Halloween Night, Then The Clocks Fall Back: When A Pedestrian Is Hit After Dark In Connecticut

About a week after she was hit in a crosswalk on Whalley Avenue, a woman gets a call from the driver's insurance adjuster. The adjuster asks how she is feeling. Then the questions turn to her. What color was her coat? Was she carrying a light? Was she looking at her phone? Did she wait for the walk signal?

Those questions preview the argument the insurer may make, that she was hard to see and the crash was her fault. Being hard to see in the dark does not by itself end a pedestrian's claim in Connecticut, though it can reduce the recovery. The law asks both the driver and the pedestrian to use reasonable care, and fault usually turns on what each of them did in the moments before the crash.

Why Halloween And The Clock Change Matter

Halloween falls on Saturday, October 31, 2026, and daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. the next morning, Sunday, November 1, under federal law. That means a Saturday night with children and adults walking neighborhood streets after dark, followed by a Monday commute home that now ends after sunset.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's report Pedestrians: 2024 Data:

• 76 percent of pedestrian deaths in 2024 happened in the dark.
• In the fall months, September through November, 29 percent of pedestrian deaths happened between 6 and 8:59 p.m., more than in any other three-hour window.
• 24 percent of the pedestrians killed were struck by hit-and-run drivers.

In Connecticut, NHTSA counted 61 pedestrian deaths in 2024, about 20 percent of the 310 people killed in traffic crashes in the state that year. That was up from 47 in 2023.

What Connecticut Law Asks Of Drivers

At a crosswalk without a signal or a police officer, marked or unmarked, C.G.S. § 14-300(c) requires a driver to yield, slowing or stopping if necessary, to a pedestrian crossing within the crosswalk. A pedestrian counts as crossing once they are in any part of the crosswalk, or when they step to the curb at the entrance and raise a hand and arm toward oncoming traffic, or move any part of their body, or something like a cane, stroller or leashed dog, into the entrance. A driver also may not pass another car that has stopped at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross.

Where there are signals, a pedestrian who has started or is starting across has the right of way over all vehicles, including turning vehicles, until reaching the opposite curb or a safety zone, under C.G.S. § 14-300(b). The pedestrian, though, must cross only as the signals allow.

On any road, C.G.S. § 14-300d requires every driver to use due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian, and to give a reasonable warning with the horn or another lawful warning device to avoid a collision. That duty applies even when the pedestrian was not in a crosswalk.

A separate statute, C.G.S. § 14-300i, allows a fine of up to $1,000 for a driver on a public way who fails to use reasonable care and causes substantial bodily harm, serious physical injury or death to a pedestrian or other vulnerable user who was using reasonable care. That fine is a penalty; it does not compensate the person who was hurt.

Drivers also owe more care around children. Connecticut's civil jury instructions say a person must use greater care where the presence of children may reasonably be expected, and that jurors may consider children's tendency to disregard dangerous conditions. On a residential street in East Rock or Westville on Halloween evening, a jury may expect a driver to anticipate children stepping out between parked cars.

What Connecticut Law Asks Of Pedestrians

A pedestrian crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk generally must yield to vehicles, under C.G.S. § 14-300b. Under C.G.S. § 14-300c, a pedestrian must use the sidewalk where one is provided and practicable to use. Where there is no sidewalk, the pedestrian must walk on the shoulder, and where there is neither a sidewalk nor a shoulder on a two-way road, on the left side. Pedestrians also may not suddenly step into the path of a car that is too close to stop.

In a civil case over a crash, breaking one of these rules does not automatically make someone negligent. Negligence per se is the doctrine that breaking certain safety statutes is generally treated as negligence in itself. Section 14-300(g) says that doctrine does not apply to the crosswalk rule in § 14-300(c), the rule protecting pedestrians who are blind in § 14-300(d), or §§ 14-300b to 14-300d. So under those rules, showing that you crossed outside a crosswalk does not automatically prove you were at fault, and showing that the driver failed to yield does not automatically prove the driver was. The jury still decides whether each person acted with reasonable care under the circumstances.

A child is not held to an adult standard. Connecticut's jury instructions tell jurors to judge a child by the care reasonably expected of children of similar age, judgment and experience. That can matter if an insurer argues that a trick-or-treater ran into the street.

When An Insurer Blames Your Dark Clothing

An insurer may argue that dark clothing made the pedestrian partly at fault, or that the driver could not reasonably have avoided the crash. The first is a comparative negligence argument. Under C.G.S. § 52-572h, a pedestrian who was partly at fault can still recover, but their damages are reduced by their own percentage of fault. If their share is greater than the combined fault of the people they seek to recover from, including settled or released parties, they recover nothing.

A jury can weigh what the pedestrian was wearing along with what the driver could have seen and done. A few details can make a major difference:

• the driver's speed, and whether it was reasonable for a dark street with people walking
• whether the headlights were on and working
• whether the driver was looking at a phone or a screen
• the streetlights, the storefront lighting and the weather
• where the pedestrian was, and how long they had been in the road before the impact

NHTSA advises pedestrians to wear reflective materials or use a flashlight at night. If you were hit while wearing dark clothes, though, do not assume the insurer's first argument decides your claim.

If A Driver Hits You And Drives Off

Call 911 and report the crash right away. Write down anything you remember about the car, its color, its direction and any part of the plate, and ask anyone nearby what they saw.

Your own auto insurance, or a household relative's, may cover the injury. Connecticut requires every auto liability policy to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. The Connecticut Supreme Court has held that this coverage protects the insured person, not just the car, so it can apply whether the insured was driving, riding as a passenger or walking. In Streitweiser v. Middlesex Mutual Assurance Co., 219 Conn. 371 (1991), the Court held that the required coverage extends to an accident caused by an unidentified hit-and-run driver, even when the unidentified vehicle never made physical contact. Whether a particular policy covers you depends on how it defines who is insured. Notify the insurer promptly and follow the policy's notice requirements.

Under C.G.S. § 14-224, a driver who knows they were involved in a crash that injures someone must stop, give any help needed and give their name, address, license and registration information. Leaving without doing so can be a crime, and if the police later identify the driver, you may also have a claim directly against that driver.

What To Do In The Days After A Pedestrian Crash

Get medical care, even if you walked away. If the other driver's insurer asks for a recorded statement, talk with a lawyer before you agree to give one. Then protect the evidence:

• Ask nearby homes and businesses promptly whether they have video, and request that it be preserved. A lawyer can send a preservation request.
• Keep your clothes and shoes as they are. They can show where the car hit you and what a driver could have seen.
• Photograph the scene after dark, under lighting and weather conditions as close as possible to those at the crash.
• If a broken sidewalk or a defect in the road played a part, a claim against a town or the state can require written notice within 90 days, much sooner than a claim against a driver.

A negligence lawsuit against a driver generally must be filed within two years from when the injury was first sustained or discovered, or reasonably should have been discovered, and generally no more than three years after the act or omission complained of, though narrow exceptions can apply. That deadline generally applies to a child's claim too; Connecticut law does not pause it until the child turns 18. If a teenager was driving a parent's car, our article on Connecticut's family car doctrine explains when the owner may also be responsible.

If you or your child was hit by a car while walking in Greater New Haven, our personal injury attorneys can review what happened and explain your options. Contact our office for a free consultation.