Car Accidents in Albuquerque: 2023 Data and How a Claim Works

NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System records every fatal crash on public roads. For 2023, crashes coded to Albuquerque account for 109 deaths in 106 fatal crashes. For a city of 560,000, that is a fatal crash rate comparable to Memphis and Tucson and several times that of cities like New York or Chicago. New Mexico as a state has long had one of the highest traffic death rates in the country, and Albuquerque is where most of them happen.

The pattern is pedestrians. Fifty-five of 106 fatal crashes involved at least one person not in a vehicle, 52 percent, a share matched only by Los Angeles among the nation's large cities. The most common first harmful event, 67 crashes, was something other than hitting another moving vehicle, which in Albuquerque usually means a person. New Mexico has ranked at or near the worst in the nation for pedestrian deaths per capita for years, and Central Avenue is the corridor most often named.

Darkness was a factor in 67 of 106 fatal crashes, 63 percent. Thirty-one were intersection-related, and rear-end collisions, 15, were unusually prominent, consistent with high-speed traffic on I-25 and I-40. FARS counts fatal crashes only; injury crashes in Bernalillo County, reported through the New Mexico Department of Transportation, are many times more numerous.

FARS roadway coding identifies where fatal crashes concentrated in 2023. The two interstates and Central Avenue together account for 40 percent of the city's fatal crashes.

• I-25: 15 fatal crashes on the north-south interstate through the city.
• I-40: 15 fatal crashes on the east-west interstate, including the Big I interchange area.
• Central Avenue (historic Route 66): 12 fatal crashes, the most of any surface street and the city's main pedestrian corridor.
• Louisiana Boulevard: 5 fatal crashes on the east side.
• State Route 345: 4 fatal crashes, as coded by the state.
• Candelaria Road: 3 fatal crashes.

A pedestrian struck on Central Avenue at night has an injury claim against the driver's liability insurer, and the defenses are the usual ones: outside a crosswalk, dark clothing, stepped out suddenly, impaired. On Central, where the distance between protected crossings can be long and the sidewalk environment is dense with people, mid-block crossing is routine, and the fault argument turns on the driver's speed, attention and lighting as much as the pedestrian's position.

New Mexico's pure comparative negligence rule keeps these claims alive. A pedestrian found 50 percent at fault still recovers half, and a jury's view of a driver who hit a person on a lit urban avenue is often less forgiving than the insurer's opening position. The evidence, the vehicle's event data for speed, camera footage from businesses and ABQ RIDE buses, and witnesses, has to be gathered in the first days.

Pedestrians and cyclists usually have coverage on their own household auto policies. New Mexico uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage applies to a named insured or household member struck by a vehicle on foot, and with New Mexico's $25,000 minimum liability limit and a high uninsured driver rate, that coverage is frequently the larger source of recovery. Hit-and-run crashes, common on Central, are uninsured motorist claims if reported to police promptly.

Suppose you were crossing Central Avenue near Louisiana Boulevard at night when a driver traveling well over the limit struck you. You suffered a fractured pelvis and a traumatic brain injury, with $185,000 in medical bills and no return to work for seven months. The driver's insurer argued you crossed mid-block and assigned you 50 percent of the fault.

Under New Mexico's pure comparative rule, even 50 percent leaves half the damages. The vehicle's event data recorder, preserved by a letter in the first week, showed a speed 20 miles over the limit with no braking, and an ABQ RIDE bus camera showed the driver on a phone. The fault share was renegotiated to 25 percent. The driver carried New Mexico's $25,000 minimum, which was paid; your household auto policy's underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000 paid the balance after the reduction.

A separate question was whether the city's lighting and crossing design on that stretch of Central contributed. That is a claim against the City of Albuquerque under the Tort Claims Act, and it required written notice to the city within 90 days of the crash, long before the three-year deadline for the claim against the driver. All figures are hypothetical.

Albuquerque's crashes are pedestrian and night crashes, and the government notice deadline is the shortest in the country at 90 days.

• Get the Albuquerque Police Department or Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office report number and request the report.
• Identify every camera facing the location, including businesses and ABQ RIDE buses, and have preservation letters sent within days.
• Ask that the vehicle not be scrapped before its event data recorder is downloaded.
• Photograph the lighting, the distance to the nearest crosswalk, and the position of the vehicle and the person.
• Check your own and your household members' auto policies for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, even if you were on foot.
• Report any hit-and-run to police immediately.
• If a street light, crossing, signal or road design contributed, send written notice to the city, county or state within 90 days under the Tort Claims Act.

New Mexico is a fault state, not no-fault. The at-fault driver's liability insurer is the primary source of recovery, and medical payments coverage on your own policy, if purchased, pays early bills. New Mexico's minimum liability coverage is $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident and $10,000 for property damage. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must be offered in amounts equal to the liability limits and can be rejected only in writing, and New Mexico courts have been strict about the form of that rejection, which means many drivers have the coverage even when the insurer says otherwise.

Fault follows pure comparative negligence: recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault with no cutoff. The injury deadline is three years from the crash under NMSA 1978, § 37-1-8. Claims against a government entity, including the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, ABQ RIDE and the New Mexico Department of Transportation, require written notice within 90 days under the Tort Claims Act and a lawsuit within two years, and the Act caps damages and limits the kinds of claims that can be brought.

Crashes in Rio Rancho, Santa Fe and Las Cruces follow the same New Mexico rules; crashes on tribal land, including the pueblos surrounding Albuquerque, can involve tribal jurisdiction with different procedures. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration with a one-year claim deadline.

An Albuquerque claim is often a pedestrian claim on Central or a high-speed crash on the interstates, with a fault argument, a minimum-limits driver, and a possible government defendant on a 90-day clock. The questions to answer early are what the recorders and cameras show, what coverage exists including your own household policies and whether a UM rejection was valid, and whether the street is part of the claim. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency.

Ask Legal Matters is a free claim-review request service, not a law firm. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in New Mexico, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in Albuquerque or Bernalillo County, as a driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist, you can request a free claim review.

• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation
• Wrongful Death Claims: Who Can File, Deadlines and Damages
• At Fault in a Car Accident? Comparative Negligence Explained
• What Is the Average Car Accident Settlement? What Sets the Value
• Back and Neck Injury Settlement After a Car Accident: Factors
• Bicycle Accident Claim: Hit by a Car While Riding
• Can I Sue for a Slip and Fall? Premises Liability Explained
• Can I Sue My Employer for a Work Injury? Workers' Comp vs Lawsuit

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