Car accident guide and data hub for Hampton Roads (Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News)

If a crash just wrecked your week somewhere between the Downtown Tunnel and Jefferson Avenue, the clock is already running. This page gathers the local crash data, the roads where wrecks pile up around Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News, and the Virginia rules that decide whether you actually get paid.

The regional numbers

The Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News television market covers all of Hampton Roads, one of Virginia's busiest regions for traffic. In 2022 the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) counted 24,712 crashes across the region, which came to more than 15,000 injuries and 162 people killed, or roughly one crash every 21 minutes.¹ Statewide, the Virginia DMV logged 129,244 crashes and 918 deaths in 2024, up from 907 deaths the year before.² The interstates that hold the region together, I-64, I-264 and I-664, carry much of that traffic, along with arterials like Mercury Boulevard, Jefferson Avenue and Military Highway.

Where crashes cluster

Wrecks don't spread out evenly. They bunch at a handful of intersections most local drivers already avoid when they can. Working from VDOT and DMV records, HRTPO transportation engineer Keith Nichols mapped the region's worst corners. The most crash-prone intersection in 2024 was Mercury Boulevard at Power Plant Parkway in Hampton, with 54 crashes in a single year.³ The region's 2023 safety study counted 267 crashes at that same intersection over the 2017 to 2021 period.⁴

Newport News drivers know the problem on Jefferson Avenue. Its intersection with Oyster Point Road logged 34 crashes in 2024, and Jefferson keeps reappearing at Thimble Shoals Boulevard, Mercury Boulevard, Denbigh Boulevard and Harpersville Road.³ In Norfolk, Chesapeake Boulevard at Norview Avenue near Sewells Point Road topped the city's list.³

Speed runs through the fatal crashes. The regional safety study found reckless speeding was the leading factor in Hampton Roads traffic deaths, that more than half the people killed had been speeding, and that more than half were not belted.⁴ Norfolk's public dashboard shows the same pattern on city streets: 136 fatal and serious-injury crashes in 2024, up from 123 in 2023, with speeding cited in 21 percent of them and alcohol in 18 percent.⁵

The tunnels and the HRBT expansion

Two water crossings drive a large share of the region's worst backups and chain-reaction wrecks. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel on I-64 carries close to three million vehicles a month, and more than 100,000 a day in summer, all squeezing from open highway into two-lane tubes built in 1957 and 1976.⁶ When a car blows a tire or stalls inside, there's no shoulder to escape to. The Downtown Tunnel on I-264 between Norfolk and Portsmouth moves more than three million vehicles a month through tubes that opened in 1952 and 1987, and the Midtown Tunnel under the Elizabeth River adds more than a million a month.⁶

Some relief is close. VDOT's roughly $4 billion HRBT Expansion is boring twin two-lane tunnels beside the existing crossing and widening nearly 10 miles of I-64, with completion scheduled for 2027.⁷ Until it opens, the old bottleneck is the one you're driving through.

What to do after a crash in Virginia

Call 911 and get police to the scene. The officer files a crash report through TREDS, Virginia's central crash database, and that report becomes a core document for any insurance claim.⁸ You can request your copy from the DMV using Form CRD-93 for an $8 fee.⁹ Photograph the vehicles, the road, the signals and any skid marks before the cars are moved. Get checked by a doctor even if you feel okay, because neck and back injuries often show up days later.

Be careful what you say at the scene. Virginia's fault rules are strict, and a reflexive "I'm sorry" can come back to hurt you.

The Virginia rules that decide your claim

Virginia is one of a few states that still uses pure contributory negligence. If you're found even slightly at fault for the crash, you can be barred from recovering anything at all. The Supreme Court of Virginia applied that rule in Coutlakis v. CSX Transportation, where a claim was dismissed because the injured man was contributorily negligent, though the court left room for a narrow "last clear chance" exception when the other side could have avoided the collision and failed to.¹⁰ That harsh rule is why insurers here work so hard to pin even a sliver of blame on you.

The filing deadline is fixed. Under Virginia Code Section 8.01-243, you have two years from the crash date to file a personal-injury lawsuit, and five years for vehicle or property damage.¹¹ Miss the two-year mark and the claim is almost always gone, no matter how strong it was.

Coverage minimums recently rose. For policies effective on or after January 1, 2025, Virginia requires at least $50,000 in bodily-injury coverage per person, $100,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage, up from the old 30/60/20 limits, under Section 46.2-472.¹² Plenty of drivers still carry only the minimum, so the uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy is often what actually pays a serious claim.

Distracted driving carries its own penalty. Since 2021, Section 46.2-818.2 has made it illegal to hold a phone while driving, with a $125 fine for a first offense, $250 for later ones, and a mandatory $250 in a highway work zone.¹³ If the other driver was cited for it, that can matter to your case.

Finding an attorney

If your injuries are serious or an insurer is disputing fault, talk to a Virginia lawyer who handles crash cases in Hampton Roads courts, where contributory negligence gets fought over case by case. You can start with the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

Keep everything in one folder: the crash report, your medical records, repair estimates, and a short log of missed work and out-of-pocket costs. In a contributory-negligence state, the claim you document carefully is the claim that survives.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, "Roadway Safety." https://hrtpo.org/444/Roadway-Safety

2. Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, "Virginia Traffic Crash Facts" (2024: 129,244 crashes; 918 deaths). https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/safety/crash-data/traffic-crash-facts

3. WAVY-TV, "WRECK WATCH: Top 5 crash-prone intersections in Hampton Roads" (2024 counts compiled by HRTPO from VDOT and DMV data). https://www.wavy.com/news/investigative/wreck-watch-explores-the-five-worst-intersections-for-crashes-in-hampton-roads/

4. Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, "Hampton Roads Regional Safety Study Update." https://www.hrpdcva.gov/DocumentCenter/View/12084/050124-CAO-06_Presentation-Hampton-Roads-Regional-Safety-Study-Update

5. City of Norfolk, "Data: How are we doing?" (VDOT Crash Analysis Tool). https://www.norfolk.gov/5092/Data-How-are-we-doing

6. Virginia Department of Transportation, "Hampton Roads bridges and tunnels." https://www.vdot.virginia.gov/about/our-system/bridges-tunnels/hr-bridges-tunnels/

7. Virginia Department of Transportation, "HRBT Expansion." https://hrbtexpansion.vdot.virginia.gov/

8. Virginia DMV, "Traffic Records Electronic Data System (TREDS)." https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/safety/crash-data/traffic-records-electronic-data-system

9. Virginia DMV, "Request a Police Crash Report" (Form CRD-93, $8 fee). https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/records/request-police-crash-report

10. Coutlakis v. CSX Transportation, Inc., 293 Va. 212 (2017), Supreme Court of Virginia. https://www.vacourts.gov/static/opinions/opnscvwp/1160277.pdf

11. Code of Virginia Section 8.01-243, limitation of personal actions. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title8.01/chapter4/section8.01-243/

12. Code of Virginia Section 46.2-472, minimum motor vehicle liability coverage. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/chapter3/section46.2-472/

13. Code of Virginia Section 46.2-818.2, use of handheld personal communications devices while driving. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title46.2/chapter8/section46.2-818.2/