Fatal car crashes in Compton, CA: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 65 fatal crashes inside Compton, in which 70 people died. The roads with the most were Compton Blvd with 8 fatal crashes, Alondra Blvd with 7 and Rosecrans Ave with 7.

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

Compton's counts here are drawn from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the census of fatal traffic crashes kept by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Between 2020 and 2024 it records 65 fatal crashes in the city, with 70 deaths. Final Files supply the 2020 to 2023 numbers; the 2024 numbers come from NHTSA's Annual Report File, a first release that can change when the final 2024 file is published.

Four of the five years had 12 or more fatal crashes. In 2020 the city had 18, the most of the period, and 19 deaths; 2022 matched that death toll with 19 deaths in 17 crashes. 2021 had 12 crashes and 12 deaths, and 2023 had 14 crashes and 16 deaths. The first release for 2024 shows only 4 fatal crashes and 4 deaths. That is the lowest year by far, but it is also the one most likely to change, so the four earlier years are the firmer guide.

Compton's 65 crashes are about 2 percent of the 3,850 fatal crashes recorded across Los Angeles County in the five years, and its 70 deaths about 2 percent of the county's 4,095. Among the California places in our guides, Compton ranks 29th by deaths. The city of Los Angeles is first, with 1,637. Statewide, California's toll was 21,077 deaths in 19,496 fatal crashes.

Compton Blvd heads the table, but only by one crash. It had 8 fatal crashes and 8 deaths, the latest in 2024. Three roads follow with 7 crashes each: Alondra Blvd and Rosecrans Ave, where those crashes killed 8 people apiece, the latest in 2023, and Long Beach Blvd, where they killed 7, the latest in 2024. On Alondra Blvd and Rosecrans Ave, one crash each killed two people, so their death counts equal Compton Blvd's.

Wilmington Ave and I-710 had 6 fatal crashes each; Wilmington Ave's killed 7 people, the latest in 2022, and I-710's killed 6, the latest in 2023. State Route 91's 4 crashes killed 5 people, most recently in 2023, and Artesia Blvd's 4 killed 4, most recently in 2021. El Segundo Blvd and Santa Fe Ave close the list with 2 each, both last in 2023. Of Compton's 65 fatal crashes, 53 (82 percent) were on the ten roads in the table, along with 57 of the 70 deaths (81 percent).

Leaving out I-710 and State Route 91, which account for 10 of those crashes, the other eight rows hold 43. A crash count says where people died, not why. Whether a driver ran a signal, turned without room or was speeding is decided from the crash's own evidence: the investigating officer's report, witnesses, signal timing and any video from the corner.

Night dominates Compton's record: 47 of the 65 fatal crashes came after dark. Of those 47, 37 were on lighted roads and 10 on unlit ones; 16 crashes happened in daylight, and dawn and dusk had 1 apiece. Between 6 p.m. and midnight there were 29 crashes, and between midnight and 6 a.m. 17, so 46 fell in the 12 hours after 6 p.m. Noon to 6 p.m. had 15, the morning from 6 a.m. to noon only 3, and one crash's hour is unknown.

Sunday had the most fatal crashes, 15, three more than Thursday's 12; Friday and Saturday had 10 each, Wednesday 8, Tuesday 6 and Monday 4. Skies were clear for 61 crashes; 2 happened in rain and 2 under clouds. FARS coded 63 of the 65 as urban. Most crashes, 37, involved just one vehicle; 22 involved two, and 6 involved three or more.

Angle crashes, in which vehicles meet at an angle rather than head-on or from behind, made up 15 of the 18 crashes that started with two vehicles in transport (moving or stopped in the roadway) hitting each other; the other three were 1 rear-end, 1 head-on and 1 same-direction sideswipe. The other 47 began with a pedestrian being struck in 29, a curb in 7, a parked vehicle in 5, a cyclist in 2, a concrete barrier in 2, a wall in 1 and an object that was not fixed in place in 1. Twenty-eight crashes were at or related to an intersection, 30 away from any junction, 4 at or related to a driveway and 3 within interchange areas.

Pedestrians were the largest group of Compton's dead: 31 of the 70, or 44 percent. Three bicyclists were also killed. Thirty-five people died as drivers or passengers of vehicles in transport, 24 and 11 respectively, and 7 of those 35 were on motorcycles or mopeds. The seventieth was an occupant of a vehicle FARS lists as not in transport, for example a parked car. By crash, someone outside a vehicle was involved in 33 of the 65, just over half.

Injured pedestrians and cyclists usually look to the driver's liability insurance, and at night the questions tend to be about lighting, clothing, where the person was crossing and whether the driver should have seen them in time. For a driver or passenger in an angle crash, they are about the signal, the right of way and speed. In both, evidence gathered in the first days carries the most weight.

Every figure in this example is hypothetical. Suppose a woman driving through a signal-controlled intersection in Compton after dark is struck in the side by a car coming from the cross street against a red light. Her medical bills, lost wages and other losses come to $140,000. The other driver's insurer does not dispute the red light, but it says she entered the intersection faster than conditions allowed and puts 20 percent of the blame on her.

California's pure comparative negligence rule reduces her damages by her share of fault without barring the claim. At 20 percent, the $140,000 becomes $112,000. Had the insurer convinced a jury she was 55 percent at fault, she would still be owed $63,000, the 45 percent that was the other driver's share. Video from the intersection or the cars' event data could move that percentage in either direction.

Her claim is against the other driver's liability policy, as California is an at-fault state; the legal minimum for that policy is 30/60/15. Under that minimum the insurer pays no more than $30,000 for any one injured person and $60,000 in total for everyone injured in the crash, plus up to $15,000 for property damage. If her passenger were hurt too, both claims would share the $60,000. With only a minimum policy, $82,000 of her $112,000 would fall outside it, and whether other coverage reaches that amount depends on the policies and the facts.

A driver whose crash injured or killed anyone must report it to law enforcement within 24 hours. The DMV needs its own report as well: Cal. Veh. Code § 16000(a) gives each driver in the crash, at fault or not, 10 days to submit form SR 1, the Report of Traffic Accident Occurring in California, when someone was hurt, even slightly, someone died, or one person's property took more than $1,000 in damage. The duty applies on private property as well as on streets and highways, and an insurance agent, broker or legal representative may do the filing.

• Get medical help first; then take the report number from the officers who come, along with the name of their agency.
• At an intersection, photograph the signals, the lane markings and where each vehicle stopped; 28 of the 65 fatal crashes in Compton were coded at or related to an intersection.
• After dark, note which street lights were working and how the scene looked; night accounts for 47 of Compton's 65 fatal crashes.
• Cameras on buildings near an intersection may record over old video, so ask about footage early.
• Calendar the 10-day SR 1 deadline and keep a copy of the form.
• When the California Highway Patrol handled the crash, the CHP's request-a-crash-report page explains how to ask for a copy; other agencies release their own reports.
• Where a city, county or other California public entity may share responsibility, the first step against it is a government claim, due within six months (Gov. Code § 911.2).

Compton is in Los Angeles County, and a lawsuit over a crash there would generally be filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, unless the facts call for another court, which an attorney can judge. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 sets the general time to sue for a personal injury in California at two years. The same section gives a family two years from the death for a wrongful death claim, and for an injured child the two-year clock generally pauses until age 18 (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 352(a)).

Different rules govern claims against public bodies. If a city, a county or some other California public entity is responsible, a government claim must come first, and it has its own deadline, six months under Gov. Code § 911.2; how long one has to sue after presenting it is set separately by state law. A work-related crash can also bring a workers' compensation claim. The California Division of Workers' Compensation oversees those claims, which generally require telling the employer within 30 days and filing within one year.

In the example, California's rule leaves the driver $112,000 at 20 percent fault and $63,000 even at 55 percent. Change the state and the same crash can come out very differently. Contributory negligence, the rule that survives in Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, generally means that any fault on the injured person's part, even a small share, defeats the claim, so her 20 percent could cost her everything. Where the bar sits at 50 or 51 percent, she would generally recover at 20 percent but nothing at 55.

The insurance system shifts the picture as well. California is an at-fault state, which is why the example's claim went to the other driver's insurer. Michigan, New Jersey, Florida and New York use no-fault insurance: each injured person's own coverage pays certain losses first, no matter who was at fault, and suing the other driver for pain and suffering generally depends on the injury meeting a tort threshold defined in that state's law. Time limits differ too, and Tennessee's general deadline for injury claims is one year.

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, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say whether a claim exists. If you or a relative was hurt in a crash in Compton, you can request a free case review.

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

• Compton, California: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation

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