Tempe Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Lawyer for Car, Bicycle and Pedestrian Crashes

Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer | Former Insurance Adjuster & Defense Attorney

In 2023, Tempe recorded 7,299 vehicle crashes, the fourth-highest total in Maricopa County and the fourth consecutive year of increases, up from 4,153 crashes in 2020. The intersection of Baseline Road and I-10 saw 257 crashes between 2018 and 2022, the highest raw crash count of any Tempe intersection tracked by the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG). Other high-crash locations include Broadway Road and Price Road and the Baseline Road and Kyrene Road corridor. Tempe’s crash risk is not limited to freeways and arterials. As home to Arizona State University and more than 11,000 university employees, along with the Mill Avenue entertainment district and Tempe Marketplace at the Loop 101 and Loop 202 interchange, Tempe sees a dense mix of vehicle, pedestrian, cyclist, and rideshare traffic that produces its own crash patterns.

Treatment for injuries sustained in Tempe crashes often runs through Banner Desert Medical Center, a Level I trauma center just across the city’s western border, along with Arizona General Hospital-Tempe and Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital near Mill Avenue.

I handle personal injury and wrongful death cases in Tempe for people hurt in vehicle crashes, bicycle crashes, pedestrian crashes, and other incidents caused by someone else’s negligence. Licensed with the State Bar of Arizona since 2006, I use my insurance adjuster and defense attorney background to help injured Tempe residents pursue fair and reasonable compensation. I keep a manageable caseload so you work directly with me, and not a case manager, from the first call to the final resolution.

For a free and confidential personal injury consultation and case evaluation, schedule a convenient time.

Pick a convenient time to talk

Why I Handle Tempe Crash Cases Differently 

Tempe’s Most Dangerous Intersections and Crash Corridors 

Baseline Road & I-10 (Tempe’s Highest-Crash Intersection)

Baseline Road and I-10 ranked #68 out of the 100 highest crash-risk intersections tracked by MAG across Maricopa County. There were 257 crashes recorded between 2018 and 2022, which had the highest raw crash count of any Tempe intersection on the list. This high-speed freeway merging and exiting traffic with cross-traffic on Baseline Road feeding into and out of Arizona Mills and other nearby businesses, a combination that produces frequent and often severe collisions.

Broadway Road & Price Road

This intersection was ranked #31 in the MAG Top 100 with 144 crashes over the same five-year period.  Many of the east/west roads intersecting up and down Price Road are busy and potentially dangerous. But Broadway Road and Price Road is one of Tempe’s busiest crossings. Heavy commuter and commercial traffic moving between Tempe, Chandler, and Mesa converge here throughout the day, creating a consistent crash pattern.

Baseline Road & Kyrene Road

This intersection forms a “T” junction, with Kyrene Road running south and terminating at Baseline Road. Ranking #78 among Maricopa County’s most dangerous intersections, it recorded 124 crashes between 2018 and 2022.

Its high collision rate stems from a volatile mix of regional and local traffic. Situated just one mile east of the heavily congested I-10 freeway junction, westbound Baseline Road frequently experiences sudden, stop-and-go backups right at Kyrene. Compounding this risk are the wide turning movements from local retail centers and the direct intersection with the Western Canal Multi-use Path, which introduces a constant stream of pedestrians and cyclists into a high-speed vehicle conflict zone.

Elliot Road & Kyrene Road

Broadway Road & Hardy Drive

Mill Avenue: A Different Kind of Danger

Mill Avenue near Arizona State University presents a crash risk profile unlike anywhere else in the East Valley. Restaurants, bars, retail, and ASU foot traffic bring a dense mix of pedestrians, cyclists, rideshare pickups and drop-offs, and through traffic into the same few blocks, especially at night. Tempe’s own Vision Zero data shows that 30 percent of serious injury and fatal crashes in the city between 2021 and 2024 involved pedestrians, bicyclists, e-bikes, or scooters. A fatal bicycle crash on February 14, 2023 at College Avenue and Alameda Drive, where a cyclist failed to stop at a four-way stop, is a reminder of how quickly this corridor can turn dangerous. Late-night impaired driving crashes are a regular occurrence here as well, and Tempe recorded 319 DUI-related crashes in 2023, with DUI fatalities rising sixfold over the prior year.

Loop 101 & Loop 202 Interchange & University Drive Ramps

This mile-long stretch compresses the Loop 101 (Price Freeway) and Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway) system interchange right up against the University Drive on-ramps and off-ramps, creating one of Tempe’s most chaotic weaving zones. Drivers entering the freeway at University Drive have to accelerate hard and cross several lanes to the left, at the same moment high-speed through traffic is cutting right to exit at University Drive or peel onto the eastbound and westbound Loop 202 flyovers. That kind of compressed, high-speed weaving catches distracted and reckless drivers off guard. It is a consistent source of serious freeway crashes.

Loop 101 and US-60 Interchange

Just before Loop 101 crosses into Chandler, it meets US-60 (Superstition Freeway) at a multi-level interchange near Exit 55AB. Traffic backs up trying to merge onto US-60 in both directions, northbound and southbound alike, while through traffic in the other lanes keeps moving at freeway speed. That combination leads to rear-end crashes and drivers making sudden lane changes into harm’s way.

Crashes occurring on Tempe freeways and major intersections range from fatal and serious injuries, including traumatic brain injuries, fractures, debilitating neck and back and other life altering injuries.

Emergency and Trauma Care for Tempe Crash Victims

Medical facilities serving motorists injured on Tempe’s roadways, intersections, and freeways include:

Banner Desert Medical Center

Banner Desert is a Level I trauma center located at 1400 S. Dobson Road, just across Tempe’s western border in Mesa. As the region’s highest-level trauma designation, it is the primary destination for Tempe crash victims with serious or life-threatening injuries, including traumatic brain injuries and severe fractures.

Arizona General Hospital -Tempe

Located at 5125 S. Rural Road in Tempe, this 24-hour freestanding emergency room offers CT imaging, x-ray, and ultrasound services. It serves as a convenient emergency care option for crash victims in south Tempe who do not require immediate Level I trauma intervention.

Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital

Located at 1500 S. Mill Avenue, Tempe St. Luke’s provides emergency care for the dense Mill Avenue and ASU corridor, where pedestrian, cyclist, and nightlife-related crashes are common.

Why Early ER Evaluation Matters for Your Claim

Even if you feel fine at the scene, it is very common to begin experiencing pain and symptoms once you are home and the adrenaline has worn off. Prompt medical evaluation is critical not only for your health, but for documenting your personal injury claim. Gaps in time between the crash and the start of treatment give insurers ammunition to argue that your injuries were caused by something other than the vehicle crash. Being evaluated immediately creates a documented record of your condition from the start.

Uninsured and Underinsured Drivers in Tempe

Roughly one in eight Arizona drivers is on the road without insurance, which means in any serious crash there is a real chance the driver who hit you has no coverage at all. Even among drivers who do carry insurance, somewhere around 35 to 40 percent carry only Arizona’s state minimum of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident in bodily injury liability. Once your medical bills, lost wages, and other damages exceed that amount, the at-fault driver’s policy runs out before your losses are fully covered, and given how much traffic moves through Tempe daily, that gap comes up often.

Two different problems can leave you underpaid after a crash, and Arizona law treats them differently: the driver has no coverage whatsoever, or the coverage exists but is not enough.

Uninsured motorist coverage, commonly shortened to UM coverage, applies when the driver who caused the crash has no insurance. If you have UM coverage on your own policy, it steps in to pay for your injuries and losses up to your own policy limits, the same way the at-fault driver’s insurance should have paid if they had it.

Underinsured motorist coverage, referred to as UIM coverage, applies when the at-fault driver has insurance but their limits are not enough to cover what you actually lost. If the driver who hit you carried a $25,000 policy and your injuries required $80,000 in medical care, your UIM coverage can make up the deficiency up to your own UIM policy limits.

Here is something a lot of Tempe drivers do not realize: buying a policy does not automatically hand you this protection. Insurers must offer UM and UIM coverage, but Arizona lets you decline it, and declining it has to happen in writing. Plenty of people sign that rejection paperwork at the counter without grasping what they are giving up, while others assume they rejected it and actually did not. Health insurance and MedPay will cover medical bills, but neither touches lost wages or pain and suffering. UM and UIM stand alone in reaching those losses. State law caps UM and UIM at your liability limits, though you can agree in writing to accept lower limits, something I would talk you out of every time. My recommendation is simple: match UM and UIM to your liability coverage, treat $100,000 per person as a floor, and go higher if your budget supports it.

Something people rarely think about: you are filing this claim against your own insurance company, the one you have paid premiums to for years, not the driver who hit you. And even loyal customers get treated like adversaries once a UM or UIM claim lands on an adjuster’s desk, because the incentive to minimize payout does not go away just because you are the policyholder. What does protect you is the insurer’s legal duty of good faith, and when that duty gets breached, it opens the door to a bad faith claim separate from the crash itself. A good chunk of my caseload is exactly this work: drafting the demand, negotiating the carrier down from a lowball position, and taking it to binding arbitration when negotiation stalls.

Not sure what you are carrying? Your declarations page has the answer, or a call to your agent will get it. If an uninsured or underinsured driver hurt you in a Tempe crash, talk to me first, before you give your own insurance company any recorded statement.

All the legal substance stays accurate (same $25K/$50K minimums, same UM/UIM mechanics, same $100K recommendation, same bad faith framing), just restructured and reworded roughly paragraph by paragraph rather than swapped word for word.