Fatal car crashes in Lincoln, NE: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 69 fatal crashes inside Lincoln, in which 78 people died. The roads with the most were O St (US-34 / US-6) with 6 fatal crashes, I-80 with 5 and 84th St with 5.

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

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), a record of every crash on a public road in which a person died. In Lincoln, its 2020 through 2024 files list 69 fatal crashes and 78 deaths, nine more deaths than crashes because some crashes killed more than one person. NHTSA's Final Files cover 2020 to 2023; the 2024 figures come from its Annual Report File, the first release for that year, and may be revised in the Final File.

One year towers over the others. Lincoln recorded 11 fatal crashes in 2020, 12 in 2021, 21 in 2022, 12 in 2023 and 13 in 2024, and deaths of 12, 13, 27, 12 and 14. The 27 deaths in 2022 are more than a third of the five-year total, and in that year deaths outnumbered crashes by 6. These counts do not explain why one year was worse than the others, and a single bad year is not by itself a trend.

Omaha's 192 deaths are the only total among Nebraska cities in these records above Lincoln's 78; among the Nebraska places in our guides, Grand Island followed with 16, Bellevue with 10 and Scottsbluff with 6. Lancaster County as a whole recorded 97 fatal crashes and 107 deaths over the same five years, and Nebraska 1,052 crashes and 1,176 deaths, so Lincoln's deaths are 7 percent of the state's. FARS coded 66 of Lincoln's crashes as urban and 3 as rural.

O St (US-34 / US-6) had the most fatal crashes in Lincoln from 2020 through 2024, 6, which killed 7 people, the latest in 2022. Its lead is a single crash: I-80 had 5 crashes and 6 deaths and 84th St 5 crashes and 5 deaths, both with a crash in 2024. US-77 and Nebraska Pkwy (State Route 2) had 4 crashes and 4 deaths each, the latest in 2024 and 2023. A road's count shows where deaths were recorded, not how risky it is per mile, since FARS does not measure traffic.

Further down, 27th St had 3 crashes that killed 4 people, the latest in 2021, and US-34 (street name not recorded), 70th St and State Route 2 (street name not recorded) had 3 crashes and 3 deaths each, the latest in 2024, 2022 and 2021. Pine Lake Rd had 2 crashes but 3 deaths, the latest in 2024. The ten rows hold 38 of the 69 crashes and 42 of the 78 deaths, so 31 crashes, 45 percent, happened on roads outside the table.

Saturday stands out in Lincoln's record. It had 18 of the 69 fatal crashes, 26 percent, eight more than Friday and Sunday with 10 each; Monday and Tuesday had 9, Wednesday 7 and Thursday the fewest, 6. By time of day, 25 crashes happened between 6 p.m. and midnight, 17 between noon and 6 p.m., 12 between 6 a.m. and noon and 10 between midnight and 6 a.m.; the hour was unknown for 5.

Thirty-seven crashes happened after dark, 31 where there was lighting and 6 where there was none, while 28 happened in daylight and 2 each at dawn and dusk. The weather was clear for 56 crashes and cloudy for 10; rain was recorded for 1, and for 2 the weather was reported as unknown. One crash was coded in a work zone of an unknown type. Thirty-four crashes involved a single vehicle, 28 involved two and 7 involved three or more.

Intersections figure in just over half the record. Twenty-four crashes were in an intersection and 11 were intersection-related, 35 in all, while 31 were away from any junction and 3 were related to an entrance or exit ramp. Thirty-three crashes began with a collision with another vehicle in transport, a FARS term for a vehicle moving or stopped in the roadway: 23 angle collisions, 4 rear-end, 3 head-on and 3 same-direction sideswipes. In the other 36, the first thing struck was most often a pedestrian (10), a curb (10) or a tree (3).

Of the 78 people killed in Lincoln, 53 were drivers and 14 passengers, so 67 were vehicle occupants. Twenty-seven of the dead, 35 percent, were on a motorcycle or moped; FARS counts them within the driver and passenger totals, where they make up 40 percent of the occupants killed. Ten pedestrians and 1 bicyclist also died, and 12 of the 69 crashes involved a pedestrian, cyclist or other person outside a vehicle.

For a motorcycle rider, two kinds of crash raise different questions. When another vehicle turned or pulled into the rider's path, the dispute is usually what the driver could see and how fast the rider was going. When the rider struck no other vehicle, a claim, if there is one, may turn on something else, such as another driver who forced the rider to swerve, or a defect in the motorcycle. In Nebraska those questions feed directly into the 50 percent bar, because a rider found 50 percent or more at fault recovers nothing.

This example is hypothetical, with round numbers chosen to show the rules. Suppose you were driving through a Lincoln intersection one evening when a car from the cross street rolled through its stop sign and struck the side of yours, an angle collision like 23 of the city's fatal crashes. You suffer a fractured pelvis, with $80,000 in medical bills and $25,000 in lost pay, and your pain and suffering is valued at $45,000, for a total of $150,000. The other driver's insurer argues that you were distracted and assigns you 40 percent of the fault.

Nebraska applies modified comparative negligence with a 50 percent bar: you can recover only if you were less than 50 percent at fault, and your award is reduced by your share of fault. At 40 percent, $150,000 becomes $90,000. At 49 percent it would be $76,500, and at 50 percent nothing at all, so a single percentage point can decide whether anything is paid. Phone records, the sight lines at the corner and any camera footage are the evidence that settles where the line falls.

Nebraska is an at-fault state with a minimum liability requirement of 25/50/25: $25,000 for one person's injuries, $50,000 for all injuries in one crash and $25,000 for property damage. A minimum policy would cover $25,000 of the $90,000, and whether other coverage reaches the remaining $65,000 depends on the policies involved. Nebraska's four-year deadline (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-207) gives time to sort that out, but the evidence that decides fault fades much faster.

Nebraska ties its written-report rule to whether a peace officer investigated. If none did, and the crash injured or killed anyone or did an apparent $2,000 or more of damage to any one person's property, the driver's own included, each driver must send a Driver's Motor Vehicle Crash Report, form NDOT 41, to the Nebraska Department of Transportation within 10 days, by mail or online (Neb. Rev. Stat. 60-699, as amended effective July 18, 2026). A driver who damages an unattended vehicle or other property must leave a written notice and report the collision to a peace officer without unnecessary delay (Neb. Rev. Stat. 60-696(2)).

• If an officer investigates, note the agency and report number; copies of officers' crash reports can be bought through the Nebraska Department of Transportation.
• If no peace officer investigated and the crash meets the injury or $2,000 test, send the NDOT 41 to the Nebraska Department of Transportation within 10 days and keep a copy.
• Photograph the intersection, its signs or signals and where the vehicles stopped; 35 of Lincoln's fatal crashes were at or related to an intersection.
• A rider's helmet, jacket and boots are evidence, so store them as they are and photograph the motorcycle's damage before any repair estimate is written.
• Before giving an insurer a recorded statement, keep in mind that under Nebraska's 50 percent bar, the share of fault assigned decides whether anything is paid.

The Lancaster County District Court is the usual place to file a lawsuit over a crash in Lincoln, although the facts can put a case in another county or in federal court. Nebraska generally allows four years to file a personal injury lawsuit (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-207). That is a long period, but it does not preserve evidence: video is recorded over, vehicles are repaired and witnesses become hard to find, which is why the early steps above matter more than the deadline in the first weeks.

Other Nebraska rules apply in particular cases. A crash while working can bring in workers' compensation, handled by the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court; notice to the employer is due as soon as practicable (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-133), and a claim generally must be filed within two years. Claims involving a government vehicle, an injured child or a death may follow separate rules or deadlines, so the date should be confirmed with an attorney.

Nebraska's 50 percent bar sets the example's outcome: at 40 percent fault, $90,000; at 50 percent, nothing. Under the 51 percent bar some states use, a driver found exactly 50 percent at fault could still recover half. Contributory negligence, still the rule in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, is harsher, because an injured person found even slightly at fault can be barred, so the 40 percent share could mean no recovery there.

Insurance and deadlines differ as well. Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey are no-fault states, where an injured person's own policy pays certain losses first, regardless of fault; Nebraska is not, so the at-fault driver's liability insurer is the main source. Nebraska's four-year lawsuit deadline is also longer than Tennessee's one year for most injury claims, so a rule of thumb learned in one state can be wrong in another.

An attorney must evaluate the facts of any crash. 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 Nebraska. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency. If you were hurt in a crash in Lincoln, you can request a free case review.

• What do federal records show about fatal car crashes in Omaha?
• Which U.S. cities had the most fatal car accidents in 2023?
• What should you do after a car accident?
• How do you file a car accident insurance claim?

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

• Lincoln, Nebraska: 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.