Car Accidents in Miami: 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, coded to the city where it occurred. For the City of Miami in 2023 it records 66 fatal crashes and 66 deaths. The number is smaller than Miami's reputation suggests because the city itself is small: Hialeah, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Homestead and the large unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade County are coded separately, and the metro's total runs well into the hundreds.

Within the city limits, the pattern is a pedestrian and intersection pattern. Thirty-three of the 66 fatal crashes involved at least one person not in a motor vehicle, exactly half, a share comparable to Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Thirty-five were at an intersection or intersection-related, 53 percent, among the highest shares in the data, reflecting a dense signalized street grid. Sixteen were angle collisions and 8 were head-on; 37 were coded as not a collision between two vehicles in transport, which covers pedestrian strikes and single-vehicle crashes.

Thirty-six of the 66 crashes happened after dark, 32 on lighted streets and 4 on unlit ones, with 26 in daylight. Sunday had 13 fatal crashes, Wednesday 11 and Saturday 10, 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 within the City of Miami in 2023 were:

• US-27, Okeechobee Road, 4 fatal crashes, the northwest arterial toward Hialeah.
• US-41, the Tamiami Trail and SW 8th Street, 4 fatal crashes, through Little Havana and west.
• US-1, Biscayne Boulevard and South Dixie Highway, 3 fatal crashes.
• State Route 821, the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike, 3 fatal crashes.
• State Route 9, 3 fatal crashes.
• State Route 934, 2 fatal crashes.
• State Route 968, Flagler Street, 2 fatal crashes.
• I-95, 2 fatal crashes.

Miami's roads on the list are nearly all federal and state highways that double as city streets: Okeechobee Road, the Tamiami Trail, Biscayne Boulevard, Flagler Street. They are wide, carry heavy traffic at all hours, and run through neighborhoods where people walk, cycle and use transit in large numbers. Combined with a year-round outdoor climate and a late-night economy, that produces the pedestrian toll the data shows, concentrated at intersections where turning vehicles meet crossing pedestrians.

For a claim, Florida's rules matter more than in most states, and they changed in 2023. Before March 24, 2023, Florida applied pure comparative negligence and a four-year deadline; since then it applies a 51 percent bar and a two-year deadline. A pedestrian assigned 50 percent of the fault for crossing mid-block now recovers half; one assigned 51 percent recovers nothing. The fault evidence, cameras, event data, witnesses, decides where the line falls.

The no-fault system adds a layer. Every Florida driver must carry $10,000 in personal injury protection, which pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages regardless of fault, and pedestrians and cyclists hit by a car claim PIP from their own auto policy or, if they have none, from the driver's. PIP pays only if treatment begins within 14 days of the crash, a rule that ends many Miami claims before they begin.

Suppose you were crossing SW 8th Street at a signalized intersection in Little Havana at 10 p.m. on a Sunday when a driver turning left struck you. You suffered a fractured hip requiring surgery and a head laceration, with $92,000 in medical bills and four months off work. You went to the emergency room that night, within the 14-day window.

Your own auto policy's PIP paid $10,000 toward the bills, 80 percent of the first $12,500. The driver's insurer accepted that its driver turned into you but assigned you 45 percent fault for crossing against the signal. Under the post-2023 rule, 45 percent reduces the claim by 45 percent; 51 percent would have eliminated it. Footage from the intersection camera, requested within the week, showed the walk signal displayed, and the assignment was reduced to 10 percent for walking outside the marked lines.

The driver carried bodily injury coverage of $100,000, which Florida does not require but which this driver had; it was paid at the limit. Your own uninsured motorist coverage, stacked across two household vehicles, paid the balance. Had the driver carried no bodily injury coverage, which is common in Florida, the UM coverage would have been the only source beyond PIP. All figures are hypothetical; the structure is the usual one for a Miami pedestrian claim.

The steps are the same as anywhere, with several specific to Miami and Florida.

• Call 911 and get the report number; the City of Miami Police, Miami-Dade Police, the Florida Highway Patrol and other municipal departments each cover different roads, and the report comes from whichever responded.
• Get medical treatment within 14 days, and preferably the same day; PIP pays nothing otherwise, and the claim loses its first source of funds.
• Photograph the scene, the signal, the crosswalk and every camera on the intersection and the corner businesses, and have footage requested within days.
• Ask whether the other driver has bodily injury liability coverage; Florida does not require it, and many Miami drivers carry PIP and property damage only.
• Find your own policy's uninsured motorist coverage and whether it stacks; it is the usual source for a serious Miami injury.
• If a city, county, FDOT or Miami-Dade Transit vehicle or road contributed, send written notice to the agency and the Department of Financial Services as Florida's statute requires.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer; the fault percentage, now with a 51 percent bar, is negotiated from the evidence.

Florida is a no-fault state. Personal injury protection of $10,000 is mandatory and pays first; bodily injury liability coverage is not required, though many drivers carry it. Uninsured motorist coverage must be offered and can be rejected in writing, and stacking is available. The 14-day treatment rule applies to PIP benefits, and PIP pays only 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages, so there is always a gap even within the limit. A claim against the at-fault driver for non-economic damages requires a permanent injury under Florida's threshold.

Fault follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar, adopted in March 2023: you recover if you were 50 percent or less at fault, reduced by your share. Before that change Florida was a pure comparative state, and older guidance still describes the old rule. The injury deadline is two years from the crash under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) for crashes after March 24, 2023, reduced from four years at the same time. Claims against the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, FDOT, Miami-Dade Transit or the State of Florida require written notice to the agency and the Department of Financial Services and have their own limits.

Crashes in Hialeah, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Homestead, Doral and unincorporated Miami-Dade follow the same Florida rules but are coded to those jurisdictions in the data and reported by their own police departments. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the Florida Division of Workers' Compensation with a two-year claim deadline.

A Miami crash claim is shaped by the city's pattern, pedestrians at signalized intersections on highway-grade streets, and by Florida's rules, which changed in 2023 and which many drivers and even some guides still describe incorrectly: no-fault PIP with a 14-day rule, a 51 percent bar, a two-year deadline, and no requirement that the at-fault driver carry bodily injury coverage. The questions to answer early are whether treatment began within 14 days, what the fault evidence shows, and what coverage exists beyond PIP. 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 Florida, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in Miami, you can request a free claim review.

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