Fatal car crashes in Saint Paul, MN: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 83 fatal crashes inside Saint Paul, in which 88 people died. The roads with the most were US-61 with 6 fatal crashes, Rice St with 5 and I-94 with 4.

Filing deadline, fault rule, insurance and the court for a crash in Saint Paul: Saint Paul, MN injury guide.

Minneapolis and Saint Paul stand far above every other Minnesota place in these records: 120 deaths and 88, against 19 in third-place Burnsville, among the 143 places with fatal crashes on record for 2020 through 2024. Ramsey County's records list 129 fatal crashes and 136 deaths, and 83 of those crashes, 64 percent, were in Saint Paul, along with 65 percent of the deaths. Statewide, FARS lists 2,033 fatal crashes and 2,205 deaths for the five years.

From 13 fatal crashes in 2020, Saint Paul's count climbed to 21 in 2021, slipped to 19 in 2022 and 12 in 2023, and rose again to 18 in 2024. Deaths followed a similar line: 13, 23, 20, 14 and 18. With yearly totals this small, a change of 6 crashes between 2023 and 2024 says little on its own, and 2024 is still a first release, so this article relies on the five-year totals.

Why 83 crashes but 88 deaths? Some crashes killed more than one person, and FARS, NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, counts both. It covers crashes on public roads that caused a death within 30 days and lists a crash under Saint Paul only when the reporting agency coded the city. The 2020-2023 years are NHTSA's Final Files; 2024 is the Annual Report File, NHTSA's first release for that year, and may still be revised.

Seventy-five percent of Saint Paul's fatal crashes, 62 of 83, happened between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.: 37 before midnight and 25 after. The morning was the quietest stretch, with 5 between 6 a.m. and noon, against 16 between noon and 6 p.m. Counting by light instead of by clock, 56 crashes, or 67 percent, came after dark, 47 on lit roads and 9 on unlit ones, while daylight accounted for 23 and dawn and dusk for 2 each.

Most were single-vehicle crashes: 57 of the 83, or 69 percent, involved one vehicle, 22 involved two and 4 involved three or more. In 59 crashes the first harmful event was not a collision with another motor vehicle in transport, FARS's term for a vehicle moving or stopped in the roadway. A pedestrian was struck first in 22 of those 59; in others the vehicle rolled over (7) or hit a tree (6), a concrete traffic barrier (5), a curb (4) or a utility pole or light support (4).

Collisions between two vehicles in transport started only 24 crashes, and 13 of those were angle crashes, where one vehicle hits another from the side; 5 were rear-end, 4 head-on and 2 same-direction sideswipes. Fewer crashes happened at intersections than away from any junction: 31 were at or related to an intersection, while 42 fall in FARS's non-junction category, which leaves out intersections, driveways, ramps and other junctions. Friday and Monday had the most fatal crashes, 17 each, and Thursday the fewest, 6.

Saint Paul's deaths are spread over many roads. US-61 has the most fatal crashes in the roads table above, 6, which killed 7 people, the latest in 2024. Rice St follows with 5 crashes and 5 deaths, most recently in 2023, and three roads share the next spot with 4 fatal crashes each: I-94, whose latest was in 2024, and Maryland Ave and White Bear Ave, both last in 2023.

7th St (State Route 5) had 3 fatal crashes and 4 deaths, the latest in 2024, and Minnehaha Ave (State Route 5) had the same counts, with its latest in 2021. US-52 and I-35 had 3 fatal crashes each, and E Wilson Ave had 2. Taken together, these ten roads account for 45 percent of the city's fatal crashes, 37 of 83, and 40 of the 88 deaths. Where a crash happened sets the scene for a claim, but it does not settle who was at fault.

Of the 88 people killed in Saint Paul, 64 were in vehicles: 45 drivers, 18 passengers and 1 occupant whose role, driver or passenger, is unknown. Twenty-two pedestrians and 2 bicyclists also died, so 24 of the dead, 27 percent, were outside a vehicle. In terms of crashes, someone outside a vehicle was involved in 25 of the 83, or 30 percent.

Riders made up 20 of the 88 deaths, or 23 percent: people on a motorcycle or moped, counted within the total rather than added to it. When a motorcycle goes down with no collision with another vehicle, a claim may turn on what made the rider lose control, such as another driver who forced the rider off the road; when a car turns across a rider's path, it turns on visibility and right of way. Either way, with 56 of the city's fatal crashes after dark, the lighting at the scene is worth recording.

Here is an invented example. Late on a Friday night you are stopped at a red light in Saint Paul when a driver hits you from behind. In FARS's vocabulary your stopped car is still a vehicle in transport, because it is stopped in the roadway. The crash leaves you with neck and back injuries, $35,000 in medical bills and two months off work. Minnesota is a no-fault state, so your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage generally pays the medical bills and part of the lost income first, up to its limits, whoever caused the crash.

The driver who hit you is the one to claim against for anything PIP leaves unpaid, and for pain and suffering if your injury meets the threshold in Minnesota law. Say it does. At trial, the other side points to a burned-out brake light on your car, and the jury, valuing your damages at $80,000, assigns you 25 percent of the blame. Minnesota's modified comparative negligence rule (51% bar) then cuts the award by a quarter, to $60,000. Had the jury put your share above 50 percent, the claim against that driver would fail.

Minnesota's required minimum liability coverage is 30/60/10: up to $30,000 for one injured person, $60,000 for everyone hurt in the crash and $10,000 for property damage, so a minimum policy could leave $30,000 of a $60,000 award unpaid by that insurer, and whether other coverage applies depends on the policies involved. And while Minnesota generally allows six years to sue (Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1(5)), camera footage and vehicle data can be lost long before then. Only an attorney can evaluate a real case.

Minnesota's rule is about speed rather than paperwork. The driver in a crash that injures or kills another person must notify the police by the quickest means of communication, after stopping and giving help: the local police in a city, a State Patrol officer on a trunk highway, or the county sheriff's office (Minn. Stat. § 169.09, subd. 6). Drivers no longer file a written report; that requirement was repealed effective July 1, 2021, and the investigating officer reports the crash to the Department of Public Safety within 10 days.

If a crash damages an unattended vehicle, the driver must notify its driver or owner, report the same information to a peace officer, or leave a written note on it with the driver's name and address and the registered owner's (subd. 4). Once the officer's report is filed, a copy can be requested from Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services on form PS2503. With 57 of the city's fatal crashes involving a single vehicle, the roadside itself is often the key evidence:

• Photograph the roadside as well as the vehicles: barriers, poles, curbs, lighting and any debris.
• Note the responding officer's name and agency so you can match the report later.
• Ask anyone who stopped for a name and phone number.
• Call your own insurer soon to open the PIP claim, since Minnesota no-fault benefits generally start there.
• Keep the damaged vehicle, or detailed photos of it, until it has been inspected.
• Have a doctor check you within a day, and save each bill for the PIP claim.

If a Saint Paul crash claim goes to court, it is typically filed in the Ramsey County District Court, the trial court for Ramsey County; an attorney confirms the right court for the facts. Minnesota's general deadline to file a personal injury lawsuit is six years (Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1(5)). Most claims settle without a trial, and an insurer's offer reflects how well the claim was documented in its first weeks.

A long deadline is easy to mistake for time to spare. Footage from nearby cameras is often recorded over, a vehicle's stored data can be lost when the car is repaired or scrapped, and witnesses move away. Exceptions apply in some situations, and a wrongful death claim can follow a different deadline, so ask an attorney about the exact date early.

For a Saint Paul crash, Minnesota law supplies the frame. Your own PIP coverage pays first under the no-fault system, for medical bills and part of lost wages. The 51% bar in Minnesota's modified comparative negligence rule allows recovery as long as you were not more than 50 percent at fault, reduced by your share. And the six years allowed by Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1(5) are a long window to file suit, though not a long window to gather evidence.

Two other kinds of state rule would reshape the rear-end example. A shorter clock: Tennessee allows one year for most injury claims, a sixth of Minnesota's period. A harsher fault rule: Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia apply contributory negligence, which can generally bar recovery for an injured person who was even slightly at fault, so the brake-light argument could defeat the claim there. On the job, Minnesota workers' compensation may apply: written notice to your employer is due within 14 days unless your employer already knows (Minn. Stat. § 176.141), and a claim generally must be filed within three years, through the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

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 Minnesota. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, with the fee taken from any recovery, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say whether a claim exists. If you were hurt in a crash in Saint Paul, you can request a free case review while the evidence is still fresh.

• What do federal records show about fatal car crashes in Minneapolis?
• 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.

• Saint Paul, Minnesota: 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.