Missoula is a walking town. People cross Higgins on the way to dinner, walk the Hip Strip, move between campus and downtown on foot year-round. Most drivers are careful. The ones who are not are usually looking at a phone, turning without checking, or driving too fast for a dark, wet street.
When one of them hits a person, the physics are entirely one-sided, and so is the story that gets told afterward.
The Defense You Should Expect
In nearly every pedestrian case, the driver's account is some version of they came out of nowhere. It is often given at the scene, while the person who was hit is unconscious or on the way to a hospital and cannot give any account at all. That version then becomes the baseline that everything else gets measured against.
It is worth being clear about something: that is a claim, not a conclusion. The facts frequently do not support it.
Where You Were Crossing Is Not the Whole Case
A lot of injured people talk themselves out of a claim because they were not in a marked crosswalk. That instinct costs them. Crossing outside a crosswalk can affect how fault is divided, but it does not erase a driver's obligation to pay attention and avoid hitting people who are plainly there to be seen.
Montana applies modified comparative negligence (MCA § 27-1-702): you can recover as long as you were 50% or less at fault, with your award reduced by your percentage. So the question is rarely do I have a case and much more often how is responsibility actually divided.
Evidence That Disappears Fast
Pedestrian cases turn on details that do not survive long without someone preserving them:
- Nearby video. Business cameras and doorbell footage routinely overwrite within days.
- Vehicle damage. Where the impact landed on the car often contradicts the driver's account of the angle and the speed.
- Sight lines and lighting. What a driver could actually see at that hour, from that approach, at that speed.
- Witnesses. People who stopped at the scene scatter quickly, and the report does not always capture all of them.
Why These Injuries Are Undervalued
A person on foot absorbs the entire force of the collision, often twice, once from the vehicle and once from the road. Head injuries, pelvic and leg fractures, and internal injuries are common. Those are exactly the injuries whose long tail, the future surgeries, the work you cannot go back to, gets left out of an early settlement offer. If you are still finding out what your recovery looks like, you are not in a position to price it.
Talk to Us First
If you or someone in your family was hit while walking in Missoula or anywhere in Western Montana, get advice before giving the driver's insurer a recorded statement. We handle these on a contingency basis, so there is no upfront cost and no fee unless we recover. Call 406-830-3060.