Car Accidents in Durham: 2023 Data and North Carolina Claims

The federal FARS database, run by NHTSA, takes in each crash on a public road that ends with someone dying within 30 days, using police reports and other state records. For 2023 it lists 25 such crashes in Durham, all inside Durham County, and 26 deaths; every crash site was on a road FARS classes as urban. Since there is exactly one more death than there are crashes, one crash killed two people and each of the rest killed one. Clear weather prevailed in 20 crashes; 3 happened in rain and 2 under cloudy skies.

Collisions between two moving vehicles were uncommon: just 5 crashes started that way, 4 with angle impacts and 1 head-on. The other 20, four in five, began some other way, such as a vehicle striking a person or a fixed object. FARS calls the opening injury or damage in a crash the first harmful event. For 6 crashes that event was a pedestrian being hit; for 1 it was a cyclist, and for another it was someone FARS classes as a non-motorist using a personal conveyance, a category covering devices like wheelchairs and skateboards. Overall, 9 crashes, 36 percent, involved a pedestrian, cyclist or other non-motorist.

Trees were hit first in 5 crashes and utility poles or light supports in 2, while a ditch, a curb, the face of a guardrail and a parked vehicle came first in 1 each. Add the pedestrian, cyclist and personal conveyance strikes and the 5 collisions between moving vehicles, and the listed first events cover only 24 crashes, so the summary leaves one crash's first harmful event out. Junction coding puts 14 crashes at non-junction locations, 5 within an intersection, 4 in intersection-related areas, 1 at a driveway and 1 tied to a ramp.

Darkness covered 17 crashes, 68 percent: 10 where street lights were present and 7 where they were not, with daylight accounting for the other 8. Fourteen crashes are coded to the late-night window that opens at 9 p.m. and closes at 5 a.m., and 11 to the remaining sixteen hours; that arithmetic places at least 3 of the dark crashes in the evening or in the early morning before sunrise. Wednesday stood out with 7 crashes, more than any other day. July and August had 4 each, and September had none.

Principal arterials other than freeways had the largest share, 7 crashes, followed by interstates with 5 and other freeways or expressways with 4; together the interstates and freeways, roads designed mainly for through traffic at higher speeds, carried 9 of the 25. Minor arterials and local streets had 3 each, major collectors 2 and minor collectors 1. Fatal crashes were spread across seven road classes rather than concentrated in one.

Twelve road entries appear in the summary, the ones that occur most often; they account for 17 crashes, and the other 8 are on roads it omits. Several entries pair a route number with a street name. The entry coded US-501 BUS N Roxboro St carries a business-route designation and is kept separate from plain US-501, and Woodcroft Parkway appears with an MU- prefix, omitted below. A road's count reflects how much traffic it carries as well as how it is driven:

• US-501: 3 fatal crashes.
• US-501 BUS North Roxboro Street: 2.
• I-885 and I-40: 2 each.
• SSR-1158 East Cornwallis Road, SSR-1959 South Miami Boulevard, SR-55 North Alston Avenue and US-70 BUS Hillsborough Road: 1 each.
• West Woodcroft Parkway, SSR-1118, SR-98 and SR-54 (coded as Nelson Chapel Hill Hwy): 1 each.

FARS records how a crash unfolded rather than why, and this summary carries nothing on speed, distraction or impairment, so the explanations here are possibilities to test, not findings. Crashes that begin with a vehicle striking a tree, pole, ditch or guardrail typically involve a vehicle leaving its lane or the road, which can follow speeding, fatigue, distraction or a sudden swerve. Darkness may compound the risk: 7 crashes happened on unlit roads, where a driver sees only as far as the headlights reach.

Night also matters for people on foot. Six crashes began with a pedestrian being struck, and pedestrians are much harder to see after dark, especially away from intersections and street lights. The summary does not show how many pedestrian crashes happened at night or on unlit roads, so the two counts cannot be linked. NHTSA's pedestrian safety guidance urges drivers to slow down and watch for people walking, particularly at night, and urges pedestrians to make themselves visible.

Each of these patterns runs into North Carolina's fault rule. Under contributory negligence, a defendant who shows that the injured person bore as little as 1 percent of the fault can escape paying anything. For an injured passenger in a single-car crash, the insurer may look at whether the passenger had reason to know the driver was unfit to drive; for a pedestrian, it may focus on where and how the person crossed. North Carolina also recognizes the last clear chance doctrine, which can still allow recovery when the other side had the last real chance to prevent the harm and did not take it.

Suppose you were riding in a coworker's car late on a Wednesday night when it drifted off the road into a tree, with no other vehicle involved. You suffered a fractured thigh bone and broken ribs, spent a week in the hospital and needed months of therapy. Hospital and therapy charges totaled $95,000, and five months without a paycheck cost another $20,000.

The driver's insurer accepted that its driver was at fault but argued that you were contributorily negligent because you knew the driver had just finished a double shift and rode along anyway. Under North Carolina law, if that argument had held up, any fault at all on your side, even 1 percent, could have sunk the claim. Text messages in which the driver told you she had slept that afternoon, along with another coworker's account that she had seemed alert, undercut the argument, and the insurer dropped it.

Now put the full value of your losses, with pain and suffering, at $250,000. If the driver's policy sat at the North Carolina floor, now $50,000 per injured person, $200,000 would remain beyond it, and the next place to look would be underinsured motorist coverage that applies to you, which may include your own policy or a household member's, depending on its terms. Health insurance or medical payments coverage might pay some bills first and later seek repayment. Every figure here is hypothetical; assessing a real claim requires an attorney's review of the facts.

Since North Carolina can deny recovery over a small share of fault, and most of Durham's 2023 crashes came after dark and began with something other than a two-vehicle collision, the steps below focus on proving your own careful conduct as well as the other driver's mistakes. They apply to drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. Start as soon as it is safe, since tire marks fade and damaged trees or poles may be cleared within days.

• Call 911, then ask the responding officer which agency, Durham police or the State Highway Patrol, will write the report, and note the report number.
• Passengers should write down the driver's name, insurer and policy number, and anything the driver said about being tired, rushed or distracted.
• If you were walking, record the exact spot where you were struck and its distance from the nearest crosswalk, signal or street light.
• Photograph the scene, including tire marks that leave the roadway, scarred trees, poles or guardrails and the street lighting; for a night crash, go back after dark to capture what drivers could see.
• Avoid guessing about speeds, distances or your own actions when talking with insurers, because in a contributory negligence state a casual remark can be used against you.
• Get medical care promptly and keep every bill and record.
• Ask your insurer what uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage you carry and whether it covers you as a passenger or pedestrian.

North Carolina belongs to a shrinking group of contributory negligence states. A defense that pins even 1 percent of the responsibility on the injured person can defeat the claim outright, unless an exception such as the last clear chance doctrine applies. Alabama, Maryland and Virginia follow the same rule. Most states use comparative negligence instead: California reduces damages by the injured person's share of fault without any cutoff, while Texas bars recovery once that share exceeds 50 percent.

Who pays also turns on fault in North Carolina. The liability insurer for the driver who caused the crash generally pays, whereas in Florida or Kentucky an injured person typically begins with personal injury protection from his or her own policy; Kentucky even lets drivers reject, in writing, the no-fault limits on their right to sue. North Carolina's minimum liability limits now stand at 50/100/50, so a minimum policy pays no more than $50,000 to one injured person or $100,000 to all injured people in a crash, plus $50,000 for property. Minimums change over time, so the coverage that matters is whatever the at-fault driver had when the crash occurred.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52 gives most North Carolina injury suits three years, but a wrongful death action has only two (N.C.G.S. § 1-53(4)), measured from the day the person died. If a state or local government vehicle, employee or road may be involved, different procedures and timelines can apply, so that possibility deserves early attention. Elsewhere the clock runs differently: generally one year in Tennessee and five in Missouri. North Carolina injury lawsuits are generally heard in Superior Court.

Durham's 2023 record is shaped by night, by crashes that began with a pedestrian, a tree or another object instead of a second moving vehicle, and by 9 crashes involving a pedestrian, cyclist or other non-motorist. North Carolina's rules raise the stakes, because contributory negligence can erase a claim that comparative fault would only shrink, and the filing clock runs three years for injuries but two for a death. Early work usually centers on documenting conduct and finding every policy that might pay. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, typically for a percentage of any recovery.

Ask Legal Matters runs a free claim-review request service as a lead-generation service, not a law firm, and it does not provide legal advice. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in North Carolina. Whether you have a claim, and how contributory negligence might affect it, can only be judged by an attorney who evaluates the facts. Anyone hurt in a Durham crash, or grieving someone killed in one, can request a free claim review.

• Durham, North Carolina: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation
• Wrongful Death Claims: Who Can File, Deadlines and Damages
• Car Accidents in Winston-Salem: 2023 Data and How a Claim Works
• Car Accidents in Raleigh: 2023 Data and How a Claim Works
• Car Accidents in Fayetteville, NC: 2023 Data and Claim Rules
• Car Accidents in Miami Gardens: 2023 Deaths and Florida Claims
• Child Injured in a Car Accident: How the Claim Works
• Bus Accident Claim: City, School and Charter Buses Differ

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