Fatal car crashes in Lansing, MI: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 57 fatal crashes inside Lansing, in which 61 people died. The roads with the most were Martin Luther King Jr Blvd (State Route 99) with 12 fatal crashes, Cedar St (State Route 96) with 5 and Jolly Rd with 4.

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

Lansing's figures come from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which logs every fatal crash on a public road in the country. Its files for 2020 through 2024 place 57 fatal crashes in Lansing, and those crashes killed 61 people. The first four years are from NHTSA's Final Files. The 2024 figures are from the Annual Report File, NHTSA's first release for that year, so they can still be revised.

The count climbed, then fell. Lansing had 11 fatal crashes in 2020, 14 in 2021 and 16 in 2022, then 9 in 2023 and 7 in 2024, the lowest of the five years. Deaths were 13, 15, 16, 9 and 8. The four deaths beyond one per crash came in 2020 (2), 2021 (1) and 2024 (1); in 2022 and 2023, each fatal crash killed one person. With 2024 still a first release and counts this small, the drop since 2022 is too early to call a trend.

Lansing's crashes were recorded in two counties: 56 in Ingham County and 1 in Eaton County. Ingham County's own total for the five years was 116 fatal crashes and 127 deaths, and Michigan's was 5,173 crashes and 5,541 deaths. Among the Michigan places in our guides, Lansing's 61 deaths are the fourth-highest total, behind Detroit's 699, Flint's 132 and Grand Rapids' 75, and ahead of Warren's 54.

Martin Luther King Jr Blvd (State Route 99) heads Lansing's table with 12 fatal crashes and 12 deaths, the latest in 2024. That is 21 percent of the city's fatal crashes and 7 more than Cedar St (State Route 96), the second row, which had 5, also with one in 2024. Jolly Rd follows with 4, the latest in 2024. Saginaw St (State Route 43) had 3 crashes that killed 5 people, the latest in 2024, making it the only row with more deaths than crashes. None of these counts shows who caused a crash or measures a road's risk per mile.

Like Saginaw St (State Route 43), State Route 99 (street name not recorded) had 3 fatal crashes, though each of them killed one person; its latest was in 2022. Five rows had 2 each: I-496, Oakland Ave (State Route 43) and Pleasant Grove Rd, each with its latest in 2022, and Mount Hope Ave and Washington Ave, each with its latest in 2021. Twenty of the city's 57 fatal crashes, 35 percent, happened on roads outside the table; the ten rows hold the other 37, along with 39 of the 61 deaths.

Angle collisions stand out in Lansing's record. In 27 of the 57 fatal crashes, the first harmful event, the first event to cause injury or damage, was a collision with another motor vehicle in transport, meaning one moving or stopped in the roadway, and 23 of those 27 were angle crashes, in which the front of one vehicle hits the side of another. Three were rear-end and 1 a same-direction sideswipe. By location, 19 crashes were in an intersection, 4 were intersection-related and 6 were related to a driveway.

The other 30 crashes began some other way, most often with a pedestrian struck (6), a utility pole or light support (4), a curb (4), a rollover (4) or a tree (3); in 2, the first harmful event was a person falling or jumping from a vehicle. Twenty-five crashes were coded non-junction, away from any intersection, driveway or ramp. Twenty-seven involved one vehicle, 24 involved two and 6 involved three or more.

By the clock, 6 p.m. to midnight had 18 fatal crashes, and midnight to 6 a.m. and noon to 6 p.m. had 17 each; the morning, 6 a.m. to noon, had only 5. Daylight and darkness were even at 28 crashes each, with 25 of the dark ones on lighted roads. Thursday and Friday had 11 each, Saturday and Sunday 10 each, and Wednesday just 1. The weather was clear for 49 crashes, cloudy for 5 and rainy for 3.

Lansing's dead were mostly people in or on vehicles. Drivers were 43 of the 61, or 70 percent, and passengers 9, while 7 pedestrians, 1 bicyclist and 1 person on a personal conveyance, the FARS category for devices such as skateboards and wheelchairs, were killed: 9 people outside a vehicle in all. Nine of the 57 crashes, 16 percent, involved someone outside a vehicle, whether a pedestrian, a cyclist or another person.

Motorcycle and moped riders were 19 of the people killed, 31 percent of all deaths; FARS counts them among the 52 drivers and passengers. In an angle crash, a rider's claim often comes down to whether a driver turned or pulled into the motorcycle's path and could have seen it in time, and the same right-of-way question arises when two cars meet at an angle.

This example is hypothetical, and every number in it is invented. Suppose that on a weekday afternoon in 2026 you were driving straight through a Lansing intersection on a green light when an oncoming driver turned left across your path, an angle crash. You broke your leg and an arm, needed two surgeries, and missed four months of work. In Michigan's no-fault system, your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage pays certain losses first, such as medical bills, whoever caused the crash, up to your policy's limits.

Pain and suffering is a separate question. A pain-and-suffering claim against the at-fault driver is generally allowed only when the injury meets Michigan's tort threshold, which state law defines. Michigan allows a claim against the at-fault driver for pain and suffering (noneconomic loss) only if the injured person suffered death, serious impairment of body function or permanent serious disfigurement (MCL 500.3135(1)). Suppose your surgeon's records show a serious impairment of body function, and a jury values your pain and suffering at $150,000.

The other driver's insurer argues that you were speeding and should have braked, and assigns you 30 percent of the fault. Under Michigan's modified comparative negligence rule (51% bar), you can recover as long as you were not more than 50 percent at fault, with the award reduced by your share, so the $150,000 becomes $105,000. A 55 percent finding would work differently: in Michigan the 51% bar applies to non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, so that part of the claim would end, while economic damages are reduced by your share of fault but not barred (MCL 600.2959).

Coverage sets a practical ceiling. A driver insured at Michigan's 50/100/10 minimum carries $50,000 of bodily-injury coverage for each injured person, $100,000 for all injuries in one crash and $10,000 for property damage, so a serious claim can exceed what the policy pays. And if the claim did not settle, the lawsuit would have to be filed within Michigan's three-year period (MCL 600.5805(2)).

When a Lansing crash hurts or kills someone, or the damage to property looks to total $1,000 or more, MCL 257.622 requires the driver to report it immediately, either at the nearest or most convenient police station or to the nearest or most convenient police officer. There is no driver's form to fill out afterward. The crash report is the investigating officer's to complete, so ask for the officer's name and the report number before leaving the scene.

Because most of Lansing's fatal collisions between vehicles were angle crashes, the evidence that tends to matter most is about right of way: which signal or sign controlled each driver, where each car was, and what each driver could see. Much of that evidence disappears within days, so a few steps taken early protect both your health and the record:

• Call 911 if anyone is hurt, and stay until the investigating officer arrives.
• Photograph the intersection or driveway, the signals or signs, and where each vehicle stopped.
• Collect names, phone numbers and insurance details from the other driver and from witnesses.
• Have a doctor examine you soon after the crash, and file away every bill, test result and treatment note.
• Start a PIP claim with your own auto insurer early, and keep copies of every form you send.

If a claim over a Lansing crash ends up in court, it would generally be filed in the Ingham County Circuit Court; an attorney decides the proper court for the facts of a particular case. The general time limit for a personal injury lawsuit in Michigan is three years, under MCL 600.5805(2). Negotiations with an insurer can run for months, so the filing date, not the pace of the talks, is the one to keep in view.

Two other Michigan periods can matter after a crash. If the injury happened while you were working, notice to your employer is due within 90 days under MCL 418.381, and a workers' compensation claim generally must be filed within two years through the Michigan Workers' Disability Compensation Agency. And if the medical care that followed the crash was itself negligent, a malpractice claim generally has two years, a separate question for an attorney.

Michigan's fault rule is unusual: its 51% bar cuts off pain and suffering above 50 percent fault but only reduces economic damages (MCL 600.2959). Contributory negligence, the rule in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, is harsher still: an injured driver found even slightly at fault can generally recover nothing at all, so the example's 30 percent could defeat the whole claim rather than trimming it by $45,000.

Insurance systems and deadlines differ too. Michigan shares the no-fault approach with Florida, New York and New Jersey, so early medical bills go to your own PIP; in most at-fault states, the claim begins with the other driver's liability insurer. Deadlines vary as well: Tennessee allows one year for most injury claims, against three in Michigan, which is why the period for a Lansing crash should be confirmed under Michigan law.

Whether an injury meets Michigan's threshold, and how fault would be divided, are questions only an attorney can answer after reviewing the evidence. 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. If you or a family member was hurt in a crash in Lansing, you can request a free case review.

• What do federal records show about fatal car crashes in Flint?
• What do federal records show about fatal car crashes in Detroit?
• Which U.S. cities had the most fatal car accidents in 2023?
• What should you do after a car accident?

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

• Lansing, Michigan: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Motorcycle Accident Claims: Overcoming Rider Bias and Recovering Fully

Need local rules? Choose your state from the injury law guides hub or read the statute of limitations by state.