Fatal car crashes in Salem, OR: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 79 fatal crashes inside Salem, in which 85 people died. The roads with the most were Commercial St SE with 8 fatal crashes, I-5 with 5 and State Route 99E (Salem Hwy) with 3.

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

NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) is the national database of traffic crashes in which at least one person died. For Salem, it lists 79 fatal crashes from 2020 through 2024, with 85 people killed. NHTSA's Final Files supply the 2020 to 2023 figures, and the 2024 figures come from its Annual Report File, the first release for that year, which NHTSA can still revise when the Final File comes out.

Salem's highest year in the set is the most recent. Fatal crashes numbered 12 in 2020, 19 in 2021, 15 in 2022 and 13 in 2023, then 20 in 2024; deaths were 12, 20, 18, 14 and 21. The largest gap between crashes and deaths came in 2022, when 15 crashes killed 18 people, and in four of the five years at least one crash killed more than one person. Because 2024 is a first release, its count may still move.

Among Oregon cities in these records, only Portland, with 310 deaths, recorded more than Salem's 85; Gresham recorded 64 and Eugene 56. Oregon as a whole recorded 2,590 fatal crashes and 2,833 deaths over the five years, so Salem's deaths are 3 percent of the state's. FARS classified all 79 of Salem's crashes as urban, and only 1 happened in a construction work zone.

Commercial St SE heads Salem's road table with 8 fatal crashes and 9 deaths from 2020 through 2024, the latest in 2024, which is 10 percent of the city's fatal crashes. I-5 follows with 5 crashes and 5 deaths, three fewer, its latest in 2022. State Route 99E (Salem Hwy) had only 3 fatal crashes, but they killed 6 people, twice as many deaths as crashes, and the most recent was in 2024.

Seven rows have 3 fatal crashes each. Apart from State Route 99E (Salem Hwy), each of them recorded 3 deaths: Lancaster Dr NE (State Route 213), Market St NE, Portland Rd NE and State Route 22 (Salem Hwy), all with a fatal crash in 2024, and Hawthorne Ave NE and Liberty Rd S, whose latest came in 2022. Cordon Rd SE closes the table with 2 crashes that killed 3 people, most recently in 2024.

Together the ten rows hold 36 of the 79 crashes, 46 percent, and 41 of the 85 deaths, so the other 43 crashes, 54 percent, happened on roads outside the table. Even the top row, Commercial St SE, holds about one in ten of the city's fatal crashes. The ranking is a record of location only; it cannot tell you why a given crash happened, which is a question for that crash's police report, witnesses, the vehicles and any recordings.

Rain appears often in Salem's record: it was recorded for 16 of the 79 fatal crashes, 20 percent, with fog, smog or smoke in 1 more. Clear weather was recorded for 44 crashes and cloudy skies for 15, and the weather was not reported for 3. Darkness covered 43 crashes, 54 percent, 31 of them on lighted roads and 12 on unlit ones; daylight accounted for 33, and dusk and dawn for 3.

By the clock, the crashes were spread fairly evenly: 24 happened between 6 p.m. and midnight, 22 between noon and 6 p.m., 17 between midnight and 6 a.m. and 15 between 6 a.m. and noon, with 1 at an unknown hour. Friday stood out with 18 fatal crashes, 23 percent of the total, followed by Saturday with 13; Sunday had the fewest, 8, and the other four days had between 9 and 11.

Most crashes did not begin with two vehicles in transport colliding. In 54 of them, 68 percent, the first harmful event was something else: a pedestrian in 25, a cyclist in 7, a person on a personal conveyance in 4 and a tree in 4, among others. The 25 collisions between vehicles in transport were 18 angle crashes, 5 head-on and 2 rear-end. Fifty crashes involved a single vehicle, 20 involved two and 9 involved three or more. By location, 38 were away from any junction, 33 were at or related to an intersection, 5 were tied to a driveway and 3 to an entrance or exit ramp.

Of the 85 people killed, 33 were drivers and 13 were passengers, 46 in all. Pedestrians were 28, or 33 percent, bicyclists 7 and people on personal conveyances 4, so 39 of the dead, 46 percent, were outside any vehicle. By crash, 36 of the 79 crashes, also 46 percent, involved at least one pedestrian, cyclist or other person outside a vehicle.

Thirteen of the people killed, 15 percent, were on a motorcycle or moped; they are part of the 85, not additional deaths. Pedestrian and cyclist claims often turn on visibility, and Salem's record is full of conditions that limit it: darkness in 43 crashes and rain in 16. Lighting, glare and wet pavement change by the hour, so photos and video from the time of the crash are worth gathering early, before the scene looks different.

This case is invented, with round numbers. On a rainy evening in Salem, your car is struck at an angle by a driver who entered an intersection as the light turned red. Your medical bills, lost income and pain and suffering are valued at $150,000. The other driver's insurer says you were going too fast for the wet road and assigns you 30 percent of the fault.

Oregon follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar: you can recover as long as you were not more than 50 percent at fault, and your award is reduced by your share. At 30 percent, the $150,000 becomes $105,000. At exactly 50 percent, you would still collect $75,000, but at any share above 50 percent, nothing. That cliff is why evidence about speed, the signal timing and the wet pavement matters so much in a claim like this.

Oregon is an at-fault state, so the other driver's liability insurance pays for the losses that driver caused, up to its limits. The required minimum, 25/50/20, means $25,000 for one person's injuries, $50,000 for all injuries in one crash and $20,000 for property damage. A minimum policy would pay $25,000 toward the $105,000 and leave $80,000, which other coverage may or may not reach, depending on the policies. All of these numbers are hypothetical.

Oregon sets two duties. For a collision that injures or kills anyone, or causes damage of the kinds listed below, the driver must tell a police officer or law enforcement agency immediately, by the quickest means available (ORS 811.745, 811.748). Within 72 hours, the driver must also send the Oregon DMV the Oregon Traffic Collision and Insurance Report, Form 735-32, even if police filed their own report (ORS 811.720, 811.725). DMV accepts it online through DMV2U or on the paper form.

The DMV report is required from every driver when anyone is injured or killed; from a driver whose own vehicle has more than $2,500 of damage; and from every driver when property other than a vehicle has more than $2,500 of damage, or when any vehicle has more than $2,500 of damage and a vehicle is towed from the scene. Keep a copy: Oregon DMV's records page says it cannot give you a copy of your own report, though it lists police traffic crash reports among the records it provides.

• Get the responding officer's name and the report number before you leave.
• In rain or darkness, photograph the road surface, the lighting and any glare; 16 of Salem's fatal crashes happened in rain.
• Ask nearby homes and businesses to preserve camera footage.
• Get medical care promptly and keep every bill and record.
• Mark two dates: 72 hours for the DMV report and two years for most injury lawsuits.

A lawsuit over a Salem crash is typically filed in the Marion County Circuit Court, though the right court depends on the facts and an attorney may conclude another one is proper. Oregon generally allows two years to file a personal injury lawsuit (ORS 12.110(1)). Most claims settle with an insurer, but a suit filed after the two years can be dismissed no matter how strong the facts, so the date belongs on the calendar from the start.

A work crash can bring in a much faster clock. Under Oregon workers' compensation, overseen by the Oregon Workers' Compensation Division, an injury must be reported to the employer within 90 days, and because the notice of accident is the claim, that is also the claim deadline (ORS 656.265); a late claim survives only in limited cases and never after one year. Wrongful death claims and claims involving a government body can have deadlines of their own, set by state law, so confirm every date with an attorney early.

Oregon's 51 percent bar decides the example at its edges: the same driver collects a reduced award at 50 percent fault and nothing above it. In a pure comparative negligence state, a 70 percent share would still leave 30 percent of the damages, and in contributory negligence states such as Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, even the insurer's 30 percent figure could generally bar any recovery.

The insurance system and deadlines also vary. Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey are no-fault states, which generally limit lawsuits for pain and suffering to more serious injuries; Oregon is an at-fault state, so the at-fault driver's liability coverage answers for the losses that driver caused. Tennessee gives one year for most injury claims, half of Oregon's two, and Oregon's own 90-day workers' compensation notice is shorter than either.

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, with the fee taken as a percentage of any recovery. An attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say whether a claim exists or how fault would be divided. If you were hurt in a crash in Salem, you can request a free case review.

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

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

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