Car Accidents in Aurora, CO: 2023 Data and How a Claim Works

The federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System records every fatal crash with its location, time, light condition, manner of collision and the people involved. For Aurora, Colorado in 2023 it records 61 fatal crashes and 65 deaths. Denver, with roughly twice Aurora's population, recorded 71 crashes and 76 deaths, so per resident Aurora's toll is substantially higher than Denver's.

Aurora's fatal crashes happen at night and at intersections. Forty-one of the 61 were after dark, and 35 of those were on lighted streets, which means the major arterials rather than unlit roads at the city's edge. Twenty-nine were at an intersection or intersection-related, 48 percent. Twenty of the 61 were angle collisions, the broadside crash that happens when one driver runs a signal or turns across another's path; that is a third of all fatal crashes, one of the highest angle shares in the data, above Mesa's 27 percent and far above Sacramento's 11 percent.

Nineteen crashes involved a pedestrian or cyclist, 31 percent. Thirty-three were coded as not a collision between two motor vehicles in transport, which covers pedestrian strikes and single-vehicle crashes. Saturday had 13 fatal crashes and Sunday 12, with Tuesday at 10 and the remaining days between 5 and 8.

The data codes each crash to a trafficway as the state reports it. The roads with the most fatal crashes in Aurora in 2023 were:

• East Colfax Avenue, US-40, 6 fatal crashes across two codings of the same road, the historic east-west arterial through north Aurora.
• East Montview Boulevard, 4 fatal crashes, the arterial a mile north of Colfax.
• I-225, 4 fatal crashes, the interstate loop through the center of the city.
• Chambers Road, 6 fatal crashes across its north and south segments, the north-south arterial through the east side.
• North Peoria Street, 3 fatal crashes.
• East Iliff Avenue, 3 fatal crashes.

Aurora is laid out on the same mile-grid of wide arterials as the rest of the metro's east side: Colfax, Montview, Iliff, Chambers, Peoria, with signalized intersections at the mile and half-mile and 40-to-45-mile-per-hour limits between them. Colfax Avenue in Aurora is a long commercial strip with dense pedestrian activity, bus stops, bars and late-night businesses, and it has long been regarded as one of the metro's most dangerous streets. The night-time, intersection, angle-collision pattern in the data is the pattern of a driver running a signal or turning left at speed on one of these roads after dark.

For a claim, the intersection pattern means fault is usually contested on who had the signal, and Colorado's 50 percent bar makes that contest decisive: a driver assigned 50 percent recovers nothing. Aurora's major intersections carry city traffic cameras, and the corner businesses along Colfax carry their own, so the evidence usually exists for a few days. Signal timing records from the city establish the phase.

The road's ownership matters for a claim that signal timing, lighting or crossing design contributed. Colfax is US-40, a state highway under the Colorado Department of Transportation; I-225 is the state's; Montview, Chambers, Peoria and Iliff are the city's. A claim against any of them falls under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, with a 182-day notice requirement and damage caps.

Suppose you were driving east on Colfax through a green light at 11 p.m. on a Saturday when a northbound driver ran the red at Chambers Road and struck your passenger side, where your teenage son was sitting. He suffered a fractured pelvis and a ruptured spleen, with $134,000 in medical bills and lasting limitation; you suffered a wrist fracture. The other driver fled and was arrested two days later, uninsured and impaired.

The claim against the driver was worthless. Your own policy's uninsured motorist coverage, $250,000 per person, covered both of you. The UM claim was presented to your own insurer, which, valuing it as a liability claim, assigned you 15 percent fault for entering the intersection without checking cross-traffic; city camera footage showing your green and the other driver's speed resolved it at zero. Your son's claim, as a minor's, required court approval and a structured settlement.

A hit and run claim in Colorado requires a prompt police report, which you made from the scene, and the UM claim was supported by the arrest. Had you rejected UM coverage, which Colorado permits in writing, the family's recovery would have been limited to medical payments coverage and health insurance. All figures are hypothetical; the uninsured, impaired, red-light broadside on an Aurora arterial at night is the characteristic claim.

The steps are the same as anywhere, with a few specific to Aurora and Colorado.

• Call 911 and get the Aurora Police report number; crashes on I-225 and I-70 are handled by the Colorado State Patrol, and the report comes from whichever agency responded.
• At an intersection crash, tell the officer which signal you had, get the names of drivers stopped at the light, and note every camera on the signal poles and corner businesses.
• Have requests for the city's intersection camera footage and signal timing records, and preservation letters to corner businesses, sent within days.
• Get medical care the same day; a gap in treatment is used against the claim.
• Find your own policy's uninsured and underinsured motorist limits; Colorado's $25,000 minimum is exceeded quickly by a broadside injury.
• If a CDOT or city road, signal or crossing contributed, calendar the 182-day notice deadline under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer, or to your own insurer on a UM claim, without preparation; Colorado's 50 percent bar makes any admission expensive.

Colorado 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, which Colorado insurers must offer, pays early bills. Colorado's minimum liability coverage is $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must be offered and can be rejected in writing, and it applies to you as a pedestrian or cyclist as well as in your car.

Fault follows modified comparative negligence with a 50 percent bar under Colorado law: you recover only if you were less than 50 percent at fault, reduced by your share, so a 50/50 finding eliminates the claim. The deadline for an injury claim arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle is three years from the crash under C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n), longer than the two-year general injury period and longer than most states. Claims against the City of Aurora, Arapahoe or Adams County, the Colorado Department of Transportation, RTD or any other public entity require written notice within 182 days under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, C.R.S. § 24-10-109, and are subject to damage caps.

Aurora spans Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties, and a lawsuit is filed in the district court of the county where the crash occurred or the defendant resides. Crashes in Denver, Centennial, Parker and the rest of the metro follow the same Colorado rules. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the Colorado Division of Workers' Compensation, with written notice to the employer within ten working days and a two-year claim deadline.

An Aurora crash claim is, more often than elsewhere, a night-time broadside at a signalized arterial intersection, decided by camera and signal evidence that exists for days unless requested, under Colorado's severe 50 percent bar and a $25,000 minimum policy that a side-impact injury exceeds immediately. The questions to answer early are what the footage shows, what coverage exists beyond the at-fault driver's policy, and whether a 182-day government notice applies. 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 Colorado, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in Aurora, you can request a free claim review.

• Aurora, Colorado: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Motorcycle Accident Claims: Overcoming Rider Bias and Recovering Fully
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation
• Car Accidents in Colorado Springs: 2023 Data and How Claims Work
• Car Accidents in Pueblo: 2023 Data and Colorado Claim Rules
• Car Accidents in Denver: 2023 Crash Data and How a Claim Works
• Car Accident With No Police Report: Can You Still Claim?
• Road Rage Accident Claim: Intentional Acts and Insurance
• Hit and Run Accident Claim: What to Do and Who Pays

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