Pittsburgh car accident guide and data hub

If you were just in a crash somewhere around Pittsburgh, the hours afterward are confusing enough without guessing at what Pennsylvania law requires. This page pulls together the local crash numbers, the roads where wrecks cluster, and the specific state rules and deadlines that decide what happens next. The data is Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh specific, drawn from PennDOT, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and the city's own safety records.

What the local crash numbers say

Allegheny County carries more traffic, and more crashes, than any Pennsylvania county except Philadelphia. Between 2019 and 2023 there were 55,733 reported crashes on county roads, and those crashes killed 339 people and seriously injured 1,757 more.¹ The pattern behind those numbers matters: 79 percent of the severe crashes happened on just 9 percent of the road miles.² A short list of streets is doing most of the damage. The plan's authors also found that underserved communities hold about a quarter of the county's population and road miles but account for 43 percent of the fatal and serious-injury crashes.¹

Statewide, the trend has been improving. PennDOT recorded 1,127 traffic deaths across Pennsylvania in 2024, the second lowest total since record keeping began in 1928 and 82 fewer than in 2023.³ Intersections stayed stubborn, with 321 people killed in intersection crashes statewide that year.³

Inside the city limits, 21 people died in traffic in 2023, and seven of them were pedestrians.⁴ Pittsburgh's own analysis found that 122 miles of street, out of more than 1,000 citywide, account for 76 percent of fatal crashes and 86 percent of serious-injury crashes.⁴ The city created its Department of Mobility and Infrastructure in 2017 to concentrate safety work on those streets.⁴

Two behaviors drive a large share of the wrecks. PennDOT's District 11 office reported more than 970 aggressive-driving crashes in Allegheny County in 2024, which killed three people, alongside 1,285 crashes tied to distracted driving.⁵

The roads where crashes cluster

In July 2026, PennDOT, Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and Pittsburgh Regional Transit named ten corridors for targeted safety fixes under the county's Vision Zero plan.¹ If you drive here, you already know most of them.

The list runs across the city and the river towns: Fifth Avenue from Bellefield Avenue to Penn Avenue; the Aiken and Liberty avenue corridor up to the Bloomfield Bridge; Penn Avenue from Fifth to Hay Street; Butler Street in Lawrenceville from 34th Street to the 62nd Street Bridge; and West Carson Street with Arlington Avenue, running from the P.J. McArdle Roadway to Corliss Street.¹ Farther out, the plan flags Ohio River Boulevard from the McKees Rocks Bridge to Laurel Avenue, Brownsville Road in the South Hills from Broughton to Baptist Road, and the River Road corridor past Kennywood.¹

West Carson Street and the McArdle Roadway are worth singling out. That stretch below Mount Washington, where traffic funnels toward the Liberty and West End bridges, sits on the county's new priority list.¹ Officials announced the whole plan next to State Route 837 near Kennywood in West Mifflin, one of the corridors slated for work, backed by a $520,000 federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant plus a $130,000 local match.²

What Pennsylvania law says to do at the scene

Pennsylvania requires immediate notice to the nearest police department if a crash injures or kills someone, or damages a vehicle badly enough that it has to be towed.⁶ Call 911 and let officers document it.

If police do not investigate, the duty does not disappear. Under state law, a driver in that situation has to send PennDOT a written crash report within five days, using the department's Form AA-600.⁷⁸ Keep your own record too: photos of the vehicles and the scene, the other driver's insurance and plate, and the names of any witnesses.

How insurance and injury claims work here

Pennsylvania is a choice no-fault state, and the choice you made when you bought your policy can change everything. Drivers here pick between limited tort and full tort coverage.⁹ Limited tort costs less but bars you from recovering for pain and suffering unless your injury clears a serious-injury threshold. Full tort keeps that right open. If a policyholder never signs the election form, Pennsylvania treats them as having chosen full tort by default.⁹

The state's minimum coverage is thin. A registered vehicle has to carry only $15,000 in bodily-injury liability per person, $30,000 per crash, and $5,000 in property damage.¹⁰ Serious injuries blow past those limits fast, which is why underinsured-motorist coverage matters in a county where one wreck can send several people to the hospital.

Deadlines that can quietly end a claim

Two clocks start the day of the crash.

The main one is the statute of limitations. In Pennsylvania you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal-injury lawsuit, and courts enforce it strictly.¹¹ Miss it and the claim is usually gone no matter how strong it was.

The second clock catches people off guard. If a government vehicle or a government road problem contributed to your crash, say a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus or a poorly maintained public road, you have to file a written notice of claim within six months.¹² That is a fraction of the two-year window, and it applies before you ever file suit.

Pull the local data yourself

You do not have to take anyone's summary on faith. The Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center publishes every police-reported crash in Allegheny County from 2004 forward, with location, severity, and contributing factors.¹³ PennDOT's Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool lets you filter statewide records by county, year, and cause.¹⁴ Both are free.

If your injuries are serious and someone else caused the crash, the tort election, the insurance limits, and those two deadlines can shape your case before the medical bills even arrive. You can compare Pennsylvania attorneys through the legal directory.

This page is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. 90.5 WESA, "Allegheny County partners name 10 roads for safety improvements" (July 7, 2026). https://www.wesanews.org/development-transportation/2026-07-07/allegheny-county-10-roads-safety-improvements-vision-zero

2. Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, "SPC, County, City, PennDOT, PRT Launch Vision Zero Comprehensive Safety Action Plan for Allegheny County" (July 2, 2026). https://www.spcregion.org/2026/07/02/spc-county-city-penndot-prt-launch-vision-zero-comprehensive-safety-action-plan-for-allegheny-county-to-eliminate-traffic-fatalities/

3. PennDOT, "2024 Traffic Fatalities in Pennsylvania Second Lowest on Record" (May 2025). https://www.pa.gov/agencies/penndot/news-and-media/newsroom/statewide/2025/2024-traffic-fatalities-in-pennsylvania-second-lowest-on-record

4. 90.5 WESA, "After 21 killed in 2023, Pittsburgh renews its vow to reduce traffic deaths" (March 4, 2024). https://www.wesanews.org/politics-government/2024-03-04/pittsburgh-traffic-calming-pedestrian-deaths-vision-zero

5. PennDOT District 11, "PennDOT, Local Police Highlight Aggressive, Distracted Driving Awareness" (2026). https://www.pa.gov/agencies/penndot/news-and-media/newsroom/district-11/2026/penndot--local-police-highlight-aggressive--distracted-driving-a

6. 75 Pa.C.S. § 3746, Immediate notice of accident to police department. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.037.046.000..HTM

7. 75 Pa.C.S. § 3747, Written report of accident by driver or owner. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.037.047.000..HTM

8. PennDOT Form AA-600, Driver's Accident Report. https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/penndot/documents/public/pubsforms/forms/aa-600.pdf

9. 75 Pa.C.S. § 1705, Election of tort options. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.017.005.000..HTM

10. 75 Pa.C.S. § 1702, Definitions (financial responsibility minimums). https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.017.002.000..HTM

11. 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524, Two year limitation. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/42/00.055.024.000..HTM

12. 42 Pa.C.S. § 5522, Six months limitation (notice to government units). https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/42/00.055.022.000..HTM

13. Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, Allegheny County Crash Data. https://data.wprdc.org/dataset/allegheny-county-crash-data

14. PennDOT, Pennsylvania Crash Information Tool. https://crashinfo.penndot.pa.gov/