Car Accidents in Bakersfield: 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 Bakersfield in 2023 it records 58 fatal crashes and 62 deaths. San Jose, with more than twice Bakersfield's population, recorded 63 deaths, and Sacramento, with somewhat more people, recorded 71. Per resident, Bakersfield's toll is among the highest of California's large cities, and Kern County is often cited for its fatality rate.

Twenty-six of the 58 fatal crashes involved at least one person not in a motor vehicle, 45 percent, below the shares in San Jose and Sacramento and comparable to Denver's. Forty of the 58 were coded as not a collision between two motor vehicles in transport, covering pedestrian strikes, single-vehicle crashes and rollovers; 12 were angle collisions, 3 head-on and 2 rear-end.

The light split was nearly even: 22 in daylight, 24 after dark on lighted streets, 7 on unlit roads and 2 of unknown lighting. The weekly pattern is the unusual feature. Friday had 12 fatal crashes, Sunday and Thursday 10 each, and Saturday only 5, the lowest of the week, an inversion of the Saturday peak that most cities show. Twenty-two crashes were at or related to an intersection; 29 were away from any junction.

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

• State Route 99, 4 fatal crashes, the Central Valley freeway through the center of the city.
• Panama Lane, 3 fatal crashes, the arterial across the growing south side.
• California Avenue, 3 fatal crashes, the east-west arterial through central Bakersfield.
• Akers Road, 2 fatal crashes.
• H Street, 2 fatal crashes.
• Hageman Road, 2 fatal crashes, in the northwest.
• Harris Road, 2 fatal crashes, in the southwest.
• Q Street, 2 fatal crashes.

Bakersfield's fatal crashes are spread across the city rather than concentrated on one corridor: no road had more than 4, and the list is a mix of the SR-99 freeway and wide suburban arterials, Panama Lane, Hageman Road, Harris Road, Akers Road, in the fast-growing south and northwest, alongside the older central streets, California Avenue, H Street, Q Street. The arterials are built wide and straight with long gaps between signals, and the newer subdivisions along them have few crossings. That produces both the pedestrian toll and the single-vehicle crashes.

Kern County as a whole is often cited for its crash fatality rate, with agricultural traffic, long rural highways and high speeds contributing in the county, and the city's arterials carrying some of the same driving into town. The Friday peak in the data, and the unusually quiet Saturday, is a pattern an attorney or a city traffic engineer might examine against work schedules and the oil and agricultural economy, but the data does not say why.

For a claim, California's pure comparative negligence rule means a pedestrian or a driver assigned a share of fault still recovers the rest. The practical problems in Bakersfield claims are coverage, since a minimum policy is exceeded by any serious injury, and evidence, since the arterial crashes often occur without witnesses on roads where cameras are fewer than in the big coastal cities. The road's ownership matters for a design or lighting claim: SR-99 and SR-58 are Caltrans; the arterials are the city's or Kern County's depending on the boundary.

Suppose you were driving on Panama Lane at 6 p.m. on a Friday when a driver pulling out of a shopping center driveway struck your car in the side. You suffered a fractured collarbone and three broken ribs, with $38,000 in medical bills and seven weeks off work. The other driver carried California's minimum.

The driver's insurer accepted that its driver pulled out but assigned you 25 percent fault, asserting you were speeding. Under California's rule that reduces the claim by a quarter; it does not bar it. The shopping center's parking lot camera, requested within the week, showed the other car pulling out without stopping, and your vehicle's event data showed 42 miles per hour in a 45 zone. The assignment was withdrawn.

The $30,000 limit was paid. Your own underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000 paid the balance after negotiation over the rib injuries' duration. Had the camera footage not been requested before it was overwritten, the claim would have carried the 25 percent reduction. All figures are hypothetical; the driveway broadside on a suburban arterial against a minimum policy is a common Bakersfield claim.

The steps are the same as anywhere, with a few specific to Bakersfield and California.

• Call 911 and get the Bakersfield Police report number; crashes on SR-99 and SR-58 and in unincorporated Kern County are handled by the California Highway Patrol, and the report comes from whichever agency responded.
• Photograph the scene, the vehicles, the driveway or intersection, and every camera on nearby businesses; on Bakersfield's arterials, business cameras are often the only footage.
• Have event data from the vehicles preserved; speed and braking are the fault evidence when there are no witnesses.
• 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; California's $30,000 minimum is exceeded quickly by any serious injury.
• If a city, county or Caltrans road, crossing, light or signal contributed, calendar the six-month government claim deadline.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer; the fault percentage is negotiated from the evidence.

California 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. California's minimum liability coverage is $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage, raised at the start of 2025. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must be offered and is on most policies unless rejected in writing, and it applies to you as a pedestrian or cyclist.

Fault follows pure comparative negligence: recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault with no cutoff. The injury deadline is two years from the crash under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1. Claims against a public entity, including the City of Bakersfield, Kern County, Caltrans and GET, require a written government claim within six months under Gov. Code § 911.2 and a lawsuit within six months of the claim's rejection.

Crashes in Oildale, Delano, Shafter, Arvin, Tehachapi and the rest of Kern County follow the same California rules, and a lawsuit is filed in Kern County Superior Court. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job, which in Kern County often involves agricultural and oilfield vehicles, runs through the California Division of Workers' Compensation with a one-year claim deadline.

A Bakersfield crash claim is shaped by the city's pattern, pedestrians and single-vehicle crashes spread across wide arterials, with a high toll for the city's size, and by California's rules, pure comparative negligence and a two-year deadline, applied in a county where coverage and evidence are the practical problems. The questions to answer early are what the cameras and event data show, what coverage exists beyond the driver's policy, and whether a six-month government claim 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 California, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in Bakersfield, you can request a free claim review.

• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Truck Accident Claims: Liability, Federal Rules and Compensation
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation
• Airbag Did Not Deploy in a Crash: Can You Sue, and Whom?
• 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
• Broken Bone Car Accident Settlement: What Drives the Value

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