Car Accidents in Cleveland: 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 Cleveland in 2023 it records 58 fatal crashes and 59 deaths. Columbus recorded 98 deaths in the same year, and Cleveland, with well under half of Columbus's population, carries a higher per-resident toll.

Cleveland's fatal crashes happen at intersections and at night. Twenty-nine of the 58 were at an intersection or intersection-related, exactly half, among the highest shares in this data alongside Tucson, Milwaukee and Miami. Thirty-four happened after dark, and 33 of those were on lighted streets; only one was on an unlit road, which means Cleveland's night-time deaths are on its lit arterials, not on dark roads at the edges.

The manner of collision is more two-vehicle than in most cities. Thirteen of the 58 were angle collisions, 7 were rear-end and 5 were head-on, with 30 coded as not a collision between two motor vehicles in transport, which covers pedestrian strikes and single-vehicle crashes. Thirteen of the 58 involved a pedestrian or cyclist, 22 percent, a lower share than most cities on the list. Saturday had 13 fatal crashes and Sunday 11.

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

• I-90, 4 fatal crashes, the Shoreway and the Innerbelt through the center of the city.
• Kinsman Road, US-422, 3 fatal crashes, the southeast side arterial.
• St. Clair Avenue, 4 fatal crashes across two codings of the same road, the east side arterial along the lake.
• East 55th Street, 2 fatal crashes.
• Lorain Avenue, State Route 10, 2 fatal crashes, the west side arterial.
• Cedar Road and Superior Avenue, 1 each, as coded.

Cleveland's arterials, Kinsman, St. Clair, Superior, Lorain, Euclid, Carnegie, are wide streets built for a city of nearly a million that now carry the traffic of a city of a third that size, at speeds the width invites, through a grid of signalized intersections. Red-light running, speed and left turns across traffic at those intersections, after dark, produce the angle collisions in the data.

For a claim, the intersection pattern means fault is contested on who had the signal, and Ohio's 51 percent bar means a driver assigned more than half the fault recovers nothing, while a 50/50 split halves the claim. Cleveland's major intersections carry traffic cameras, and corner businesses carry their own; the evidence usually exists for days. Signal timing records from the city establish the phase.

Coverage is the other problem. Ohio does not require insurers to offer uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, unlike most states, and many Ohio drivers carry none. A Cleveland driver broadsided by an uninsured or minimally insured driver, which is common, has no recovery beyond medical payments coverage and health insurance unless they chose to buy UM/UIM coverage. Ohio's $25,000 minimum is exceeded by any surgical injury.

Suppose you were driving west on Kinsman Road through a green light at 10 p.m. on a Saturday when a driver traveling north ran the red at East 93rd Street and struck your driver's side. You suffered a fractured pelvis and a lacerated spleen, with $127,000 in medical bills, a lasting hip limitation and four months off work. The other driver carried Ohio's $25,000 minimum.

The driver's insurer accepted that its driver entered on red after the city's intersection camera footage, requested within the week, showed it, and paid the $25,000 limit. You had bought underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000, which many Ohio drivers do not, and the balance was claimed from your own insurer, which valued the pelvic fracture and the lasting limitation and paid at the limit after negotiation.

Ohio's cap on non-economic damages, which limits pain and suffering in most injury claims to a fixed amount tied to economic damages, was examined; the hip limitation was argued to be a permanent injury within the cap's exception, which mattered for the valuation even though the coverage was the practical ceiling. All figures are hypothetical; the night-time red-light broadside on an east side arterial, against a minimum policy and with coverage depending on an optional purchase, is the characteristic Cleveland claim.

The steps are the same as anywhere, with a few specific to Cleveland and Ohio.

• Call 911 and get the Cleveland Police report number; crashes on I-90, I-71, I-77 and I-480 may be handled by the Ohio State Highway 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.
• Check your own policy for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage now; Ohio insurers need not offer it, and if you do not have it, a crash with an uninsured driver has no practical recovery beyond your own medical coverage.
• If a city street, an ODOT highway, an RTA vehicle or a government vehicle contributed, Ohio's political subdivision immunity and Court of Claims rules apply, with their own deadlines and limits.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer; Ohio's 51 percent bar makes any admission about your own driving costly.

Ohio 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. Ohio's minimum liability coverage is $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is optional and insurers need not offer it, which leaves many drivers without it.

Fault follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar: you recover if you were 50 percent or less at fault, reduced by your share. The injury deadline is two years from the crash. Claims against the State of Ohio or ODOT are filed in the Ohio Court of Claims within two years; claims against the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County or RTA are subject to political subdivision immunity, which permits claims for negligent operation of vehicles and for failure to keep roads in repair but immunizes many other functions. Ohio also caps non-economic damages in most injury cases, with exceptions for permanent and catastrophic injuries.

Crashes in Lakewood, Parma, Euclid, Shaker Heights and the rest of Cuyahoga County follow the same Ohio rules, and a lawsuit is filed in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation with a one-year claim deadline.

A Cleveland crash claim is, more often than elsewhere, a night-time broadside at a signalized east side intersection, decided by camera and signal evidence that exists for days, under Ohio's 51 percent bar, its caps on non-economic damages, and a coverage regime in which uninsured motorist protection is optional and often absent. The questions to answer early are what the footage shows, what coverage exists on both sides, and whether the injury falls within the cap's exceptions. 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 Ohio, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in Cleveland, you can request a free claim review.

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