Fatal car crashes in Orange, CA: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 58 fatal crashes inside Orange, in which 61 people died. The roads with the most were Tustin St with 8 fatal crashes, Chapman Ave with 6 and State Route 55 with 4.

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

For the city of Orange, NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) lists 58 fatal crashes from 2020 through 2024, in which 61 people died. FARS is the federal count of motor vehicle crashes on public roads that killed at least one person, with each crash's date, time, location and victims. NHTSA's Final Files are the source for 2020 to 2023, and its Annual Report File, the first release for 2024, supplies that year, so the 2024 figures may be revised.

One year stands out. The city had 11 fatal crashes in 2020 and 9 in 2021, then 19 in 2022, before 10 in 2023 and 9 in 2024. Deaths were 11, 9, 21, 11 and 9. The 2022 crashes are 33 percent of the five-year total, and that year also had the widest gap between crashes and deaths, 19 against 21. In 2023 deaths exceeded crashes by 1, and in the other three years each crash killed one person.

All 58 crashes were recorded in Orange County, which had 1,056 fatal crashes and 1,103 deaths in the same five years, so the city accounts for about 5 percent of the county's fatal crashes. California recorded 19,496 fatal crashes and 21,077 deaths. Among the California places in our guides, the city's 61 deaths are tied with one other place for 34th; Los Angeles has the most, 1,637.

Tustin St heads the table with 8 fatal crashes and 8 deaths from 2020 through 2024, the latest in 2024, two crashes ahead of Chapman Ave, which had 6 crashes and 6 deaths, also with one in 2024. Together the two streets hold 14 of the city's 58 fatal crashes, 24 percent. State Route 55 and Main St are next with 4 each; State Route 55's latest came in 2024 and Main St's in 2022.

Four rows had 3 fatal crashes each: Batavia St and Ramp (I-5), both with one in 2024, State Route 22, last in 2023, and I-5, last in 2022. State Route 57 and La Veta Ave close the table with 2 each, State Route 57's latest in 2024 and La Veta Ave's in 2023. Every crash in the table killed one person, so its ten rows hold 38 crashes and 38 deaths, and the 20 other crashes, which killed 23 people, were on roads outside it.

Evening had the most fatal crashes. Twenty-three of the 58 crashes happened between 6 p.m. and midnight, 40 percent, while noon to 6 p.m. had 13 and the hours from midnight to 6 a.m. and from 6 a.m. to noon had 11 each. After dark accounts for 33 crashes, and 31 of those were on lighted roads, with only 2 on unlit ones; 25 happened in daylight. Tuesday and Friday tied for the most crashes, 11 each, Saturday had 9, and Monday had the fewest, 5.

Rain was recorded for only 2 crashes; 51 happened in clear conditions and 5 under clouds. FARS coded 57 crashes as urban and 1 as rural, and none happened in a work zone. By location, 30 were non-junction crashes, away from any intersection, driveway or interchange; 16 were at or related to an intersection, 5 were related to an entrance or exit ramp, 2 were related to a driveway and 1 was at a railway grade crossing.

A collision with another vehicle in transport was the first harmful event, the first thing to cause injury or damage, in 23 crashes, more than any other kind, and those collisions were 10 angle crashes, 8 rear-end, 4 same-direction sideswipes and 1 head-on. A pedestrian was struck first in 17 crashes and a curb in 5, and the other 13 began with a cyclist, a person on a personal conveyance, the ground or an object such as a pole, sign or signal support, guardrail or bridge rail. Thirty-three crashes involved one vehicle, 19 two and 6 three or more.

Vehicle occupants, counting motorcycle and moped riders, were 38 of the 61 people killed in the city of Orange: 27 drivers and 11 passengers. Pedestrians were 20 of the dead, 33 percent, and 2 bicyclists and 1 person on a personal conveyance also died. Twelve of the people killed, 20 percent, were on a motorcycle or moped and are counted among the drivers and passengers. By crash, 22 of the 58 fatal crashes, 38 percent, involved a pedestrian, cyclist or other person outside a vehicle.

Passengers were 11 of the dead, 18 percent. A passenger usually had no control over the crash, so a passenger's claim tends to turn on which driver, or drivers, were at fault and on how much insurance each carried. The same questions come up whenever several people are hurt in one car, because the at-fault driver's policy limits may have to cover all of them at once, as the example below shows.

This example is hypothetical; its figures are round and invented. Suppose you are driving two friends home through an intersection in the city of Orange on a Friday evening when a driver runs a red light and hits your car broadside. All three of you are hurt. Your damages, counting medical bills, lost pay and pain and suffering, come to $80,000, and your passengers' damages come to $50,000 and $30,000. The other driver's insurer accepts that its driver ran the light.

With fault conceded, each person's claim is worth its full amount, but the other driver's policy may not stretch that far. California's minimum liability coverage, written 30/60/15, pays up to $30,000 for any one person's injuries and $60,000 for all injuries in one crash, plus $15,000 for property damage. The three injury claims here total $160,000, so a minimum policy would pay no more than $60,000 for all of them together, and no more than $30,000 toward your $80,000.

Fault would still shape your own share. If the insurer had argued that you were speeding into the intersection and put 20 percent of the fault on you, California's pure comparative negligence rule would reduce your award by that share, from $80,000 to $64,000, without barring it. How limited coverage is divided among several injured people, and whether any other policy applies, are questions for an attorney.

Each driver in a reportable crash has 10 days to send form SR 1 to the DMV. A crash is reportable when anyone was hurt, even slightly, or killed, or when one person's property took more than $1,000 of damage, whoever caused it and even on private property (Cal. Veh. Code § 16000(a)); an insurance agent, broker or legal representative may send the form for you. A crash with any injury or death must also be reported to law enforcement within 24 hours.

Ask which agency responded and for the report number; the report itself comes from that agency, and the California Highway Patrol's website explains how to request a report for crashes the CHP investigated. If you were a passenger, write down both drivers' names, plates and insurers, since a claim may involve either one. Get medical care promptly, even if an injury seems minor at first. Then gather what the city's record suggests will matter most:

• At a signal, write down what you remember about each light, and ask nearby businesses to keep their video; intersections figured in 16 of the city's fatal crashes.
• After dark, photograph the street lighting and the lines of sight; 31 of the city's fatal crashes happened in darkness on lighted roads.
• If several people were hurt, keep each person's medical records and bills separate, since each claim is valued on its own.
• Check whether a city, county or other California public entity owned the vehicle, employed the driver or controlled the property involved, because a government claim then has its own deadline of 6 months (Gov. Code § 911.2).

A lawsuit over a crash in the city of Orange would generally be filed in the Orange County Superior Court, unless the facts make another court the proper one. The general deadline for a personal injury lawsuit in California is two years (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1). A wrongful death claim, brought by the family of someone killed in a crash, generally has two years from the death under the same section.

Three situations change the timing. Claims against California public entities require a government claim within six months (Gov. Code § 911.2): that claim has its own deadline, and the time to sue afterward is set separately by state law. An injured child's clock pauses until 18 (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 352(a)). And a worker hurt in a crash on the job generally looks to workers' compensation, which the California Division of Workers' Compensation oversees; the employer generally must be told within 30 days, and the claim filed within one year.

Change the state and the example changes. In contributory negligence states such as Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, the driver assigned 20 percent of the fault could generally be barred from recovering at all. In states with a 50 or 51 percent bar, a 20 percent share would reduce the award much as it does in California, but a share past the state's line would end the claim, where California's pure rule would still allow a reduced recovery.

The insurance system matters as well. California is an at-fault state, so the claims in the example run against the at-fault driver's liability coverage, and its limits decide how far that coverage goes. In no-fault states such as Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey, personal injury protection coverage pays certain losses first, whoever caused the crash, and a suit for pain and suffering generally depends on the injury meeting the state's threshold. Tennessee's one-year deadline for most injury claims is half of California's general two years.

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, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say whether a claim exists. If you were hurt in a crash in the city of Orange, as a driver, passenger, rider or pedestrian, you can request a free case review.

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

• Orange, California: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation

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