US-19 in Port Richey was built to move cars between Pinellas and Hernando, and then apartments, a mall, pharmacies, bus stops and mobile home parks grew up on both sides of it. People who live on one side need things on the other. The marked crossings are at the signals, and the signals can be a half mile apart. So people cross where they are, six lanes at a time, and some of them are hit.
Conde-Huggins Accident Injury Lawyers represents injured pedestrians and their families from 6609 Ridge Road, Suite 4, a few blocks from the highway. The consultation is free, we come to HCA Florida Bayonet Point or to your home, and there is no attorney's fee unless we win. Call (240) 421-5511.
Crossing US-19 in Port Richey
The US-19 corridor through Pasco and Pinellas was named the deadliest road segment in Florida in a 2024 ConsumerAffairs study, and Vox counted 34 fatal pedestrian crashes on the Pasco stretch between 2014 and 2021. Port Richey is in the middle of it. A 2019 Fox 13 report on a proposed walking trail under the US-19 bridge over the Cotee River cited nine pedestrian deaths along US-19 in this part of the county in 2017 alone.
The places Port Richey pedestrians are struck are predictable.
Embassy Boulevard and Gulf View Square Mall. GOPasco's Route 19 runs the length of US-19 with a transfer point at the mall, and riders getting off a bus on the east side of the highway walk to the mall, the pharmacy or the apartments on the west side. FDOT rebuilt the crosswalks and curb ramps at Embassy Boulevard, Fox Hollow Drive and Hammock/Ranch Road in 2021. The crossings are better. The distance between them is the same.
Ridge Road and Washington Street. The two Port Richey intersections named in a 2024 study that ranked Pasco's intersections ninth deadliest in the country are both places where neighborhood streets meet US-19 and people on foot cross to reach the plazas.
Mid-block, at night. The crashes that FDOT's lighting and mid-block crosswalk projects were designed to prevent happen after dark, away from the signals, where a person in dark clothing steps into a lane of fast traffic. FDOT's LED lighting retrofit, planned to run from the Pinellas line to New York Avenue in Hudson, covers the Port Richey stretch, and a lit crossing is safer than a dark one, but lighting does not stop a driver looking at a phone.
The waterfront and the river. The streets near Nicks Park and the Cotee River are slow and crowded with walkers, cyclists and golf carts, especially on weekends. A pedestrian struck at 20 miles per hour by a driver backing out or rolling a stop sign can still suffer a hip fracture or head injury. Crossing US-19 at the river has been studied for years; a path under the bridge has been proposed since at least 2019.
Whose PIP pays when you were on foot
A person hit while walking has no vehicle, so the first question is which policy's personal injury protection applies. The order is set by Florida's no-fault statute.
- A policy in your household. If you own an insured car, or live with a relative who does, that policy's PIP covers you as a pedestrian.
- The striking vehicle's policy. If there is no auto policy in your home, the PIP on the car that hit you generally applies.
Either way, PIP pays 80 percent of reasonable medical bills and 60 percent of lost income up to $10,000, and only if you received initial care within 14 days under Fla. Stat. § 627.736. The full $10,000 requires a physician, physician assistant, dentist or nurse practitioner to document an emergency medical condition; otherwise the medical benefit stops at $2,500. A pedestrian with a fracture or head injury nearly always meets that standard, but someone has to write it in the chart.
Pedestrians miss the 14-day window more than drivers do. They are told at the scene that they look fine, they decline the ambulance from Pasco County Fire Rescue, and they wait. If that is you, go to a doctor this week and then call (240) 421-5511.
"He came out of nowhere": fault and the 51 percent bar
Florida does not presume the driver is at fault when a car hits a pedestrian, and the driver's insurer builds its file on that. The arguments are familiar: dark clothing, mid-block crossing, earbuds, alcohol, stepping out from between parked cars. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6), each percentage point of fault assigned to you comes off your recovery, and more than 50 percent ends the claim.
Fla. Stat. § 316.130 sets duties on both sides. A pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk must yield; a driver must exercise due care to avoid striking any pedestrian and must sound a warning when necessary. The driver's duty does not disappear because the pedestrian was in the wrong place.
The evidence that moves the number is time-sensitive. The striking car's event data recorder shows speed and braking in the seconds before impact. The driver's phone records show whether a screen was lit. The cameras at the plazas and gas stations along US-19 show the pedestrian's path and the driver's reaction, and most of them overwrite within a week or two. We send preservation letters in the first days, which is one reason being a few blocks away matters.
When the road is part of the problem
US-19 is a state road owned by FDOT. A dark crossing, a signal without a pedestrian phase, or a bus stop placed where no one can safely cross can make the state or Pasco County partly responsible. Claims against a government body fall under Fla. Stat. § 768.28: a written notice of claim before suit, a waiting period, and a cap of $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident unless the Legislature passes a claims bill. These claims add to the claim against the driver; they rarely replace it. Where the facts support one, we start the notice process alongside everything else.
Hit-and-run on US-19
A driver who hits a pedestrian at night on US-19 and keeps going commits a felony under Fla. Stat. § 316.027, and FHP investigates seriously, but you cannot wait for an arrest. Household PIP pays regardless of who hit you. Uninsured motorist coverage under Fla. Stat. § 627.727, on your policy or a resident relative's, treats an unidentified driver as uninsured and pays beyond PIP, including pain and suffering if the threshold is met. UM policies require prompt notice to police and the insurer, so report the crash the same day. We also canvass for video; a plate caught on a pharmacy camera turns a UM claim into a liability claim.
Reaching us from Port Richey
Our office is on Ridge Road between US-19 and Little Road, minutes from Bayonet Point hospital and Morton Plant North Bay. We meet clients at either hospital, at home, or at the office. Clementine Conde, a Florida Bar member since 1992, is the attorney responsible for every case.
Our countywide pedestrian accident page covers the law in more depth, the Port Richey page covers every type of claim we handle in the city, and the Hudson pedestrian accident page addresses the stretch of US-19 north of SR-52. When a pedestrian does not survive, the claim becomes a wrongful death case under Fla. Stat. §§ 768.16–768.26.
Talk to a Port Richey pedestrian accident lawyer today
The two-year deadline under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) is the outside limit. The video at the corner will be gone in a week. Call Conde-Huggins at (240) 421-5511, day or night, or contact us online. Free consultation, no attorney's fee unless we win, and staff members speak Spanish.
Free consultation, no attorney's fee unless we win. We meet Port Richey clients at home, in the hospital, or at our office on Ridge Road. (240) 421-5511
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Questions people ask us about pedestrian accident cases
I was hit walking across US-19 to the bus stop at Gulf View Square. I don't own a car. Whose insurance covers me?
If you live with a relative who owns an insured car, that policy's PIP covers you as a pedestrian. If no one in your household has an auto policy, the PIP on the vehicle that struck you generally applies. Either way, PIP pays 80 percent of medical bills up to $10,000 only if you were treated within 14 days under Fla. Stat. § 627.736. Everything beyond PIP comes from the driver's bodily injury coverage, which Florida does not require, or from uninsured motorist coverage in your household under Fla. Stat. § 627.727.
The driver's insurer says I was not in a crosswalk at Ridge Road, so the crash is my fault. Is that true?
Not by itself. Fla. Stat. § 316.130 requires a pedestrian crossing outside a marked or unmarked crosswalk to yield, but it also requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian. Fault is divided under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6), and you recover as long as your share is 50 percent or less. A driver who was speeding, on a phone or watching for a turn instead of the road carries fault too, and on US-19 the nearest marked crossing can be a long walk from where people actually need to cross.
Who investigated my pedestrian crash in Port Richey, and how do I get the report?
On US-19 and in the unincorporated neighborhoods, usually FHP Troop C; inside the city limits, often the Port Richey Police Department at 6333 Ridge Road. In a fatal or critical-injury case, FHP's traffic homicide investigators produce a much longer file than the standard report. Reports are sold through the Florida Crash Portal and are restricted for 60 days to the parties, their attorneys and insurers under Fla. Stat. § 316.066(2). We request it for you, along with the 911 audio.
Can I claim pain and suffering after being hit by a car as a pedestrian in Port Richey?
Yes, if your injury meets the threshold in Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2): a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant permanent scarring, significant permanent loss of an important bodily function, or death. Pedestrian injuries such as fractures with hardware, head injuries and spinal injuries often qualify, but a treating physician has to document it. We make sure that question is asked and answered in your records.
What is the deadline for a pedestrian injury claim in Port Richey?
Two years from the crash under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a), and two years for wrongful death under § 95.11(5)(e). If part of the claim is against FDOT, which owns US-19, or Pasco County, a written notice under Fla. Stat. § 768.28 must be presented first, and recovery against a government body is capped at $200,000 per person. Those steps take months, so a claim involving the road itself needs to start early.