In June 2025, Tampa Bay 28 reported that a person in a wheelchair was killed crossing US-19 at Trouble Creek Road in New Port Richey, one more name added to a corridor that a 2024 ConsumerAffairs study had already called the deadliest stretch of road in Florida. Seven months earlier, FHP troopers had worked a crash at SR-54 and Grand Boulevard where a propane tanker turning north struck a New Port Richey woman in the crosswalk. Neither person had a bumper, a seat belt or a chance.
Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers represents pedestrians hit by vehicles in New Port Richey, and the families of those who did not survive, from our office at 6609 Ridge Road in Port Richey. Call (240) 421-5511. The consultation is free, and we will come to the hospital.
Where people on foot are hit in New Port Richey
US-19 from Main Street to Marine Parkway. Apartments, mobile home parks and bus stops sit across six lanes from the plazas and pharmacies their residents need. Signalized crossings are spaced far apart, so people cross where they are. FDOT has added LED lighting at the signalized intersections along this stretch and a head-start walk phase at many of them, but the outside lane still moves at highway speed past driveways where turning drivers are watching for cars, not people.
Downtown. Main Street, Grand Boulevard and the blocks around Sims Park draw foot traffic to restaurants and the riverfront in the evening, when drivers leaving the bars share the grid with people walking to their cars. Speeds are low and the injuries are still serious.
Rowan Road. A 45 mph county road through the east side of the city with a senior apartment complex on one side and a pharmacy on the other. Residents told Bay News 9 in 2018 that they wait for a gap and hope; a cyclist was killed there by a hit-and-run driver that year.
SR-54 at Grand Boulevard and Madison Street. These signals carry commercial trucks and commuters across the crosswalks that residents of the neighborhoods south of the highway use to reach the stores on the other side.
Whose insurance pays when you were not in a car
Florida's no-fault system still applies to a pedestrian, and the first question is which PIP policy is yours. If you own an insured vehicle, or live with a relative who does, that household policy pays first, even though you were on foot. If no one in your home owns an insured car, the PIP on the vehicle that hit you generally applies. Either way, you must get initial treatment within 14 days of the crash under Fla. Stat. § 627.736, and a physician's finding of an emergency medical condition is what unlocks the full $10,000 instead of $2,500.
Everything beyond PIP is a claim against the driver and, if the driver carried no bodily injury coverage, against uninsured motorist coverage under Fla. Stat. § 627.727 in your household. Because the claim is against a motor vehicle operator, Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2) requires a permanent injury, significant scarring or death before pain and suffering can be recovered. Fractures, head injuries and spinal injuries from a pedestrian impact usually meet that test, but a treating physician has to say so in the chart. We make sure the question is asked.
The fault fight on a six-lane road
A driver's insurer opens nearly every New Port Richey pedestrian claim the same way: the pedestrian was outside the crosswalk, wearing dark clothes, looking at a phone. Florida's modified comparative negligence rule under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6) makes that argument worth money to them, because every percentage point assigned to you comes off your recovery, and more than 50 percent ends it.
The answer is evidence the insurer does not want gathered:
- Video from the gas stations, pharmacies and plazas that record their US-19 frontage, which overwrites within days.
- The event data recorder in the striking vehicle, which stores speed and braking before impact.
- The driver's phone records, obtained by subpoena once suit is filed.
- Signal timing and lighting records from FDOT or the city for the crossing where you were hit.
- The FHP traffic homicide file in a fatal case, which includes measurements and reconstruction a standard report never contains.
Where you crossed is one fact among many. Call (240) 421-5511 before you give the driver's insurer a statement about it.
Hit-and-run on US-19
Some drivers who hit a pedestrian on US-19 keep going. Leaving a crash involving injury is a felony, and New Port Richey police and FHP pursue these cases, but your claim cannot wait for an arrest. Your household PIP pays regardless of who hit you. Uninsured motorist coverage on your policy or a resident relative's treats an unidentified driver as uninsured and can pay medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering beyond PIP. UM policies require prompt notice to police and to the insurer, so report the crash the same day and call us the next.
We also canvass for cameras. A plate captured by a pharmacy camera at Trouble Creek Road turns a UM claim into a liability claim against a driver with a policy of his own.
The deadline
Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) allows two years from the crash to file a negligence suit, and § 95.11(5)(e) allows two years for a wrongful death claim brought by the estate's personal representative. A claim against FDOT or the City of New Port Richey over the roadway adds a written notice step under Fla. Stat. § 768.28 that runs alongside everything else. None of those dates is the real deadline. The real one is the day the plaza's video system records over the week you were hit.
From the hospital to Ridge Road
Most New Port Richey pedestrians are taken to Morton Plant North Bay Hospital at 6600 Madison Street, and the most seriously injured to the Level II trauma center at HCA Florida Bayonet Point in Hudson, a few minutes from our office. We meet clients in either hospital, at home, or at 6609 Ridge Road, Suite 4, between US-19 and Little Road in Port Richey. Clementine Conde has practiced in Florida courts since 1992 and is responsible for every case; a New Port Richey pedestrian suit is filed at the West Pasco Judicial Center on Little Road, inside the city.
Our pedestrian accident page explains Florida's rules for people on foot in more depth, our New Port Richey page covers the other injury claims we handle in the city, and if you lost a family member on these roads, our New Port Richey wrongful death page explains who may bring the claim.
Talk to a Port Richey pedestrian accident lawyer about your New Port Richey crash today
The 14-day PIP window is running and the video is already being overwritten. Call Conde-Huggins at (240) 421-5511 at any hour, or contact us online and we will call you back. No charge for the consultation, no attorney's fee unless we win, and staff members speak Spanish.
Free consultation, no attorney's fee unless we win. We meet New Port Richey clients at home, in the hospital, or at our office on Ridge Road. (240) 421-5511
Other New Port Richey cases
Pedestrian accident lawyer in nearby communities
Questions people ask us about new pedestrian accident cases
I was hit crossing US-19 mid-block between Main Street and Trouble Creek Road. Can the insurer blame me?
It will try. Fla. Stat. § 316.130 requires a pedestrian crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk to yield to vehicles, and the insurer will call that the whole case. It is not. The same statute requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian, and a driver who was speeding, on a phone or not watching the outside lane carries fault too. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6) you recover as long as your share is 50 percent or less, so the evidence on the driver's conduct decides the claim.
I was in the crosswalk at SR-54 and Grand Boulevard when a truck turned into me. Does that settle fault?
A marked crosswalk and a walk signal put the duty to yield squarely on the turning driver, which is a strong starting point. Insurers still argue the pedestrian entered against the signal or stepped off the curb into the truck's path, so signal timing records, video from the businesses at the corner and witness statements matter. FHP investigated a fatal crash at exactly that intersection in November 2024 involving a propane tanker turning north. We treat crosswalk cases as cases to be proven, not assumed.
I do not own a car and I live alone. Whose PIP pays my bills?
When there is no auto policy in your household, the personal injury protection on the vehicle that struck you generally covers you as a pedestrian. It pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost income up to $10,000, but only if you received initial care within 14 days of the crash, and only $2,500 of medical benefits unless a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner documents an emergency medical condition. Bring the driver's insurance information from the exchange slip to your first meeting with us.
Who investigates when a pedestrian is hit in New Port Richey?
Inside the city limits, the New Port Richey Police Department, whose Records Section at 6739 Adams Street releases the report. On US-19 and SR-54, and in any fatal crash, the Florida Highway Patrol usually takes over and its traffic homicide unit produces a far more detailed file than a standard report. At the city's edges, in Elfers or along Rowan Road, the Pasco Sheriff's Office may respond. We identify the agency from your exchange slip and request the report during the 60-day restricted period.
Can I bring a claim against FDOT or the city because the crossing was dark or the signal gave no walk phase?
Sometimes, within narrow limits. FDOT owns US-19 and SR-54; the city owns the downtown streets. A claim for a known, uncorrected hazard such as a failed streetlight or a malfunctioning pedestrian signal is possible under Fla. Stat. § 768.28, but recovery is capped at $200,000 per person, written notice must precede suit, and planning-level design choices are generally immune. These claims supplement the claim against the driver and your UM coverage; they rarely replace it.