You were crossing at a corner on the way home, or walking the kids back from a friend's house as the light went, or stepping out of a parking lot at the end of the day. The driver didn't see you. You weren't in a car at all, and now you're the one dealing with insurance.
A pedestrian hit by a vehicle in Yukon can claim accident benefits for treatment and lost income, whether or not they own a car, and the insurer of the vehicle that hit them pays first. Call 911 if you're hurt, get assessed the same day, give the insurer written notice within 30 days, and start a dated record of your symptoms that day.
Being on foot doesn't put you outside the system. It puts you at the centre of it, because you had nothing around you when it happened.
Is a pedestrian covered after being hit by a car in Yukon?
Yes. Accident benefits are a required part of every Yukon auto policy, and they cover a person on foot who is struck by the insured vehicle. They don't depend on who caused the crash, and you don't need to own a car or hold a licence.
Yukon's benefits pay up to $10,000 for medical and rehabilitation costs incurred within two years of the crash. Ambulance comes out of that same $10,000, so a serious injury can use up a large share of it before treatment has really begun. If you were working and the injury keeps you from your job, the weekly benefit is 80 percent of your average gross weekly earnings, between $100 and $300 a week, starting after the first seven days and lasting up to 104 weeks.
When are you walking in the dark in Yukon?
Every weekday morning from late October to the start of March. In Whitehorse, the sun rises after 9 a.m. from 22 October until 1 March, and after 10 a.m. from 14 November to 8 February. On 21 December it comes up at 11:10 a.m., so the walk to school and to work happens in the dark for months.
Yukon's roads carry more risk per person than anywhere else in the country. In 2023, the territory's road death rate was 19.8 per 100,000 people, about four times the national rate, and its injury rate was the highest in Canada, according to Transport Canada. Yukon's 2024 health status report found the territory continues to see higher rates of injury and death from collisions than Canada as a whole.
Out trick-or-treating? If a child is hit by a car
Halloween falls in the riskiest stretch of the year for children on foot. Across Canada, more children under 15 are hurt as pedestrians in October than in any other month, with November close behind, and nearly a quarter are hurt in those two months, according to Transport Canada collision data for 2021 to 2023. This year Halloween falls on a Saturday, so trick-or-treaters will share the streets with Saturday-night traffic, and in Whitehorse it's fully dark by about 6:50 p.m. If the worst happens, here is what to do.
Call 911 and stay with your child. Any collision where someone is hurt has to be reported to police right away, even if the driver says it was nothing.
Get your child checked the same day. Children often can't describe what hurts, and a fall onto pavement or packed snow can hide an injury that shows up later. Tell the doctor or nurse your child was hit by a vehicle.
Be the one who keeps the record. Write down what your child said, how they slept, any change in mood or behaviour, and every school day missed. The record you keep is what shows how the weeks went. Our article on what families should write down goes further.
Send the claim forms on time. Children are covered by accident benefits like anyone else hurt by a vehicle. A child has longer to sue, but the written notice to the insurer is still due within 30 days.
Whose insurance does a pedestrian claim through in Yukon?
Usually the insurer of the vehicle that hit you. When a pedestrian is struck, Yukon's Insurance Act makes the insurer of the vehicle's owner liable in the first instance. If someone in your household has an auto policy, it can also cover you on foot when you're hit by another vehicle, so tell both insurers what happened, and write down who you spoke to and when.
Medical benefits pay after any other coverage you have, such as a health plan through work. Keep the statements from each plan, because your insurer will ask what has already been paid.
If the driver left the scene, report it to police the same day. A household auto policy's accident benefits cover you on foot even when the vehicle that hit you is never found, so if anyone in your home has one, call that insurer the same day too.
If you were working when you were hit, tell your employer and the Workers' Safety and Compensation Board right away. You don't choose between compensation and suing the driver. In Yukon the right to sue passes to the board, which decides whether a claim against the driver goes ahead. You have 12 months to apply, and sooner is better. Our article on being hurt at work in Yukon explains how a claim works.
The Territories MVA Companion Guide sets out who to contact, along with the forms and the deadlines.
Does it matter who was at fault?
Not for accident benefits. Those pay for your treatment whoever caused the crash.
Fault matters for a separate claim against the driver, for everything accident benefits don't cover. With a $10,000 medical limit, that is often most of what a serious injury costs. That claim generally has to start within two years of the day of the crash, not the day you realized how badly you were hurt. Our article on car accident claim deadlines in the territories explains why the date matters.
Why do pedestrian injuries need extra care?
Because there's nothing between you and the vehicle. No seatbelt, no airbag, no frame. Even a slow impact can mean a fall onto pavement or ice, a head injury or a knee or hip that takes the full force.
Adrenaline hides a lot at the scene. Many people stand up, say they're fine and walk home, then wake up the next morning unable to move. Our article on why car accident injuries sometimes appear days later explains why, and why the date a symptom first appears matters so much.
What should you do in the first week?
Four things, in this order.
Get assessed, even if you feel alright. Tell the doctor or nurse you were hit by a vehicle while walking, and describe every symptom, including the small ones. If your community health centre can't see you again for weeks, write down the reason each time, so a gap in treatment isn't read as recovery.
Make sure police know. If you're hurt, call 911, which works across Yukon. If police didn't come, call the Whitehorse RCMP at 867-667-5555. In other communities, dial 867, your local exchange, then 5555.
Tell an insurer. Give written notice of your claim within 30 days, and proof of claim within 90 days. Our article on territories claim deadlines lists every date.
Start writing things down. Nobody else records the days between appointments. That part is yours.
What are you allowed to do?
You are allowed to make a claim even though you weren't in a vehicle.
You are allowed to see a doctor days later and say the pain arrived after the crash rather than at it.
You are allowed to say you're afraid to cross that street now, and to have that written into your file alongside the physical injuries.
You are allowed to change your route, or wait for daylight, while you recover.
You are allowed to ask a family member to keep notes for you if writing is hard right now.
What should you record after being hit while walking?
| What to record | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Where you were, which way you were walking and the light, weather and road surface | Sets out how it happened while your memory is clear |
| The vehicle, the driver's details and any witnesses | Hard to find again later, easy to note on day one |
| Your RCMP file number and the dates you notified each insurer | The insurers and later forms will ask for them |
| Every symptom and the date it first appeared | Connects each injury to the collision |
| Every appointment, the treatment advice you were given and the reason for any gap | Shows you followed the plan and kept treatment running |
| Every trip for treatment, with the distance, the cost and who travelled with you | Counts against a capped benefit and is easy to forget |
| What you couldn't do that week that you could do before | Turns the injury into something another person can measure |
The National MVA Recovery Guide is built for anyone hurt in a collision, whether you were driving, riding or walking. It gives every symptom a date and every appointment a page.
Keep your recovery in one place
The National MVA Recovery Guide holds your whole recovery. The Territories MVA Companion Guide adds the insurer, the forms and the deadlines in Yukon.
Why use Hurt Square?
Because a pedestrian's injuries are often more serious, and the details of the day are hard to rebuild later. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.
- The day it happened, and every day after. The National MVA Recovery Guide has space for the first hours after your accident, daily pain and symptom tracking, every appointment and every expense, for anyone hurt by a vehicle.
- The territory's rules, in plain words. The Territories MVA Companion Guide holds the accident benefit limits, deadlines, forms and insurer routes in Yukon, with a log for every trip to treatment.
- Made for hard days. 192 pages and more than 1,600 fillable fields that work on your phone, tablet or computer, in plain language.
Both guides, $39 until 22 November. The National MVA Recovery Guide and the Territories MVA Companion Guide, with the discount applied at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.
Get both guidesRead next
- Recovering After a Car Accident in the Territories: A Complete Guide
- Territories Car Accident Claim Deadlines
- “I Got the Call About My Teen!” | Your Teen Was in a Car Accident: What Families Should Write Down
- “I Felt Fine. Now I Hurt!” | Why Car Accident Injuries Sometimes Appear Days Later
Last verified 25 October 2026. Accident benefits from the Yukon Schedule of Benefits, O.I.C. 1988/090; first liability for pedestrians from section 167 of the Insurance Act; police reporting from the Motor Vehicles Act; workers' compensation rules from the Workers' Safety and Compensation Board; the two-year limit from the Limitation of Actions Act; police contacts from the Yukon RCMP; road death and injury rates from Transport Canada's Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics, 2023; Yukon's injury trends from the 2024 Yukon Health Status Report; child pedestrian figures from Transport Canada's National Collision Database, 2021 to 2023; sun times calculated for Whitehorse. This article is general information for people in Yukon. It is not medical, legal or insurance advice.
