Car Accidents in Mesa: 2023 Crash 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 Mesa in 2023 it records 62 fatal crashes and 68 deaths. Phoenix recorded 311 deaths and Tucson 148 in the same year, and Mesa, the state's third-largest city, is third in deaths as well.

What distinguishes Mesa is when and where its fatal crashes happen. Thirty-four of the 62 were in daylight, 55 percent, against 41 percent in Phoenix and 47 percent in Tucson; most large cities are closer to a third. Twenty-nine were coded at an intersection or intersection-related, 47 percent, close to Tucson's share and far above Houston's 23 percent. Seventeen of the 62 were angle collisions, the broadside crash that happens when one driver runs a signal or turns across another's path at a crossing. Only 4 were rear-end collisions.

Thirty-five crashes were coded as not a collision between two motor vehicles in transport, which covers pedestrian strikes and single-vehicle crashes; 21 of the 62 involved a pedestrian or cyclist. Sunday had 11 fatal crashes and Saturday 10, with the weekdays evenly spread at 7 to 9 each, a flatter weekly pattern than most cities.

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

• North Greenfield Road, 3 fatal crashes.
• South Dobson Road, 3 fatal crashes.
• US-60, the Superstition Freeway, 3 fatal crashes.
• State Route 202, the Red Mountain and Santan freeways, 2 fatal crashes.
• State Route 87, Country Club Drive and the Beeline Highway, 2 fatal crashes.
• Ray Road, 2 fatal crashes.
• Broadway Road, 2 fatal crashes.
• East Main Street, 2 fatal crashes.

Mesa is laid out on the Phoenix-area mile grid: wide arterials, six or seven lanes, at one-mile intervals, with signalized intersections where they cross and 45-mile-per-hour speed limits between them. Greenfield, Dobson, Broadway, Main and Ray are all such arterials. The grid moves traffic efficiently and produces a specific crash: a driver running a red light or turning left across oncoming traffic at a signalized crossing, in daylight, at arterial speed, striking the side of another vehicle. That is the angle collision, and Mesa had 17 fatal ones in 2023.

For a claim, the intersection pattern means fault is usually contested on who had the signal. Each driver claims the green. Mesa's arterial intersections are heavily instrumented with traffic cameras, and businesses on every corner have their own, so the evidence usually exists; the question is whether it is requested before it is overwritten, which for many systems is days. Signal timing records from the city establish the phase at the moment of the crash.

Arizona's pure comparative negligence rule means a disputed signal does not end the claim: a driver assigned 40 percent of the fault for entering on a stale yellow recovers 60 percent. The road's ownership matters for a claim that signal timing or visibility contributed: US-60, SR-202 and SR-87 are state highways under the Arizona Department of Transportation; the arterials are the city's.

Suppose you were driving north on Dobson Road through a green light at 2 p.m. when a driver traveling west ran the red and struck your driver's side. You suffered a fractured pelvis and a shoulder injury requiring surgery, with $118,000 in medical bills and five months off work. The other driver told police the light was yellow when she entered.

An attorney sent a request to the City of Mesa for the intersection camera footage and signal timing records within the week, and a preservation letter to the business on the corner. The city's footage showed her light had been red for 1.8 seconds at entry. Her insurer, which had initially assigned you 30 percent fault for failing to look before proceeding on green, withdrew the assignment.

She carried a $50,000 policy, paid at the limit. Your own underinsured motorist coverage of $250,000, which Arizona insurers must offer, paid the balance after negotiation over the pelvic fracture's lasting effects. Had the footage not been requested, the claim would have been one account against another, and Arizona's pure comparative rule would have produced a split. All figures are hypothetical; the signalized-intersection broadside is Mesa's characteristic claim.

The steps are the same as anywhere, with a few specific to Mesa and Arizona.

• Call 911 and get the Mesa Police report number; crashes on US-60 and the Loop 202 are handled by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the report comes from whichever agency responded.
• At an intersection crash, tell the officer which signal you had, get the names of drivers who were 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.
• Find your own policy's uninsured and underinsured motorist limits; Arizona's $25,000 minimum is exceeded quickly by a broadside injury.
• If a city or state signal, road or crossing contributed, calendar the 180-day notice of claim deadline under A.R.S. § 12-821.01.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer; the signal question is decided by footage, not by your recollection under questioning.

Arizona is a fault state. 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. Arizona's minimum liability coverage is $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must be offered and can be declined, and whether you have it is the first thing to check after a serious Mesa crash.

Fault follows pure comparative negligence: recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault with no cutoff, so a disputed intersection crash produces a split rather than a bar. The injury deadline is two years from the crash under A.R.S. § 12-542. Claims against a public entity, including the City of Mesa, Maricopa County, the Arizona Department of Transportation and Valley Metro, require a formal notice of claim within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01 and a lawsuit within one year.

Crashes in Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Apache Junction and the rest of the East Valley follow the same Arizona rules; crashes on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which borders Mesa to the north, can involve tribal jurisdiction with different procedures. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the Industrial Commission of Arizona with a one-year claim deadline.

A Mesa crash claim is, more often than elsewhere, a daylight broadside at a signalized arterial intersection, decided by camera footage and signal records that exist for days unless requested, under Arizona's pure comparative rule and a $25,000 minimum policy that a side-impact injury exceeds quickly. The questions to answer early are what the footage shows, what coverage exists beyond the at-fault driver's policy, and whether a 180-day government notice applies. 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 Arizona, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in Mesa, you can request a free claim review.

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