When a car strikes a pedestrian, internal injuries are among the most dangerous outcomes a victim can sustain. Internal bleeding and organ damage may cause few symptoms at the scene. Many victims leave a collision without realizing the severity of their condition, only for symptoms to emerge hours or days later when the injury has become life-threatening. Survivors face extended recovery, multiple surgeries, and significant medical expenses.
At Salamati Law, our Los Angeles pedestrian accident attorneys have spent over 28 years securing accountability and compensation for victims of serious collisions. We handle internal injury cases on contingency, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Common Internal Injuries Caused by Pedestrian Accidents
The force of a vehicle collision can damage internal organs without leaving any visible wounds. The following injuries are among the most common and most serious sustained in pedestrian accidents:
- Internal bleeding: Hemorrhage can occur in the abdominal cavity, chest, or retroperitoneal space.
- Splenic laceration: The spleen is highly vulnerable to blunt abdominal trauma and one of the most commonly injured organs in pedestrian collisions. Lacerations may require emergency splenectomy.
- Liver laceration: Blunt force to the upper abdomen can tear liver tissue, causing significant hemorrhage. Severe lacerations often require surgical repair.
- Kidney trauma: Impact to the flank or abdomen can bruise, lacerate, or rupture a kidney, leading to internal bleeding and potential loss of function.
- Pneumothorax: A broken rib can puncture the lung, causing it to collapse partially or fully.
- Blunt abdominal trauma: Compression forces during a collision can rupture the bowel or damage the pancreas; injuries that may not produce symptoms until hours after impact.
- Cardiac contusion: A direct blow to the chest can bruise the heart muscle, disrupting rhythm and cardiac function in ways that may not be apparent at the scene.
- Aortic injury: Traumatic aortic rupture or dissection is among the most immediately fatal injuries a pedestrian can sustain; partial tears may be temporarily stable but require emergency surgical intervention.
If you experience abdominal pain, tenderness, dizziness, unexplained fatigue, or a rapid or weakening pulse in the hours following a collision, seek emergency care immediately.
Why An Internal Injury Is Often Missed
Internal injuries are frequently missed or diagnosed late for reasons that often have little to do with physician error:
- Victims who feel functional at the scene may decline emergency transport, delaying diagnosis by hours or days
- Small lacerations and slow hemorrhages may fall beneath the detection threshold of initial imaging
- Early symptoms, such as fatigue, mild abdominal discomfort, and dizziness, are nonspecific and easily attributed to the trauma of the collision itself.
- Blood pressure may remain stable long enough to mask active internal bleeding during initial evaluation.
By the time symptoms emerge, days may have passed since the collision, creating exactly the causation gaps insurers exploit to dispute your claim.
How Internal Injuries Affect Your Personal Injury Claim
Internal injuries generate some of the highest-value personal injury claims, and some of the most aggressively contested. Emergency surgery, ICU admission, extended hospitalization, and prolonged rehabilitation create substantial medical expenses. Lost income compounds those losses when recovery prevents a return to work for weeks or months.
The delayed diagnosis problem creates an additional legal obstacle. When a victim doesn’t seek treatment until days after a collision, insurers routinely argue that the injury predated the accident or resulted from something else entirely. Closing that causation gap requires prompt legal action, a complete medical record, and often expert testimony linking the collision to the specific injury sustained.
How Salamati Law Can Help You Recover Compensation
Evidence in pedestrian accident cases deteriorates quickly: surveillance footage is overwritten, witnesses become harder to locate, and physical evidence from the scene disappears. We begin investigating immediately after you retain us, preserving the record before it does.
California’s personal injury statute of limitations is generally two years from the date of the accident (CCP §335.1), but waiting compounds the evidentiary challenge. Early retention gives us the best position to build a complete case.
Identifying All Liable Parties
Fault in a pedestrian collision is not always limited to the driver. Depending on the circumstances, liable parties may include a vehicle owner whose negligent entrustment contributed to the accident, an employer whose driver was operating within the scope of employment, or a municipality responsible for dangerous road conditions. We evaluate every potential source of liability before any demand is made.
Potential Compensation
Compensation in internal injury cases reflects both immediate and long-term losses.
Recoverable damages typically include:
- Emergency treatment, surgery, and hospitalization
- Ongoing medical care and rehabilitation
- Lost wages during recovery
- Diminished earning capacity where permanent impairment affects the ability to work
- Pain and suffering, including chronic pain from lasting organ damage
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Emotional distress
What Determines the Value of Your Claim?
The value of your claim depends on several factors, including injury severity, the extent of long-term impairment, total medical expenses, and the impact on earning capacity. Victims whose internal injuries result in permanent organ damage, chronic pain, or an inability to return to work typically recover significantly more than those who make a full recovery.
Our team can assess the full scope of your losses and pursue the maximum compensation available under California law.
Contact a Los Angeles Pedestrian Accident Attorney
If you or a loved one suffered internal injuries after being struck by a negligent driver, you need the services of an experienced Pedestrian Accident Lawyer at Salamati Law. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation today. We know a fair settlement amount based on the severity of your injuries and prognosis. While most pedestrian accident claims are settled, we will take your case to trial if the defendant’s insurance company fails to agree to a reasonable settlement amount.
