Types of San Diego Car Accidents

San Diego, California, car accidents tend to follow just a few fact patterns. These fact patterns might tell you the type of collision, the cause of the accident, or the people involved.

The type of car accident helps your lawyer figure out how your injuries happened. The nature of your accident can also help your lawyer identify who might bear liability for your injuries.

Here are some common types of San Diego car accidents, the injuries they cause, and the liability associated with them.

Call us at (619) 777-5555 or contact our law firm online to schedule a free consultation with an attorney.

How Mission Personal Injury Lawyers Can Assist After a Car Accident in San Diego

How Mission Personal Injury Lawyers Can Assist After a Car Accident in San Diego

Mission Personal Injury Lawyers is a family-owned law firm that has been helping San Diego accident victims since 2010. Our San Diego car accident attorneys have amassed a 99% success rate while recovering tens of millions of dollars in injury compensation for our clients.

Our lawyers have over 43 years of combined experience. During their long careers, they have earned many honors and awards, including:

  • Recognized as “Top Rated” personal injury lawyers by SuperLawyers.com
  • Rated 10.0 Superb by Avvo
  • Named Best of the Bar by San Diego Business Journal

Our personal injury law firm can assist with your car accident claim by:

  • Taking care of all the negotiations, paperwork, and communications
  • Hiring experts who can analyze and bolster your compensation claim
  • Protecting you from accusations that the auto accident was actually your fault

A San Diego, CA, car accident can leave you disabled and facing mountains of medical bills. To discuss the injury compensation you may be entitled to, contact Mission Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation.

How Common Are San Diego, CA Car Accidents?

According to the Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) maintained by the University of California, Berkeley, San Diego had 5,619 traffic accidents in 2021. San Diego has almost 1.4 million residents. This means that San Diego had 406 traffic crashes per 100,000 residents.

For comparison, Los Angeles had 331 traffic accidents per 100,000 residents, and San Francisco had 396 crashes per 100,000 residents. Among these major California cities, San Diego had the highest number of car accidents.

Overview of Types of San Diego Car Accidents

Some common types of San Diego car accidents include:

Single-Vehicle Accidents

According to TIMS, just under 17% of San Diego crashes involved only one vehicle. These single-vehicle crashes happened for a variety of reasons. But the most common single-vehicle accidents are collisions with fixed objects and rollover accidents.

These accidents often happen due to speeding. Traveling at excessive speeds increases the chances that you will lose control of your vehicle.

Speeding also makes you vulnerable to adverse road and weather conditions. If you hit slick roads or a patch of fog at high speed, you could collide with something or run off the road before you realize what happened.

Single-vehicle collisions can cause serious injuries, particularly if your vehicle rolls over. A rollover accident can result in severe head, neck, or back trauma. You could also get ejected from the vehicle as it rolls.

Rear-End Collisions

Rear-end crashes happen when one vehicle hits the back of the vehicle in front of it. This is the most common type of crash in San Diego. According to TIMS, over 30% of San Diego crashes are rear-end collisions.

Rear-end accidents can result from:

Surprisingly, police issued tailgating tickets in only 8.2% of rear-end crashes. This fact shows that distracted, aggressive, and intoxicated driving played larger roles in San Diego rear-end crashes.

In most cases, the rear driver bears liability for a rear-end collision. The law requires the rear driver to maintain a safe following distance. Even if the crash happened on a slick road, the rear driver still had the legal duty to follow at a safe distance.

Occasionally, the front driver may bear liability for a rear-end collision. This usually happens when the front driver cuts off the rear driver, leaving no space to stop.

Intersection Crashes

According to TIMS, almost 20% of traffic accidents in San Diego involve a side-impact collision (T-bone accident). This makes side-impact crashes the second-most common type of accident.

These accidents almost always happen at intersections. Intersection crashes happen because of:

A driver who goes through an intersection without waiting their turn will bear liability for any injuries they cause.

Intoxicated Driving Collisions

Intoxicated driving is a problem in San Diego. Nearly 300 car accidents involving injury or death resulted from drivers under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or both.

Almost any type of accident can result from intoxicated driving. Drugs and alcohol can cause a driver to misjudge their speed or the distance to other vehicles. Substance use can make a driver sleepy or jittery. Worst of all, intoxicants can impair a driver’s judgment.

An intoxicated driver bears liability for injuries caused during an intoxicated driving accident.

Other common types of car accidents include:

Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Car Wreck Lawyer in San Diego, CA

Injuries from a car accident can prevent you from working or meeting your daily needs. To learn about your right to compensation after a car accident, contact Mission Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation with an experienced San Diego car accident attorney.

San Diego Car Accident Resources