Los Angeles car accident guide and data hub

If you were just in a crash in Los Angeles, you're not dealing with a rare event. In 2024, 303 people died in traffic collisions on city streets, according to preliminary LAPD figures released alongside the city's Vision Zero audit.¹ Traffic deaths have outnumbered homicides in Los Angeles for three years running, and the city has averaged more than 300 people killed in crashes every year since 2022.² This page gathers the local numbers and walks through what California law asks of you after a wreck.

The numbers behind LA crashes

In 2023, the City of Los Angeles (population about 3.8 million) recorded 8,116 fatal and injury collisions, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety.³ That count included 1,432 collisions that killed or injured someone on foot and 393 involving people on bikes.³ Speed played a part in 1,104 of them, alcohol in 1,508, and 2,549 were hit-and-runs.³ Measured against 14 comparably sized California cities, Los Angeles ranked 15th, dead last, for total fatal and injury collisions, for speed-related crashes, and for bicyclist injuries.³ Police made 3,515 DUI arrests in the city that year.³

The statewide picture is just as heavy. California recorded 4,061 traffic deaths in 2023, down from 4,539 the year before but still close to a tenth of every traffic death in the country.⁴ Its fatality rate of 1.28 deaths per 100 million miles driven sits just above the national figure of 1.26.⁴ People on foot take a large share of the loss: 1,106 pedestrians were killed on California roads in 2023.⁵

Where the crashes cluster

Crashes in Los Angeles aren't spread evenly. The city's own analysis found that a thin slice of streets carries most of the harm. Roughly 6% of city streets make up what LADOT calls the High-Injury Network, and those streets see about 65% of all deaths and severe injuries.⁶ The 2017 Vision Zero Action Plan singled out 40 priority corridors inside that network for safety work.⁷

The data journalism nonprofit Crosstown, using LAPD collision records from February 2021 through February 2025, ranked the worst single intersection as South Figueroa Street at Slauson Avenue, in the Vermont-Slauson area of South LA. It logged 66 serious collisions, 17 felony hit-and-runs, five severe injuries, and seven pedestrians struck over that four-year stretch.² Next was Sepulveda Boulevard at Roscoe Boulevard in Panorama City, with 65 serious collisions and a hit-and-run that killed a cyclist.² The worst spots sit in South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, the dense, lower-income neighborhoods the Vision Zero plan singled out for priority work.⁷

Speed is why so many of these crashes turn fatal. The city's own figures put a pedestrian's chance of surviving a collision at about 80% when the driver is going 20 mph, and about 10% at 40 mph.⁷

Vision Zero, and why LA fell behind

In August 2015, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti launched Vision Zero through Executive Directive No. 10, committing Los Angeles to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.⁷ The plan set interim targets of a 20% cut by 2017 and a 50% cut by 2020.⁷ At the outset it noted that an Angeleno was dying in a collision roughly every 40 hours, and that the city led its peers in traffic deaths per capita.⁷

The deaths climbed instead of falling. An independent audit released on April 11, 2025, ordered by the City Council in 2022 at a cost of $500,000, found that half of the 56 actions in the 2018 plan were still unfinished at the end of 2023, and that the committee meant to coordinate the work had stopped meeting by mid-2018.¹ The auditors also noted that Los Angeles now has more pedestrian and cyclist deaths than the other four largest US cities.¹

What to do after a crash in Los Angeles

Get to safety first, then call for help. On surface streets, the LAPD takes the report; on the freeways (the 5, the 10, the 101, the 110, the 405), the California Highway Patrol has jurisdiction. A police report doesn't settle fault on its own, though it locks down the facts while they're fresh.

If the other driver takes off, which happens in thousands of LA crashes a year, try to note the plate number and the direction it went, then report it right away. Your own uninsured-motorist coverage may be what ends up paying.

You also owe a separate report to the DMV. California requires you, your insurer, or your attorney to file a Report of Traffic Accident, Form SR-1, within 10 days if anyone was injured or killed, or if property damage runs over $1,000.⁸ That dollar line is low enough that most body-shop repairs clear it. The duty comes from Vehicle Code section 16000, it applies on top of any police report or insurance claim, and failing to file can get your license suspended.⁹

Deadlines matter more than people expect. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit in California.¹⁰ If your claim runs against a government body, say Caltrans over a dangerous freeway condition or the city over a badly designed intersection, the window is much shorter. Government Code section 911.2 gives you six months to present a formal claim before you can sue.¹¹ Miss that date and the claim is usually barred, no matter how strong the facts.

California decides fault under pure comparative negligence, so your recovery shrinks by your share of the blame but doesn't disappear even if you were mostly responsible. Hold on to photos, the other driver's insurance information, your medical records, and contact details for any witnesses.

If your injuries are serious or fault is contested, talk to a lawyer before you give a recorded statement or accept a first offer. You can start with the legal directory to find an attorney near you.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. LAist, "Lack of political will and poor coordination hamper LA goal to eliminate traffic deaths, audit finds." https://laist.com/news/transportation/lack-of-political-will-and-poor-coordination-hamper-la-goal-to-eliminate-traffic-deaths-audit-finds

2. Crosstown, "The most dangerous intersections in Los Angeles" (LAPD data, Feb. 2021 to Feb. 2025). https://xtown.la/2025/10/15/most-dangerous-intersections-in-los-angeles/

3. California Office of Traffic Safety, "Los Angeles 2023" collision rankings. https://www.ots.ca.gov/rankings/los-angeles-2023/

4. NHTSA, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, "Traffic Safety Facts 2023: State Traffic Data" (DOT HS 813 743, August 2025). https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813743

5. UC Berkeley SafeTREC, "2025 Traffic Safety Facts: Pedestrian Safety" (California, FARS 2023). https://safetrec.berkeley.edu/2025-safetrec-traffic-safety-facts-pedestrian-safety

6. Streetsblog Los Angeles, "L.A. Debuts New Interactive Vision Zero Map" (LADOT High-Injury Network figures). https://la.streetsblog.org/2017/04/18/l-a-debuts-new-interactive-vision-zero-map

7. Los Angeles Department of Transportation, "Vision Zero Los Angeles Action Plan 2017." https://ladotlivablestreets-cms.org/uploads/cb1ecdfacabb4bcd97c922382b165e79.pdf

8. California DMV, "Report a Traffic Accident (SR-1)." https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv-virtual-office/accident-reporting/

9. California Vehicle Code section 16000. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=16000.&lawCode=VEH

10. California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=335.1&lawCode=CCP

11. California Government Code section 911.2. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=911.2.&lawCode=GOV