Fatal car crashes in Buckeye, AZ: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 77 fatal crashes inside Buckeye, in which 85 people died. The roads with the most were I-10 with 17 fatal crashes, State Route 85 (street name not recorded) with 12 and Jackrabbit Trl with 6.

Filing deadline, fault rule, insurance and the court for a crash in Buckeye: Buckeye, AZ injury guide.

NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) is the federal tally of traffic crashes on public roads that killed at least one person. It lists 77 fatal crashes in Buckeye from 2020 through 2024, and 85 people died in them. NHTSA's Final Files supply 2020 through 2023, and the 2024 figures come from its Annual Report File, the first release for that year, which may be revised.

The yearly crash count barely moved: 15 in 2020, 16 in 2021, 15 in 2022, 16 in 2023 and 15 in 2024. Deaths varied more, at 16, 21, 16, 17 and 15, because some crashes killed more than one person; in 2021, 16 crashes took 21 lives. In every year except 2024, at least one crash killed more than one person, and over the five years deaths exceed crashes by eight.

Maricopa County as a whole recorded 2,854 fatal crashes and 3,053 deaths in the same five years, so Buckeye's share is about 3 percent of each. Within the city, FARS classified 44 of the 77 crashes as urban and 31, or 40 percent, as rural, with 2 unknown. Three crashes happened in work zones, 2 of them in construction zones and 1 of unknown type.

I-10 tops Buckeye's road table with 17 fatal crashes and 17 deaths from 2020 through 2024, the latest in 2024, or 22 percent of all the city's fatal crashes. The next row, State Route 85 (street name not recorded), had 12 crashes and 14 deaths, also most recently in 2024, five crashes fewer. Together these two rows hold 29 of the 77 crashes, 38 percent, and 31 of the 85 deaths.

Jackrabbit Trl follows with 6 crashes and 6 deaths, and Baseline Rd with 4 crashes that killed 5 people; both had a fatal crash in 2024. S Rainbow Rd, US-80 and Wintersburg Rd had 3 crashes and 3 deaths each, the latest in 2024, 2023 and 2022 respectively. N Verrado Way's 2 crashes killed 4 people, the latest in 2024. The last two rows, Oglesby Rd (State Route 85) and Noncard (State Route 85), had 2 crashes each, with 3 and 2 deaths.

All ten rows together account for 54 of the 77 crashes, 70 percent, and 60 of the 85 deaths, with more than a third of the crashes on the top two rows alone. A road's place in the table is not evidence of fault in any one crash; responsibility is decided by that crash's own record, including the investigating officer's report, the vehicles, witnesses and any recordings. For anyone hurt on I-10 or another listed road, the evidence from the scene matters far more than the road's ranking.

Darkness without street lighting stands out in Buckeye's record. Of the 32 crashes after dark, 21 happened on roads with no lighting, 7 on lighted roads and 4 where the lighting was unknown. Daylight accounted for 33, dawn for 3 and dusk for 2, and lighting was not reported or reported as unknown for 7. By the clock, 26 crashes happened between 6 p.m. and midnight, 18 between 6 a.m. and noon, 16 between noon and 6 p.m. and 13 between midnight and 6 a.m.; the hour was unknown for 4.

Friday through Sunday accounted for 44 of the 77 crashes, 57 percent: Friday had the most, 17, Sunday 14 and Saturday 13, while Wednesday had the fewest, 7. Fifty crashes, 65 percent, happened away from any intersection or other junction, and 20 were at or related to an intersection. The weather was clear for 59 crashes, cloudy for 4 and rainy for 3, and was not reported or unknown for 11.

Rollovers are a distinctive part of the record: 13 crashes, 17 percent, began with a vehicle overturning. In all, 39 crashes began with something other than a collision with another vehicle in transport, including 12 in which a pedestrian was struck first and 6 in which a cyclist was. Of the 38 that began as collisions between vehicles in transport, 16 were angle crashes, 11 rear-end, 8 head-on and 3 sideswipes. Single-vehicle and two-vehicle crashes were even at 35 each, and 7 crashes involved three or more vehicles.

People in or on vehicles account for most of Buckeye's deaths: 49 drivers and 16 passengers, 65 of the 85, or 76 percent. Nine of all those killed, 11 percent, were on a motorcycle or moped; they are part of the 85, not additional deaths. Outside vehicles, 14 pedestrians and 6 bicyclists died, and by crash, 20 of the 77, or 26 percent, involved a pedestrian, cyclist or other person outside a vehicle.

In four of the five years, at least one crash killed two or more people, and a crash that hurts several people raises a practical problem: everyone injured may be claiming against the same policy. A minimum Arizona policy pays at most $50,000 for all injuries in one crash, so when several people are hurt, they share that amount. When someone dies, a wrongful death claim brought for the family has two years, running from the death rather than the injury (A.R.S. § 12-542(2)).

Here is an invented case with round numbers. At night on an unlit two-lane road in Buckeye, a driver drifts over the center line and hits your car head-on. You and your passenger are both hurt. Your damages are valued at $120,000 and your passenger's at $60,000. The other driver's insurer argues that you were going too fast to react and should bear 30 percent of the fault for your own injuries.

Arizona's pure comparative negligence rule reduces your award by your share and does not bar recovery even when you were mostly at fault. At 30 percent, your $120,000 becomes $84,000. Your passenger was not at fault in this example, so the passenger's $60,000 is not reduced. Even at 80 percent fault you would still recover $24,000, where a state with a 51 percent bar would award you nothing.

Then come the limits. Arizona requires at least 25/50/15: $25,000 for one person's injuries, $50,000 for all injuries in one crash and $15,000 for property damage. If the other driver carried only the minimum, you could receive no more than $25,000 from that policy, and the two of you together no more than $50,000, far less than your combined losses. Whether other coverage reaches the rest depends on the policies; all figures here are hypothetical.

If anyone is hurt or killed, Arizona law makes calling it in the driver's job, and right away (A.R.S. § 28-666): notice goes by the fastest available means to the local police if the crash is inside a city or town, the county sheriff's office or the nearest highway patrol office. There is no driver's report form to fill out afterward; the investigating officer prepares the crash report. When only property is damaged, the duty is to stop and swap information or let the owner know.

Copies of the report come from the agency that investigated. For a crash that Arizona DPS troopers investigated, DPS's records request page is the place to ask; for others, ask the local agency that responded. Because the officer writes the report, read it early and point out any error in the facts it records. In the first days after a crash:

• Call 911 from the scene if anyone is hurt, and note which agency responded and the report number.
• On an unlit road, photograph the lane lines, the shoulder and where each vehicle stopped; 21 of Buckeye's fatal crashes happened in the dark with no lighting.
• If a vehicle rolled over, photograph its final position and any marks leading to it before it is towed.
• Get the names and contact details of every passenger and witness.
• See a doctor promptly and keep every bill and record.
• If a city, county, state agency or other Arizona public entity may be responsible, note the 180-day deadline for filing a claim with it (A.R.S. § 12-821.01(A)).

A lawsuit over a crash in Buckeye is typically filed in the Maricopa County Superior Court; an attorney can tell whether another court is the right one for a particular case. Arizona's statute of limitations, the legal deadline to sue, is generally two years from the date of injury (A.R.S. § 12-542). Most claims are settled with an insurer, but the two-year date applies whether or not talks are under way, so it should be known from the start.

Two Arizona rules shift that clock. For wrongful death, the two years run from the death rather than the injury (A.R.S. § 12-542(2)), and for a child they do not begin until the child turns 18, after which the full period is available (A.R.S. § 12-502). A claim against an Arizona public entity is a separate step: it must be filed with that entity within 180 days (A.R.S. § 12-821.01(A)), and the time to sue the entity is set separately by state law. For a crash at work, tell the employer right away (“forthwith,” A.R.S. § 23-908(E)); the Industrial Commission of Arizona handles the claim, due within one year.

Arizona's pure comparative rule is why the injured driver in the example still recovers $84,000 at 30 percent fault and $24,000 even at 80 percent. A state with a 51 percent bar would cut off recovery once fault passed 50 percent, and in contributory negligence states such as Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, even a 30 percent share could generally leave the driver with nothing.

The insurance system matters as well. Arizona is an at-fault state, so the claim begins with the at-fault driver's liability coverage; in no-fault states such as Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey, your own policy generally pays certain losses first. Tennessee allows one year for most injury claims; Arizona generally allows two, counted from the death in a wrongful death case.

Ask Legal Matters is a personal injury lead-generation service that collects free case review requests from injured people in the United States and shares them with independent attorneys and law firms. It is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in your state. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, so their fee is a share of any recovery. An attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say whether a claim exists. If you or a family member were hurt in a crash in Buckeye, you can request a free case review.

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• What should you do after a car accident?

More on this type of claim: Car accidents: evidence, deadlines and when to ask an attorney.

• Buckeye, Arizona: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Wrongful Death Claims: Who Can File, Deadlines and Damages

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