Five Points is a walking and cycling neighborhood as much as it is a driving one. Glenwood, Fairview, and Whitaker Mill come together here, and people cross those streets all day on foot and on bikes. When a vehicle hits a person who was not inside a car, the same North Carolina crash law still applies, with two extra layers. The pedestrian and bicycle traffic rules in G.S. 20-173 and 20-174 describe who should yield. The contributory-negligence rule then decides whether a damages claim can go forward at all if the defense proves any share of fault on the injured person’s side.
Here is what G.S. 20-173 actually requires. If a traffic signal is absent or is not working, a driver has to yield, and must slow or stop if that is what yielding takes, to a person who is using a marked crosswalk, or an unmarked crossing close to an intersection. Once a vehicle has already stopped at such a crossing so a person can walk across, a driver coming up from behind may not pass it. A driver leaving or entering an alley, a building doorway, a private road, or a driveway must yield to someone on foot, or to a cyclist, approaching on a sidewalk or walkway that crosses that opening.
Duties when a person is on foot
G.S. 20-174 covers mid-block crossing and walking along a roadway. A person who crosses outside a marked crosswalk, and outside an unmarked crossing at an intersection, must yield to vehicles already on the road. The same yield applies if a pedestrian tunnel or a footbridge has been provided at that point. Between neighboring intersections that have working signals, a person on foot may cross only in a marked crosswalk.
If a sidewalk is available, a pedestrian may not walk on the roadway next to it. If there is no sidewalk, a person walking along a highway should, when it is practical, stay on the far left of the roadway or its shoulder, facing oncoming traffic, and must yield to that traffic. Those rules do not give a driver a free pass. G.S. 20-174(e) still requires every driver to take due care so as not to strike a pedestrian on the roadway, to sound the horn when that warning is needed, and to take proper care after seeing a child, or a person who is confused or incapacitated, on the roadway.
In a contributory-negligence state, those yield rules get used on both sides of a file. An insurer may argue that a person stepped off the curb away from a marked crossing. The injured person may point to a driver who passed a car already stopped for a pedestrian, or who failed to use due care around a child. The statute gives both arguments a hook. The defense only has to prove a share of fault, not a majority share, to end a damages claim. That is why photographs of the crossing, the signal, and the sidewalk, and the names of anyone who saw the walk, belong in the file early.
Bicycles, helmets, and coverage
A person riding a bicycle on a sidewalk or walkway across a driveway already has a yield right against a vehicle coming out of that driveway, under G.S. 20-173(c). Other bicycle-specific equipment rules sit in other sections. The youth helmet rule is G.S. 20-171.9. A parent or guardian may not knowingly permit a person under 16 to operate or be a rider on a bicycle on a public roadway, public bike path, or other public right-of-way without a securely fastened helmet of good fit. No negligence or liability shall be assessed or imputed to any party on account of a violation of subsection (a) or (b) of that section. A missing youth helmet, in other words, is not a shortcut to a contributory-negligence finding.
Medical-payments coverage or uninsured-motorist coverage written into a family auto policy can still apply when the injured person was walking or cycling, if the policy language covers that person. Read the declarations page rather than treating a pedestrian as being outside the policy. The uninsured and underinsured guide on this site explains the 2025 changes and the notice steps. A rideshare vehicle that hits a pedestrian is also a TNC file, with the period-based limits in G.S. 20-280.4.
Reports, deadlines, and the courthouse
A reportable crash still has to be called in to the police under G.S. 20-166.1. In Raleigh, the city report is free at 6716 Six Forks Road or through the Police portal, as the report guide explains. The ordinary injury window is the three-year period in G.S. 1-52(16). For a death, the window is two years counted from death. If the person who was hurt is under 18, G.S. 1-17 may pause the ordinary clock until the disability is removed, but waiting still makes the case harder to prove. A civil case from Wake County is filed at 316 Fayetteville St. Mall.
If a city bus, a city truck, or a state-maintained road condition is part of the story, read the city-and-state claims guide early. Immunity and the Industrial Commission path do not wait for the pedestrian statutes to be sorted out. Get the report, keep the shoes or the helmet if they were damaged, write down the signal timing and the street names, and take that package to the first serious conversation about the file. Five Points is a small neighborhood with a lot of crossing traffic. The statutes above are the ones that decide how a wreck at one of those crossings is judged.