Gallagher & Kennedy represents people injured in Mesa car accidents and helps them recover compensation for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. We investigate the crash, deal with the insurance adjusters directly, and file suit in Maricopa County Superior Court when the offer isn't fair. Consultations are free, and you pay nothing unless we win.
Call (602) 530-8400 or Get Your Free Case Review
Car Accidents in Mesa: What the City’s Own Data Shows
Mesa is the second-most crash-heavy city in Arizona, behind only Phoenix. In 2024, ADOT recorded 8,022 crashes inside Mesa city limits, which killed 48 people and injured 3,531.
The City of Mesa tracks its own street network separately. Its 2024 Annual Crash Report counted 6,627 crashes, 34 traffic deaths, and 172 serious-injury crashes on city roads.
Three findings in Mesa's data change how a crash claim should be built:
- 58% of Mesa crashes happen at intersections, and 89% of the crashes that kill or seriously injure someone happen on streets posted at 40 mph or higher.
- Unprotected left turns cause 19% of Mesa's deaths and serious injuries, 241 crashes over six years. Only 61 of Mesa's 501 traffic signals have a protected green arrow.
- Motorcyclists made up 47% of Mesa's traffic deaths in 2024, 16 of 34, from just 2.1% of crashes.
Mesa adopted a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan in May 2025 after roadway deaths rose 97% since 2014. Between 2017 and 2022, 1,359 people were killed or seriously hurt on Mesa roads, roughly four every week.
That plan is a public document, and it names the intersections the city already knows are dangerous. That matters for your claim, and almost no firm handling Mesa crashes uses it.
Where Car Accidents Happen in Mesa
The 18 Intersections Mesa Flags as Highest Risk
Mesa's Comprehensive Safety Action Plan ranks every arterial intersection in the city by expected crash frequency, adjusted for traffic volume. Eighteen fall into the plan's highest category, "Safety Level 4." The ten worst:
| Rank | Intersection | Risk percentile |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greenfield Road & Main Street | 95.5 |
| 2 | Higley Road & McKellips Road | 92.7 |
| 3 | Lindsay Road & Broadway Road | 92.6 |
| 4 | Val Vista Drive & Main Street | 89.6 |
| 5 | Greenfield Road & Southern Avenue | 87.4 |
| 6 | Stapley Drive & Main Street | 87.1 |
| 7 | Val Vista Drive & McDowell Road | 86.2 |
| 8 | Gilbert Road & Main Street | 85.9 |
| 9 | Ellsworth Road & University Drive | 84.4 |
| 10 | Higley Road & Broadway Road | 83.6 |
The rest of the list: Center Street & McKellips, Recker Road & Main, Dobson Road & Main, Higley Road & Main, Val Vista Drive & Broadway, Stapley Drive & Southern, Lindsay Road & University, and Horne & McKellips.
Main Street appears six times. If your crash happened at one of these intersections, the city's own engineering analysis supports the argument that the location was a known hazard, and that changes the conversation with an adjuster who wants to blame you.
Mesa Intersections on the Regional Worst-100 List
The Maricopa Association of Governments ranks the 100 highest-crash-risk intersections across the entire Phoenix metro. Two Mesa locations make the list:
- Dobson Road & University Drive, 75 crashes between 2018 and 2022, ranked 86th regionally
- 8th Avenue & Alma School Road, 49 crashes over the same period, ranked 100th
City engineers separately told Mesa's transportation committee in March 2025 that Alma School Road & Pueblo Avenue produced 35 crashes over six years, including four fatal crashes and 11 serious injuries.
US-60 and Loop 202
US-60, the Superstition Freeway, cuts straight through the middle of Mesa and is one of the busiest roads in the East Valley. Loop 202, the Red Mountain Freeway, arcs across the north and east sides of the city and meets US-60 at the SuperRedTan interchange in east Mesa, near Power and Ellsworth roads.
Freeway collisions run at higher speeds than surface-street crashes, which makes rear-end chain reactions, rollovers, and truck accidents far more likely to cause catastrophic or fatal injuries.
One practical difference matters immediately: crashes on US-60 and Loop 202 are investigated by Arizona DPS, not Mesa Police. The report comes from a different agency, takes longer to obtain, and follows a different request process. We handle that so you're not calling two agencies while you're trying to recover.
We don't publish crash counts for US-60 or Loop 202, because neither ADOT nor the City of Mesa breaks crash data out by freeway segment. Any firm quoting you a specific number for those roads is making it up.
Downtown Mesa
Downtown accounts for 24% of Mesa's traffic deaths and serious injuries on 8% of the city's land area. The concentration comes from older street design, on-street parking, pedestrian traffic, and light rail crossings along Main Street.
One Recent Crash
In March 2026, a 47-year-old woman was struck and killed in a hit-and-run at Southern Avenue and San Jose, directly in front of Banner Desert Medical Center. Police identified the driver after he fled the scene.
Hit-and-run cases are not hopeless. Your own uninsured motorist coverage can pay out even when the driver is never identified, and we have recovered $1.2 million for the family of a motorcyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver.
What Causes Serious Car Accidents in Mesa
Mesa's crash analysis points to four patterns that together account for 63% of every death and serious injury on city streets:
| Cause | Serious crashes (2017 to 2022) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Failure to yield on roads posted 40+ mph | 389 | 31% |
| Drivers aged 65 and older | 292 | 23% |
| Alcohol or drugs | 264 | 21% |
| Left turns at signals with no protected arrow | 241 | 19% |
Beyond driver error, two other categories can put someone else on the hook, and finding them early is often the difference between a policy-limits settlement and a full recovery.
Vehicle defects. Defective tires, failed brakes, airbags that don't deploy or deploy too aggressively, and seat belts that release on impact turn a survivable crash into a catastrophic one. Each creates a product liability claim against the manufacturer on top of the claim against the driver. Worth investigating any time the injuries seem out of proportion to the impact.
Road and signal design. Mesa has publicly identified 28 intersections with left-turn crash problems and recommended protected-only arrows at 13 of them. Where a crash happens at a location the city already flagged and didn't fix, a claim against the public entity may exist, but that runs on a 180 day notice deadline, not two years, so it has to be spotted fast.
Types of Mesa Car Accident Claims We Handle
- Intersection and T-bone collisions, the largest category in Mesa, and usually a failure-to-yield or red-light case
- Left-turn crashes, including at the signals Mesa flagged for protected arrows
- Rear-end collisions, from low-speed surface-street impacts to freeway chain reactions
- Head-on collisions and wrong-way crashes
- Rollovers, more common in SUVs and on freeway ramps
- Hit-and-run crashes, including where the driver is never identified
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims against your own policy
- Rideshare accidents involving Uber and Lyft drivers
- Commercial truck collisions on US-60, Loop 202, and Mesa's industrial corridors
- Multi-vehicle pileups where fault is split across several drivers
- Parking lot and shopping center crashes, which can involve premises liability as well as auto coverage
- Crashes involving motorcyclists, pedestrians, and cyclists, the deadliest crash types in Mesa
Common Injuries in Mesa Car Accident Claims
- Traumatic brain injury, including concussions that show no symptoms for days
- Spinal cord injuries, herniated discs, and whiplash
- Fractured and crushed limbs, and amputation
- Internal organ damage and abdominal injuries
- Chest and pelvic injuries from seat belts and steering columns
- Burns
- Lacerations, contusions, and permanent scarring
Two of these drive claim value disproportionately. Traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury create lifetime care costs that no quick settlement offer covers, and both are routinely disputed by insurers arguing the symptoms predate the crash. Building those claims takes medical experts and often a life care planner, which is a funding question as much as a legal one. See our catastrophic injury practice.
Our Car Accident Results
Gallagher & Kennedy has recovered over $500 million for injured Arizonans. A sample of our motor vehicle results:
| Result | Case |
|---|---|
| $11,000,000 | Settlement for a client permanently injured in a serious car crash |
| $10,000,000 | Settlement for a child struck by an inattentive driver |
| $7,900,000 | Two drivers killed when a tractor-trailer driver fell asleep at the wheel |
| $4,500,000 | Compensation for a client hit by a cement truck |
| $4,250,000 | Settlement for two sisters injured in a motor vehicle accident |
| $1,650,000 | Settlement for passengers injured in a motor vehicle collision |
| $1,600,000 | Pedestrian hit and dragged by a truck in a parking lot |
| $1,550,000 | Wrongful death of a cyclist on a faulty roadway |
| $1,200,000 | Motorcyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver |
| $950,000 | Settlement in a rear-end collision case |
| $600,000 | Uninsured motorist bodily injury claim |
| $550,000 | Husband and wife injured in a motor vehicle crash |
| $500,000 | Jury verdict in an Arizona motor vehicle accident |
See our full case results.
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is different and is decided on its own facts.
What Our Clients Say
Gallagher & Kennedy has earned over 145 Google reviews.
"6 outta 5 Stars!!! You gave me my Dream Life!!"
Blake Benedict, motorcycle accident client
"Seven-figure settlement... in less than one year."
Nancy Johnson
"Honest, dependable, persistent, extremely capable, and genuinely concerned."
Bonnie Warren
"Very informative and was always there to answer any questions."
Sandi, motorcycle accident client
"I have the highest honor and gratitude for the greatest outcome."
Alex Bryan, bicycle injury client
"As a rule, I don't give reviews… ever. I am making an exception in this case. I had a motorcycle accident, where I was very lucky to keep my leg."
Dave Nixon, motorcycle accident client
Read more client testimonials.
What to Do After a Car Accident in Mesa
- Call 911. Mesa Police respond to crashes on city streets; Arizona DPS handles US-60 and Loop 202. Either way, the crash report becomes central evidence. Ask for medical help if anyone is hurt.
- Get medical care right away. If you declined care at the scene, see a doctor as soon as you can. Traumatic brain injury and internal bleeding often produce no symptoms for hours or days, and a treatment gap is the first thing an adjuster will use against you.
- Photograph everything. Vehicle positions, damage, skid marks, debris, signals, and sight lines. At a Mesa intersection with a documented crash history, the signal configuration itself can matter.
- Exchange information. Arizona law requires drivers to share contact and insurance details under A.R.S. § 28-663.
- Get witness details. Bystanders leave fast, and in a disputed-fault crash their account can decide the case.
- Don't give a recorded statement. Decline the other insurer's request until you have talked to a Mesa car accident attorney.
How a Mesa Car Accident Claim Works
- Free consultation. We review the crash and explain liability and your options.
- Investigation. We preserve evidence before it disappears: surveillance footage from nearby businesses, vehicle event data recorders, signal timing, witness accounts. When needed we bring in an independent crash reconstruction expert.
- Valuing the claim. We calculate your medical costs, future care, and lost earning capacity, and assess how the injury has changed your life.
- Demand and negotiation. We send a formal demand and handle every conversation with the adjusters.
- Litigation. If the insurer won't offer fairly, we file suit and prepare the case for trial.
Where Your Car Accident Lawsuit Is Filed
Most Mesa car accident lawsuits are filed in Maricopa County Superior Court. Mesa has its own courthouse, the Southeast Regional Center at 222 East Javelina Avenue, just off US-60, so you may never need to travel into downtown Phoenix.
Which court hears the case depends on the amount you're seeking, not the severity of the crash. Claims over $10,000 go to Superior Court; anything under stays in Justice Court.
What We Have to Prove
- Duty. Every driver owes a duty of care to everyone else on the road.
- Breach. The other driver failed that duty through carelessness or recklessness.
- Causation. That failure caused the crash and your injuries.
- Damages. You suffered real losses: medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering.
Causation is where most contested Mesa crash cases are won or lost, particularly when the insurer argues your injury came from something other than the collision.
Insurance Adjuster Tactics After a Mesa Crash
You may hear from the other driver's insurer within a day or two. They may sound helpful. Their job is to close your claim for as little as possible.
The first thing they usually ask for is a recorded statement. Don't give one. Honest answers get reframed later to shift blame onto you or to argue you weren't hurt as badly as you say.
Then watch for the fast settlement offer, which often arrives while you're still in the hospital. It's designed to reach you before you know what the claim is worth. Once you sign, you're locked in, even if you later need surgery or long-term care.
What If the Driver Who Hit You Wasn’t Insured?
If an uninsured driver caused your crash, you can still recover, usually through your own uninsured motorist coverage. Arizona insurers must offer UM coverage under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, and you have it unless you rejected it in writing.
UM also applies to hit-and-run crashes where the driver is never identified, which matters in Mesa, where hit-and-run is a persistent problem.
If the other driver had insurance but not enough, underinsured motorist coverage steps in. And if neither applies, we look at whether someone else shares responsibility: an employer whose driver was on the clock, a bar that overserved, a property owner, or a government agency responsible for the road.
What Compensation Can You Recover?
- Economic damages, covering ER and hospital bills, surgery, rehabilitation, future medical care, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and vehicle repair or replacement.
- Non-economic damages, covering chronic pain, emotional distress, disfigurement, and the loss of activities and independence you had before the crash.
- Punitive damages, available on top in cases of reckless misconduct such as drunk driving or extreme speeding. With alcohol or drugs factoring into 21% of Mesa's fatal and serious-injury crashes, this comes up more often than people expect.
Arizona follows pure comparative fault under A.R.S. § 12-2505. Being partly at fault doesn't bar recovery; it reduces it by your share. If a jury values your damages at $250,000 and assigns you 30% of the fault, you recover $175,000.
When a Mesa Car Accident Is Fatal
Mesa lost 34 people to traffic crashes in 2024, and 1,359 people were killed or seriously injured on Mesa roads between 2017 and 2022.
Arizona's wrongful death statute lets a surviving spouse, parent, child, or the personal representative of the estate bring a claim. Recoverable losses include funeral and burial costs, the income and support the family lost, loss of companionship and guidance, the survivors' grief, and medical expenses incurred before death.
The two-year deadline for a wrongful death claim generally runs from the date of death rather than the date of the crash. Our wrongful death attorneys handle these cases with the understanding that no family should be managing an insurance claim while grieving.
Arizona Laws That Affect Your Mesa Car Accident Claim
- Statute of limitations. Under A.R.S. § 12-542, you generally have two years from the crash to file suit.
- Claims against a city, county, or the state. Much shorter. Serve a formal Notice of Claim within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, and file suit within one year under A.R.S. § 12-821. Miss the 180-day notice and the claim is barred outright. This applies if a City of Mesa vehicle, a Valley Metro bus or light rail train, or a dangerous road design is involved.
- Comparative fault. Pure comparative fault under § 12-2505, as described above.
- Minimum insurance. Arizona requires $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident in bodily injury coverage plus $15,000 property damage. A serious crash exhausts those limits quickly, which is exactly when your own UIM coverage matters.
Why Mesa Drivers Choose Gallagher & Kennedy
For nearly 50 years, Gallagher & Kennedy has stood behind injured people across Arizona. Our injury team brings 275+ years of combined experience and has recovered over $500 million for accident victims and their families.
One of the ten largest law firms in Arizona
Car accident cases cost money to build. Accident reconstruction, medical experts, economists, life care planners, investigators: a firm that can't fund them settles for whatever the insurer offers. We fund the full workup, and that is what produces multi-million-dollar results instead of quick resolutions.
Other lawyers send us their hardest crash cases
Smaller firms across the Valley refer their difficult collision cases to us. They know what a contested liability case takes and would rather their client get the right result. That referral pattern is the clearest read available on how our work is regarded by people who do this for a living.
Insurers know we will try the case
Adjusters price claims partly on whether they believe the firm across the table will actually go to trial. We will, and our record shows it. That changes the number on the table before a lawsuit is ever filed.
We come to you
We are based in Phoenix, a short drive from Mesa, and we will meet you at home or in a hospital room when you can't travel. We take Mesa cases on contingency, so you pay nothing unless we recover for you.
We treat the road itself as evidence
When your crash happened at an intersection Mesa's own safety plan already flagged, or at a signal the city identified for a protected left-turn arrow it never installed, that record becomes part of your case. Most firms handling Mesa crashes never look for it.
Learn more about our firm · See our results · Read client testimonials
Mesa Car Accident FAQs
Can I still file a claim if the police report says I was at fault?
Yes. A crash report is one piece of evidence, not a verdict. Officers work from incomplete information at the scene and sometimes get it wrong. Because Arizona uses pure comparative fault, partial responsibility only reduces your recovery, it doesn't end the claim. We can challenge an inaccurate report with independent evidence and crash reconstruction.
What if my crash happened on US-60 or Loop 202?
Arizona DPS investigates crashes on state highways, so the report comes from DPS rather than Mesa Police and can take longer to obtain. Freeway crashes also tend to involve higher speeds, more severe injuries, and commercial trucks more often. We deal with the agency side so you don't have to chase it.
What if I was hit by an Uber or Lyft driver in Mesa?
Rideshare companies carry commercial policies with far higher limits than a personal auto policy, but coverage depends on what the driver was doing at the time. Full limits generally apply only when the driver had a passenger or was en route to a pickup. We identify which policy applies. See our rideshare accident page.
Does a crash in a Mesa parking lot work differently?
It can. Crashes in shopping center and apartment complex lots often involve premises liability alongside the auto claim. If the property owner allowed sight lines to be blocked, left lighting broken, or ignored a known hazard, they may share responsibility.
How much does a Mesa car accident lawyer cost?
Nothing upfront. Gallagher & Kennedy works on contingency, so fees and case costs come only out of what we recover. If we don't win, you owe nothing.
Why are motorcycle crashes such a large share of Mesa's numbers?
Motorcycles account for roughly 2% of Mesa crashes but nearly half its traffic deaths, 16 of 34 in 2024. Almost four in ten Mesa motorcycle crashes end in death or serious injury. Insurers know riders are vulnerable and often lead with a bias argument that the rider was speeding or lane-splitting. Our motorcycle accident team is built to push back.
How long will my Mesa car accident case take?
It depends on your medical treatment more than anything else. We generally don't send a demand until you reach maximum medical improvement, because that's when your full damages are knowable. Straightforward claims can resolve in months; cases that go into litigation usually take a year or more.
Will my health insurance cover treatment in the meantime?
Health insurance or MedPay can cover treatment while the claim is pending, and you should use it rather than delay care. It doesn't reduce your right to pursue the at-fault driver, though your insurer may assert a lien against the recovery, which we negotiate as part of resolving the case.
Does it matter whether my lawyer has actually tried cases?
More than most people expect. Insurers track which firms file suit and which always settle, and they price offers accordingly. A firm with no realistic trial threat negotiates from a weaker position regardless of the facts. Ask any lawyer you're considering how many cases they have taken to verdict.
Relevant Reading for Mesa Crash Victims
- The Most Overlooked Evidence in Car Accident Cases
- If an Insurance Company Denies My Car Accident Claim
- What If My Injuries Show Up Weeks After the Car Crash?
- How Is Pain and Suffering Calculated in a Car Accident Claim?
Speak With a Mesa Car Accident Attorney Today
Mesa's roads have gotten more dangerous, not less. Traffic deaths in the city are up 97% since 2014. A serious crash can leave you facing steep bills while the insurance company is already building its case against you.
Gallagher & Kennedy has represented injured Arizonans for decades. Finding out whether you have a claim, and what to do next, costs nothing but a phone call.
Call (602) 530-8400 or Contact Us Today For A Free Consultation