Car Accidents in New Orleans: 2023 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 New Orleans in 2023 it records 59 fatal crashes and 60 deaths. Louisiana as a whole records one of the higher fatality rates per mile driven in federal and IIHS data, and New Orleans is its largest city.

The feature that sets New Orleans apart is the concentration on two highways. I-10 through the city, from the Metairie line across the Industrial Canal to New Orleans East, recorded 14 fatal crashes; US-90, which includes the Westbank Expressway, the Crescent City Connection approaches and the Claiborne Avenue corridor, recorded 10. Together they account for 41 percent of the city's fatal crashes. No other city in this data has two roads carrying that share. The rest are spread thinly: North Claiborne Avenue, Franklin Avenue, Louisiana Highway 46 and US-61 with 2 each.

Twenty-three of the 59 crashes involved a pedestrian or cyclist, 39 percent, a substantial share for a city whose fatal crashes are so highway-heavy. Thirty-nine were coded as not a collision between two motor vehicles in transport; 9 were angle collisions and 6 were rear-end. Twenty-one crashes were in daylight and 34 after dark, with 9 on unlit roads and 4 of unknown lighting. Sunday had 13 fatal crashes, Tuesday 10 and Saturday 9.

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

• I-10, 14 fatal crashes, the interstate across the city including the high-rise over the Industrial Canal and the elevated stretch over Claiborne.
• US-90, 10 fatal crashes, including the Westbank Expressway, the Crescent City Connection approaches and the Claiborne corridor as coded by the state.
• North Claiborne Avenue, 2 fatal crashes, as coded separately from the US-90 segments.
• Louisiana Highway 46, 2 fatal crashes, St. Claude Avenue toward the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard.
• US-61, Airline Highway and Tulane Avenue, 2 fatal crashes.
• Franklin Avenue, 2 fatal crashes.

I-10 through New Orleans is elevated for much of its length, with short merges, narrow shoulders, the steep high-rise bridge over the Industrial Canal, and the long causeway sections toward the east. Crashes on elevated highway have no run-off room, and a disabled vehicle in a travel lane is struck at speed. US-90's Westbank Expressway is a similar elevated and at-grade expressway with frontage roads, and the Claiborne corridor beneath the interstate mixes highway traffic with neighborhood streets and pedestrians. The two roads carry the city's through-traffic, its port and industrial trucks, and its late-night traffic, and they produce the single-vehicle and rear-end fatalities the data shows.

For a claim, highway crashes in New Orleans raise a coverage problem more often than a fault problem. Louisiana's minimum liability coverage is $15,000 per person, among the lowest in the country, and a substantial share of Louisiana drivers carry no insurance at all. A serious I-10 injury against a minimally insured or uninsured driver is recovered, if at all, from the victim's own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which Louisiana insurers must offer and which many drivers reject to save money.

The roads' ownership matters for any claim that design or maintenance contributed. I-10 and US-90 are state highways under the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development; the Crescent City Connection has its own authority; city streets are the City of New Orleans's. Claims against each follow Louisiana's rules for suits against public bodies, which limit damages and carry their own procedures.

Suppose you were driving on I-10 eastbound near the high-rise at 11 p.m. on a Saturday when traffic stopped ahead for a disabled vehicle and the car behind you, traveling at speed, struck you from the rear and pushed you into the car ahead. You suffered a neck injury with a herniated disc requiring surgery and a fractured wrist, with $104,000 in medical bills and four months off work. The driver who hit you carried Louisiana's $15,000 minimum.

Fault was clear; the rear driver was cited and his insurer accepted liability. The $15,000 was paid at the limit within weeks. Your own policy carried uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000, which you had not rejected, and the claim for the balance went to your own insurer, which valued it as a liability claim and initially argued the disc was degenerative. The surgeon's records and the absence of prior neck treatment answered that, and the UM claim settled at the limit.

Had you rejected UM coverage, the claim would have been limited to $15,000 plus medical payments coverage and health insurance, against a surgical injury. The crash occurred after July 1, 2024 in this example, so the two-year deadline applied; had it occurred before, one year would have. All figures are hypothetical; the I-10 rear-end chain crash against a minimum policy is the characteristic New Orleans claim.

The steps are the same as anywhere, with several specific to New Orleans and Louisiana.

• Call 911 and get the report number; the New Orleans Police Department handles city streets, and Louisiana State Police handle I-10, US-90 and the bridges, and the report comes from whichever agency responded.
• Note the date of the crash and which deadline applies: two years for injuries on or after July 1, 2024, one year for earlier injuries.
• Ask at the scene whether the other driver has insurance and photograph the card; many Louisiana drivers are uninsured, which makes a UM claim likely.
• Photograph the scene, the vehicles and, on the elevated highway, the position of any disabled vehicle or hazard that started the chain.
• 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 now; against a $15,000 minimum they are the practical source for any serious injury.
• If a state highway, a city street, an RTA bus or a government vehicle contributed, the claim is against a public body under Louisiana's rules, with damage limits and specific procedures.

Louisiana is a fault state, not no-fault. 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. Louisiana's minimum liability coverage is $15,000 per person, $30,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage, among the lowest per-person minimums in the country. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage must be offered and can be rejected in writing, and the share of uninsured drivers makes it the most important coverage a New Orleans driver carries.

Fault follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar: you recover if you were 50 percent or less at fault, reduced by your share. The injury deadline changed in 2024: for injuries on or after July 1, 2024, it is two years under La. Civ. Code art. 3493.1, enacted by Act 423 of 2024; for earlier injuries, the former one-year rule applies. Wrongful death claims run one year from the death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer. Claims against the City of New Orleans, the state, the RTA or another public body follow Louisiana's statutes on suits against public bodies, which cap damages and set procedures.

Crashes in Metairie, Kenner, Gretna, Chalmette and the rest of the metro follow the same Louisiana rules but are in Jefferson, St. Bernard or other parishes with their own courts. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the Louisiana Office of Workers' Compensation Administration with a one-year claim deadline.

A New Orleans crash claim is shaped by the city's pattern, two highways carrying 41 percent of fatal crashes, and by Louisiana's rules, which changed in 2024 and which pair a 51 percent bar with one of the lowest minimum policies in the country and a substantial uninsured driver population. The questions to answer early are which deadline applies, whether the other driver was insured, and what UM/UIM coverage exists. 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 Louisiana, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in New Orleans, you can request a free claim review.

• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
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• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation
• Airbag Did Not Deploy in a Crash: Can You Sue, and Whom?
• At Fault in a Car Accident? Comparative Negligence Explained
• What Is the Average Car Accident Settlement? What Sets the Value
• Back and Neck Injury Settlement After a Car Accident: Factors
• Bicycle Accident Claim: Hit by a Car While Riding
• Broken Bone Car Accident Settlement: What Drives the Value

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