Car accident statute of limitations in Kentucky

If you were hurt in a Kentucky crash, the deadline to sue isn't the one-year clock a lot of people assume applies to personal injury cases generally. Kentucky's Motor Vehicle Reparations Act carves out its own rule for wrecks involving cars, trucks, and motorcycles: two years, not one, and that two-year period doesn't always start on the day of the crash.¹ The general one-year limit in KRS 413.140 still governs plenty of Kentucky injury claims, slip-and-falls, dog bites, and so on, but it steps aside for anything arising out of a motor vehicle accident.²

Here's what actually controls the deadline in Kentucky, and where it runs shorter or stranger than people expect.

The two-year rule, and what can push it back

KRS 304.39-230 gives you two years from the date of the accident to sue the at-fault driver, or two years from the date of death in a fatal crash.¹ But the statute has a second trigger built in: if an insurer is still paying out Basic Reparation Benefits (BRB), the no-fault medical and wage-loss coverage carried on every Kentucky policy, the two years runs from the date of the last BRB payment instead, whenever that's later than the accident date.¹

BRB, sometimes called PIP, covers at least $10,000 per person for medical bills, up to $200 a week in lost wages, and replacement services, and it applies automatically unless the owner rejected it in writing on the state's NFV-1 form.³ Insurers have to pay a BRB bill within 30 days of receiving reasonable proof of loss, or the unpaid amount starts drawing 12% annual interest, more if the delay had no reasonable basis.⁴ So if treatment drags on and the insurer keeps cutting checks eight, twelve, eighteen months out, the filing deadline moves with it. If there's any doubt about when the last payment actually landed, the safer approach is to treat the original accident date as the deadline rather than lean on the extension.

Property damage runs on its own clock

A claim for the vehicle itself, repair costs or the loss in resale value after it's fixed, follows a different statute, KRS 413.125, which also allows two years, but strictly from the date of loss.⁵ Unlike the injury claim, this clock doesn't get pushed back by ongoing insurance payments. It just runs. If you're pursuing a diminished value claim in Kentucky on top of repair costs, the same two-year window applies to that claim too.

Not every crash produces a lawsuit

Kentucky's no-fault system also gates who gets to sue at all. Under KRS 304.39-060, you can't bring a tort claim against the other driver unless your medical expenses passed $1,000, or you suffered a fracture, a permanent injury or disfigurement, or death.⁶ Below that line, your BRB coverage is the remedy, not a lawsuit, no matter how much time is left on the two-year clock. People sometimes wait to see whether an injury will "count" before looking into a claim at all. If you're anywhere near that threshold, that's a reason to get information sooner, not later.

Wrongful death runs on a different clock

When a crash is fatal, the deadline isn't measured simply as two years from the date of death. KRS 413.180 ties it to when a personal representative, an executor or administrator of the estate, is formally appointed by the probate court.⁷ Appoint one within a year of the death, and the estate has one year from that appointment to sue. Wait longer than a year to open the estate, and the law treats the representative as having qualified on the last day of that first year anyway, which caps the real-world deadline at two years from the date of death. Families dealing with a fatal crash often don't get around to opening an estate right away, and that delay eats directly into the window.

If the injured person was a minor

Kentucky pauses the clock for anyone who was a minor when the crash happened. KRS 413.170 tolls the statute of limitations until the disability, meaning minority, is removed, then gives the same number of years to file that an adult would have had.⁸ Kentucky's age of majority is 18,⁹ so a child hurt in a crash generally has until their 20th birthday, a full two years past turning 18, to file suit in their own name. A parent or guardian can still file sooner on the child's behalf, and there are good practical reasons to preserve evidence and talk to a lawyer well before adulthood, but the statute itself doesn't force the issue until then.

The 90-day trap when a city is involved

Some crashes trace back to a road defect rather than the other driver, a collapsed shoulder, a pothole that blows a tire into oncoming traffic. If a city's failure to maintain a street, sidewalk, or bridge is part of what caused the wreck, KRS 411.110 requires written notice to the mayor, city clerk, or clerk of the board of aldermen within 90 days of the incident, describing the time, place, and circumstances of the injury.¹⁰ That's a fraction of the two-year deadline for the injury claim itself, and it's treated as a strict, separate requirement. Miss the 90 days, and a claim against the city can be barred even though the general statute of limitations still has years left to run. If a defective roadway might be part of your case, that's not something to sit on.

Kentucky's weather doesn't wait either

None of this is purely a paperwork problem. Two years sounds like plenty of room until you consider what Kentucky's winters do to a crash scene: multi-day ice and snow events, like the storm that hit Louisville and much of the state in late January 2026, scatter and erase the physical evidence a claim depends on, skid marks, debris, road conditions at the time.¹¹ Waiting months to pull the police report or track down a witness won't cost you the statute of limitations, but it can quietly weaken the case you're still allowed to bring for the next two years. Kentucky State Police is the records custodian for crash reports,¹² and our Kentucky crash report guide covers how to get yours.

Getting the timing right

Two years feels like room to spare until you're a few months in and realize the actual deadline depends on facts that weren't obvious at the start: whether BRB payments have stopped, whether an estate representative has been appointed, whether a city road defect is part of the story. A lawyer can sort out which of these rules applies to your crash before any of it becomes urgent. The legal directory is a place to start looking for one.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

KRS 304.39-230, Limitations of actions, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=45816
KRS 413.140, Actions to be brought within one year, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=49037
KRS 304.39-020, Definitions for subtitle (Basic Reparation Benefits), Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=48634
KRS 304.39-210, Obligor's duty to respond to claims, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=30050
KRS 413.125, Actions relating to personal property, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=17867
KRS 304.39-060, Acceptance or rejection of partial abolition of tort liability, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=30030
KRS 413.180, Action by or against personal representative under KRS 413.090 to 413.160, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=17874
KRS 413.170, Limitations of actions in KRS 413.090 to 413.160 do not run until removal of disability or death, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=17873
KRS 2.015, Age of majority, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=9
KRS 411.110, Action against city for injury from defect in street, sidewalk, or other public way, Kentucky Legislature, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=17766
National Weather Service Louisville, Winter Storm January 24-26, 2026, https://www.weather.gov/lmk/WinterStormJanuary24_262026
Kentucky State Police, Civilian Collision Reports, https://www.kentuckystatepolice.ky.gov/civilian-collision-reports

Car Accident Statute of Limitations in Kentucky