Freeway Accidents
California Freeway Accidents
Which freeway you were hurt on changes the claim. Design and posted speed shape the forces involved, the truck mix decides whether a commercial carrier and its far larger policy are in the case, and whoever maintains that road, usually Caltrans, can itself be a defendant when a dangerous condition contributed.
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Tell us what happenedWhy Highway Cases Are Different
What Makes a Highway Case Different From a Surface Street Case
Freeway speeds change the injuries. The same inattention that produces a fender bender on a city street produces a spinal fracture at 70 miles an hour, and the medical picture drives everything else about the claim.
Commercial vehicles change the defendants. A for-hire motor carrier hauling ordinary freight in interstate commerce in a vehicle rated over 10,000 pounds must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage under federal regulation, 49 C.F.R. section 387.9, and many carry more. The driver, the motor carrier, the freight broker, the shipper, the trailer or chassis owner and the shop that last serviced the brakes can each be responsible for a different failure.
The road itself can be a defendant. Caltrans owns and maintains the state highway system, and cities and counties own the connecting streets and some interchange approaches. A missing median barrier, a curve the posted speed does not fit, drainage that leaves standing water, a guardrail that failed on impact, or a work zone that funnels traffic without warning can each support a dangerous condition claim against the agency responsible for that segment.
That path has a short deadline. Before suing a public entity you must present a written claim to it, and California Government Code section 911.2 requires a claim relating to death or injury to a person to be presented not later than six months after the cause of action accrues. Miss it and the claim against the agency is usually gone while the general two year deadline for the private driver is still open.
The Ten Routes
The Ten California Freeways We Cover
Highway 17
Twenty-six and a half miles over Patchen Pass between Santa Cruz and Los Gatos, with tight curves, narrow shoulders and stretches carrying no continuous median barrier. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission counted 606 collisions on the corridor in 2025, including 222 injury collisions and five fatal. Because the route crosses a county line, your report sits with either CHP Santa Cruz or CHP San Jose.
Highway 99
State Route 99 runs 424 miles up the spine of the Central Valley. A 2016 ValuePenguin analysis of 2011 to 2015 federal crash data found 264 fatal crashes across those miles, a rate of 62.3 per 100 miles. In 2022 to 2024 federal data reprocessed by Angel Reyes and Associates, SR-99 in Kern County recorded 24 fatal crashes and San Joaquin County 21.
US-101
In 2022 to 2024 federal data, US-101 in Santa Clara County recorded 32 fatal crashes and Santa Barbara County 22, ranked 25th and 70th nationally. The Santa Barbara figure is the more telling one, because that county is a fraction of Santa Clara’s size and the Central Coast stretch is where the freeway narrows and the median disappears.
Interstate 5
I-5 runs the length of the state and carries its heaviest truck volume. Three segments landed among the country’s 100 deadliest in 2022 to 2024 federal data: San Diego County with 42 fatal crashes, Los Angeles and Orange counties with 27 each. A 2024 Caltrans classification count at the county line segment near the Grapevine recorded 23,202 trucks a day, 29.4 percent of all traffic there.
405 Freeway
The 405 is not the state’s deadliest road. It is the road people crash on most. A Crosstown analysis of 2018 CHP data put the northbound 405 at 154.5 crashes per mile, second in Los Angeles behind I-110 at 162.8.
710 Freeway
The 710 moves containers out of the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Caltrans Truck AADT records about 31,968 trucks a day at Del Amo Boulevard, 17.8 percent of traffic, on an estimate carrying the year 2021, of which about 21,467 are five-axle tractor-trailers. A drayage crash here can involve five or six separate businesses: driver, motor carrier, broker, shipper, chassis owner and terminal operator.
880 Freeway
The Nimitz is a commuter freeway and a working freight corridor at the same hours. Its Alameda County segment recorded 24 fatal crashes in 2022 to 2024 federal data, 53rd nationally. Caltrans Truck AADT shows about 10,916 five-axle rigs and 21,321 trucks of all types at the Oakland peak, 10.3 percent of traffic, on an estimate carrying the year 1996.
Interstate 10
I-10 carries container freight inland from the ports toward Phoenix. Its Riverside County segment recorded 54 fatal crashes in 2022 to 2024 federal data, third among all segments in the country. On the Coachella stretch, Caltrans Truck AADT puts trucks at 41.5 percent of traffic on an estimate carrying the year 2021, which is why logging device and tire maintenance records sit at the center of cases here.
Interstate 15
I-15 in San Bernardino County recorded 80 fatal crashes in 2022 to 2024 federal data, more than any other segment in the country. That stretch combines the Cajon Pass grade, where a loaded truck’s brakes fade on a sustained descent, with the Los Angeles to Las Vegas weekend pattern and open desert miles north of the pass.
Pacific Coast Highway
PCH is a fast state highway doing the job of a main street. The City of Malibu has counted about 61 deaths on the 21 miles running through the city since 2010. Caltrans controls how the road is built and maintained, while the city that lives with it has to ask.
How To Read a Ranking
A Note on Where Route Rankings Come From
There is no official California ranking of highways against one another by deaths. Caltrans organizes its crash reporting by district and by county, not by route, so no state agency publishes a route level fatality list. Every corridor ranking in circulation, including the ones cited above, is a third party reprocessing of the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The underlying crash records are federal, but the groupings and the ordering belong to whoever did the analysis. We name the analyst and the years every time so you can weigh the figure yourself.
The same caution applies to truck volume: each record in the Caltrans Truck AADT dataset carries its own estimate year, and across California those years run from the 1980s to 2022.
Talk To A Lawyer
Tell Us Which Road You Were Hurt On
The road matters to the claim, and so does the calendar. A conversation early tells you what evidence still exists, which agency holds the records, and whether a six month deadline is already running. The consultation is free.
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. The information on this page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contacting Wave Law Firm, APC does not create an attorney-client relationship.