Car accident guide and data hub for Baltimore

If you were just in a crash somewhere around Baltimore, the next few hours matter more than you might think. This page pulls together the local numbers, the roads where wrecks pile up, and the Maryland rules that decide what happens next. It is built for the Baltimore market: the city plus the counties that feed into it every morning on the Beltway (I-695) and the Jones Falls Expressway (I-83).

Start with what the data says about where you are.

What the Baltimore numbers look like

Maryland recorded 110,401 crashes in 2023. Those wrecks killed 621 people and injured 41,538, and 159 of the dead were pedestrians.¹ The statewide total has been drifting down, but Baltimore City moved the other way.

Our own reading of the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System found 40 fatal crashes in the city in 2023, in which 41 people died and 22 of them were pedestrians. Eleven of those fatal crashes were hit-and-runs, and speeding was a factor in twelve.² The city's own count, tallied on a slightly different basis, put 2023 roadway deaths at 46, then 64 in 2024, and more than half of the people killed in 2024 were walking, biking, or riding a scooter.³

That pedestrian share is the part locals should sit with. In a lot of American cities the typical traffic death is a driver. In Baltimore, more often than not, it is someone on foot. Citywide the volume is steadier than the deaths suggest: Baltimore logs more than 15,000 crashes in a year, and in 2024 those produced 508 serious injuries.⁴

The roads where crashes cluster

Crashes are not spread evenly across the map. Baltimore's transportation department found that 52% of the city's fatal and serious-injury crashes happen on just 7% of its streets, the corridors it calls the High Injury Network.³ If you drive here, you already know most of them.

When The Baltimore Banner scored every city road segment on five years of state crash data, from 2019 through 2023, Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore came out worst. North Avenue, Belair Road, Orleans Street, Pratt Street, and North Eutaw Street between Baltimore Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard all ranked near the top.⁴ These roads are wide and busy, with people crossing on foot everywhere, which is exactly the mix the fatality data keeps flagging.

The city has started rebuilding pieces of that network. Its early quick-build safety projects targeted Monroe Street, Paca Street, Light Street downtown, and Liberty Heights Avenue,⁵ with a stated goal of ending traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2041.³ Whether that target holds is another question. For now, extra caution on those corridors is just common sense.

What Maryland law requires at the scene

If your crash hurt someone, Maryland does not treat leaving as optional. Under the state's Transportation Article, any driver in a crash that causes injury or death has to stop as close to the scene as possible without blocking traffic, and stay there.⁶ You also have to give your name, address, and vehicle registration, show your license if asked, and help anyone who is hurt get medical care.⁷

If nobody is in a condition to take your information and no officer is on scene, the law tells you to report the crash to the nearest police right away.⁷ In practice, call 911. A responding officer writes the report that your insurer, and later a court, will lean on.

Getting your crash report

Where you request that report depends on who worked the scene. For a crash inside the city, the Baltimore Police Department's Central Records Section handles it. Reports for crashes on or after January 1, 2011 cost $14, and you can reach Central Records at (410) 396-2234.⁸ If the Maryland State Police responded, which is common on the interstates and in parts of the surrounding counties, request the report through their Central Records Division. The fee is $4, and they ask that you wait ten days after the crash so the report has time to be filed.⁹

Get a copy either way, even for a minor wreck. It locks down the officer's account and the basic facts while memories are fresh.

The Maryland rules that shape a claim

A few state rules matter more than most people realize, and they are stricter here than in neighboring states.

You have three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in Maryland.¹⁰ Miss it and the claim is almost always dead, no matter how strong.

Then there is contributory negligence. Maryland is one of the last handful of states where being even slightly at fault can bar you from recovering anything at all. The state's highest court looked hard at that rule in 2013, in Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia, and chose to keep it.¹¹ If an insurer can pin even 1% of the blame on you, it can try to pay nothing. That is why the details in a police report, and what you say to an adjuster, carry so much weight.

On coverage, Maryland sets the floor at $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 per crash, and $15,000 for property damage.¹² Every auto policy also has to include at least $2,500 in Personal Injury Protection, which pays your early medical bills and lost wages regardless of who caused the crash.¹³ Those are minimums, and against a serious hospital bill they run out fast.

If your injuries are significant or fault is being disputed, this is the point to talk to a Maryland attorney who handles crash cases. You can find one through the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

The single most useful thing you can do in the days after a Baltimore crash is boring: see a doctor, and save every document and photo before the cars are repaired. In a contributory negligence state, that record is what protects you.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Maryland Highway Safety Office / Zero Deaths Maryland, statewide crash data (2023). https://zerodeathsmd.gov/resources/crashdata/

2. thatcarhitme.com, Baltimore, MD crash report 2023 (NHTSA FARS). https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/maryland/baltimore/2023-annual-report

3. Baltimore City Department of Transportation, Vision Zero Action Plan. https://streetsofbaltimore.com/visionzero

4. The Baltimore Banner, "Baltimore City crashes: Where the worst traffic accidents occur." https://www.thebanner.com/community/transportation/baltimore-crash-accidents-car-pedestrians-roads-W6C72ZN4ZJDWXNFXSD56CP7XXU/

5. Baltimore City Department of Transportation, Toward Zero. https://www.baltimorecity.gov/transportation/toward-zero

6. Maryland Code, Transportation Article Section 20-102 (driver to remain at scene, injury or death). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=20-102

7. Maryland Code, Transportation Article Section 20-104 (duty to give information and render aid). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=20-104

8. Baltimore Police Department, Obtain a Police Report. https://www.baltimorepolice.org/obtain-police-report

9. Maryland Department of State Police, Request Police Reports. https://mdsp.maryland.gov/community-services/request-police-reports

10. Maryland Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article Section 5-101 (three-year limitation). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=5-101

11. Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia, 432 Md. 679 (2013). https://law.justia.com/cases/maryland/court-of-appeals/2013/9-12.html

12. Maryland Code, Transportation Article Section 17-103 (required minimum liability security). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gtr&section=17-103

13. Maryland Code, Insurance Article Section 19-505 (personal injury protection coverage). https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-505