking company or vehicle owner, when a driver was on the job or an owner allowed an incompetent driver to use the vehicle. Under DeMatteo v. Simon, negligent entrustment requires that the owner entrusted the vehicle, knew or should have known the driver was incompetent, and that incompetence caused the injury.
• A property owner, when a parking lot, driveway, or walkway played a role.
• A government entity, when a road, crosswalk, or signal is involved. The waiver of immunity in Section 41-4-11 of the New Mexico Statutes for negligence by public employees during the construction and subsequent maintenance of a bridge, culvert, highway, roadway, street, alley, sidewalk or parking area excludes liability for damages caused by a defect in the plan or design of the structure, by a failure to construct or reconstruct it, or by a deviation from standard geometric design practices allowed on a case-by-case basis for appropriate cultural, ecological, economic, environmental, right-of-way through Indian lands, historical or technical reasons, but only if that deviation is required by extraordinary circumstances, has been approved by the governing authority, and is reasonable and necessary as determined by the application of sound engineering principles.

When several liability applies, Section 41-3A-1 of the New Mexico Statutes limits a defendant who shows that someone else’s fault was a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury to the share of the total damages awarded that equals that defendant’s ratio of fault to the total fault attributed to all persons, including plaintiffs, defendants and persons not party to the action. Claims against public bodies also follow a shorter notice rule, covered below.

How Fault Is Decided in a New Mexico Pedestrian Case

New Mexico uses comparative negligence, so when it is an issue in the lawsuit, a jury assigns a percentage of fault to each person named in the instruction (the plaintiff, defendants, or non-parties), and those percentages may be zero for a person who was not negligent. The injured person’s damages are reduced by their own share. The UJI committee commentary for this instruction notes that comparative negligence was adopted in New Mexico in the case of Scott v. Rizzo.

When more than one person is at fault, UJI 13-2219 NMRA has the jury set a percentage for each person whose negligence caused the harm. A negligence claim generally requires a duty, a breach of that duty, and a breach that is a proximate cause of the harm. See Herrera v. Quality Pontiac.

Insurers often argue that the pedestrian was outside a crosswalk. Section 66-7-335 of the New Mexico Statutes requires a pedestrian who crosses a roadway anywhere other than within a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection to yield the right of way to all vehicles on the roadway. Where traffic-control signals are not in place or not operating, Section 66-7-334 of the New Mexico Statutes sets a duty for drivers to yield the right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk crossing the roadway, slowing down or stopping if needed to do so.

Evidence that often matters includes:

• The police report and witness statements
• Traffic and business camera footage
• Vehicle data and scene photographs
• Medical records that tie the injuries to the crash

Deadlines and Time-Sensitive Steps

Section 37-1-8 of the New Mexico Statutes sets a two-year deadline for bringing an action against sureties on official bonds and on bonds of guardians, conservators, personal representatives and persons acting in a fiduciary capacity, running from the time the liability of the principal or the person for whom they are sureties is finally established or determined by a judgment or decree of the court, and a three-year deadline for an action for an injury to the person or reputation of any person. A wrongful death action must also be brought within three years, and that period starts on the date of death under NMSA 1978, § 41-2-2.

Claims against a state or local public body follow a much shorter clock. Section 41-4-16 of the New Mexico Statutes requires anyone claiming damages from the state or a local public body under the Tort Claims Act to present a written notice of the time, place and circumstances of the loss or injury within ninety days after an occurrence giving rise to a claim for which immunity has been waived under the Tort Claims Act, but under subsection B the time for giving notice does not include the time, not exceeding ninety days, during which the injured person is incapacitated from giving the notice by reason of injury. For a wrongful death claim against a public body, the required notice may be presented by, or on behalf of, the deceased person’s personal representative, any person claiming benefits of the proceeds of a wrongful death action, or the consular officer of a foreign country of which the deceased was a citizen, within six months after the date of the occurrence of the injury that resulted in the death. If the deceased person had already presented a notice that would have been sufficient had they lived, no additional notice is needed. Actual notice excuses written notice when the governmental entity had actual notice of the occurrence, under Lopez v. State.

Early steps can protect your claim:

• Keep every medical, prosthetic, and rehabilitation record.
• Preserve clothing, phone records, and damaged equipment.
• Write down witness names and contact details.
• Avoid posting about the crash or your injuries online.

Video can be overwritten on a schedule, so early requests matter.

What Happens After You Contact El Gringo Law

After you reach out, the firm reviews your facts, investigates, builds the damages picture, and then negotiates or prepares to file suit.

1. You reach out. Describe the crash date, place, and injuries in your own words.
2. First consultation. The firm reviews the facts, the injuries, and possible defendants with you.
3. Investigation. The team collects the police report, witness information, footage, and vehicle records, and requests medical records.
4. Damages picture. The team works with treating doctors and prosthetic and rehabilitation providers to document care and future needs.
5. Negotiation and next steps. The team talks with insurers or responsible parties. If a fair resolution is not reached, it prepares to file suit. Timelines vary by case, and the firm explains each stage as it happens.

Why Work With El Gringo Law on an Amputation Case

El Gringo Law handles the matters on this page, and Josh Wood is the responsible lawyer for this page.

• Josh Wood is licensed in New Mexico and Arizona. He handles car accident, trucking, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death matters.
• Our team handles intake, records, and client communication.
• Serious-injury documentation matters in these cases. Prosthetics, long-term care, and lost earning capacity need careful records.
• Trucking cases may involve federal limits on driving time. Under 49 CFR § 395.3, property-carrying drivers have an 11-hour driving limit and a 14-hour window, so logs should be requested early.

Every case is different. Nothing on this page predicts how your case will turn out.

Common Questions About Amputee Pedestrian Claims

Talk With a New Mexico Lawyer About Your Amputation Claim

If a vehicle struck you or someone you love and a limb was lost, the coming weeks bring medical decisions, insurance calls, and evidence that can disappear. Contact El Gringo Law through the contact form, by phone, or by starting a chat. Ask to schedule a first consultation with Josh Wood and our team. You can also visit elgringolaw.com.