KTAR News reported that federal prosecutors said an FBI agent drove a government car the wrong way down a busy Brooklyn thoroughfare, ran a red light and struck a pedestrian before speeding away, and that the agent later lied to investigators about the February 3 hit-and-run, which prosecutors said left the victim seriously injured. No one has been convicted, and the allegations remain allegations.
When a pedestrian in Arizona is struck by a vehicle driven by a government employee, the claim follows a different and much shorter clock than an ordinary crash. Under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, a person with a claim against an Arizona public entity or a public employee must serve a written notice of claim within 180 days of when the cause of action accrues, and that notice must state a specific sum the claimant will accept. Miss that window and the claim is barred, no matter how clear the liability. Suits against the state or its employees must then be filed within one year. Claims involving federal employees driving federal vehicles run through the Federal Tort Claims Act instead, which requires an administrative claim to the employing agency before any lawsuit. The ordinary two-year personal injury deadline in A.R.S. § 12-542 applies to private drivers, so identifying who employed the driver, and whether the vehicle was government owned, is the first task.
A Driver Who Leaves the Scene in Arizona
A.R.S. § 28-661 requires a driver involved in a crash resulting in injury or death to stop immediately at the scene, remain there, and provide identifying information and reasonable assistance. Leaving is a felony. That statute matters to an injured pedestrian in two ways. First, a violation can be used as evidence of negligence in a civil case. Second, the criminal investigation often produces the physical evidence a civil claim depends on, including vehicle damage records, surveillance footage and statements from the driver.
If the driver is never identified, the uninsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy, or on a resident family member's policy, can still pay. Pedestrians are covered by their own uninsured motorist coverage even though they were walking. Report the incident to your own insurer promptly; most policies require prompt notice and cooperation, and delay gives the carrier an argument.
Right of Way and Shared Fault
A.R.S. § 28-792 requires drivers to yield to a pedestrian lawfully in a crosswalk on the driver's half of the roadway or approaching closely enough to be in danger. A.R.S. § 28-793 addresses pedestrians crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk, who must yield to vehicles. Insurers lean hard on the second statute to argue the pedestrian was at fault.
Being partly at fault does not end an Arizona claim. A.R.S. § 12-2505 is a pure comparative fault rule: recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, but it is not eliminated, even at a high percentage. A pedestrian found 40 percent responsible can still recover 60 percent of proven damages. That is why an adjuster's early insistence that you were jaywalking is a negotiating position, not a legal conclusion.
What to Do in the First Weeks
Get evaluated medically even if you think you can walk it off; head and internal injuries are routinely missed in the first hours, and a gap in treatment becomes an argument that you were not hurt. Request the police report number before you leave the scene or from the responding agency afterward. Photograph your injuries as they change, not just on day one, and keep every bill, discharge instruction and work absence note.
Do not give a recorded statement to the other side's insurer or to a government claims office before you understand the deadlines that apply. If a government vehicle or on-duty employee may be involved, treat the 180-day notice requirement in A.R.S. § 12-821.01 as the operative date on your calendar, not the two-year deadline in A.R.S. § 12-542. Where a pedestrian does not survive, A.R.S. § 12-611 through A.R.S. § 12-613 govern who may bring a wrongful death claim and what the family may recover, and A.R.S. § 14-3110 governs the separate survival claim belonging to the estate.
If you were struck while walking in Arizona, our Arizona pedestrian accident practice page explains how these claims are built and what the deadlines mean for your case.