Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
A crash on the 405, the 101, the 10, the 110, the 5, or any other Los Angeles freeway follows its own sequence, whether you were driving, riding as a passenger, or stopped in a lane. The CHP investigates, its report has to be requested, fault is apportioned among every driver involved, and the state can be a defendant. Commercial truck crashes carry federal rules and are covered on Los Angeles truck accidents.
Getting a copy of the CHP report
Vehicle Code 2400(d) gives the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol full responsibility and primary jurisdiction for the enforcement of the laws and for the investigation of traffic accidents on all toll highways and state highways constructed as freeways. That is why an LAPD unit may stop at the scene and a CHP unit still writes the report.
The report is not public. Vehicle Code 20012 makes collision reports confidential and releases them only to a person with a proper interest: a driver involved, an injured person, an owner of damaged property, someone who may face civil liability, and the attorneys for any of them. The CHP takes the request on form CHP 190, in person at any CHP office or by mail to the office that filed the report, with a copy of your photo identification.
| Report length | Fee |
|---|---|
| 1 to 25 pages | $10.00 |
| 26 to 50 pages | $20.00 |
| 51 to 75 pages | $30.00 |
| 76 to 100 pages | $40.00 |
| Over 100 pages | $10.00 for each additional 25 pages or part |
Get it early, then read it as a starting point rather than a verdict. An officer who arrived after the collision reconstructs a sequence from statements and physical marks, under time pressure, on a live freeway. The officer's opinion in the report's narrative section is not binding on an insurer, an arbitrator, or a jury, and in a multi-vehicle case it is frequently incomplete about who stopped first.
Dividing fault in a chain collision
California divides fault by percentage rather than deciding it all or nothing, under Li v. Yellow Cab Co., and CACI 406 is the jury instruction that asks a jury to apportion responsibility among everyone involved. Civil Code 1431.2 then splits the verdict: the economic damages stay joint, while each defendant answers separately for its own share of the pain and suffering.
Applied to a four-car pileup, a jury finds the last driver 60 percent responsible, the second driver 30 percent, and you 10 percent for following closer than you should have in stopped traffic. Your $200,000 verdict becomes $180,000, and of the non-economic half, the last driver's insurer answers for 60 percent of it and the second driver's for 30 percent. That means two insurers, two limits, and two separate negotiations.
That is why the order of impacts is the evidence worth spending money on. Event data recorders in each vehicle hold speed, braking, and throttle in the seconds before impact. Crush patterns show whether a car was struck once or twice. Freeway traffic cameras and dash cameras in uninvolved vehicles settle sequence questions that no witness can answer.
Lane change sideswipes and speed
Most freeway collisions that are not chain reactions are lane change collisions, and one statute governs them. Vehicle Code 21658(a) requires a vehicle to be driven as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane, and prohibits moving from the lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety. Violating it supports a presumption of negligence under CACI 418.
Speed is the second statute. Vehicle Code 22349(a) caps speed on a highway at 65 miles per hour, and the basic speed law in Vehicle Code 22350 makes a lawful speed unlawful when conditions call for less. Rain on the 405 at 4 p.m. is that condition, and a driver traveling 60 in stop-and-go traffic can violate the basic speed law without ever passing the posted limit.
Rear-end impacts in stopped freeway traffic have their own body of argument, and who is at fault in a rear-end accident works through what shifts blame forward. If the driver who hit you left the freeway before the CHP arrived, the claim moves onto your own policy, and hit and run accidents covers the conditions that apply.
When the freeway itself was the problem
The California Department of Transportation has full possession and control of all state highways under Streets and Highways Code 90. That control is what makes a claim possible when the roadway itself contributed: a shoulder drop-off, an unrepaired barrier, a missing or obscured sign, a merge configuration that keeps producing the same collision, or debris left in a live lane.
Government Code 835 is the statute, and it is demanding. You must prove the property was in a dangerous condition at the time of the injury, that the condition proximately caused the injury, and that it created a reasonably foreseeable risk of that kind of injury. You must also prove either that an employee created the condition or that the entity had actual or constructive notice, meaning it knew or should have known, long enough beforehand to protect against it. Notice is where these cases are won and lost.
| Step | Deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Present a written claim | 6 months from accrual, usually the crash date | Government Code 911.2 |
| The board acts, or silence rejects the claim | 45 days | Government Code 912.4 |
| File suit after a written rejection | 6 months from delivery or mailing | Government Code 945.6(a)(1) |
| File suit where no rejection notice was given | 2 years from accrual | Government Code 945.6(a)(2) |
Where the claim goes matters as much as when. Government Code 915(b) requires a claim against the State to be delivered to an office of the Department of General Services or mailed to that department at its principal office. A claim against a local entity goes to its clerk, secretary, auditor, or governing body. Sending a state claim to the wrong agency is a preventable way to lose a good case.
When a freeway claim breaks down
- The six month claim deadline passed. The most common failure in a roadway-defect case, and it usually happens because the road was never suspected until the reconstruction was done.
- No notice to the entity. A pothole that opened last night is not constructive notice, however dangerous it was.
- The sequence cannot be proved. In a four-car chain with no cameras and no data downloads, each insurer blames the car behind it and the file stalls.
- The vehicles were salvaged. Crush patterns and the event data recorder go to the yard with them, usually within weeks.
- Everyone carries minimum limits. Three at fault drivers at $30,000 each is a ceiling, and your own underinsured coverage is the next stop.
- The CHP report names you. It is an opinion rather than a finding, but it takes evidence rather than argument to move an insurance adjuster off it.
What to do after a freeway crash
Request the CHP report as soon as it is available, and do not let any vehicle be repaired or salvaged until the data is downloaded and the damage is photographed. If the roadway, the barrier, the signage, or debris is any part of what happened, calendar the six month claim date on day one, before anyone has concluded whose fault it was.
We pull the report, download the vehicle data, canvass for camera footage, and open every available policy at once, including your own uninsured and underinsured coverage, which uninsured motorist claims explains. The deadlines that govern every version of these cases are on the parent page, Los Angeles car accident lawyer. No fee unless we recover.