Tempe Personal Injury Lawyers

Tempe has 190,000 residents and 6,637 crashes per year. That's 3.49 crashes per 100 residents. The highest rate per capita of any East Valley city. Mesa is at 1.55. Chandler at 1.52. Scottsdale at 1.71. Tempe is more than double.

The math isn't complicated. Four freeways run through or along the city. I-10, Loop 202, Loop 101, and US-60. Arizona State University sits in the middle with 80,000 students. Mill Avenue, Rural Road, Apache Boulevard, and University Drive carry foot traffic, bike traffic, e-bike traffic, and car traffic on the same lanes. The median age in Tempe is 30. Young drivers, high density, mixed modes. The crash numbers follow.

30% of Serious Crashes Involve Pedestrians and Cyclists

Tempe was the first city in Arizona to adopt a Vision Zero plan, back in 2018. They've committed real resources. Photo enforcement cameras. Rotating safety corridors that change quarterly based on crash data. A real-time operations center launched in 2024.

The results. 388 serious injury or fatal crashes between 2021 and 2024. Thirty percent involved pedestrians, bicyclists, e-bikes, or scooters. That's not a freeway problem. That's a surface street problem. People walking and riding on roads designed for cars doing 45 mph.

The current safety corridors for 2026 tell you where the problem is right now. 48th Street between Southern and Broadway, McClintock Drive in two segments, and Baseline Road near Priest Drive. These are arterials, not freeways. The crashes happen where speeds are high. Pedestrian infrastructure is thin.

The Loop 202 Milk Tanker Crash

On June 9, 2021, a milk tanker on Loop 202 near the Tempe border crashed into stopped traffic at about 10 p.m. The tanker separated from the truck, crossed the median, and burst into flames. Four people died. Eleven were injured. Eight vehicles involved.

The NTSB investigated. The cause was driver fatigue. The driver had worked 83 hours one week and 77 the next. He was paid per load under an agricultural hours-of-service exemption with no driving time limit. His employer had no fatigue management program.

That crash happened on a road that tens of thousands of Tempe residents use daily. The regulatory loophole that allowed it still exists.

Autonomous Vehicles and Tempe

Tempe is where the autonomous vehicle conversation started. In March 2018, Elaine Herzberg, 49, became the first pedestrian killed by a self-driving car when an Uber test vehicle struck her while she was crossing Mill Avenue near Curry Road at night. In September 2025, a Waymo vehicle was involved in a fatal crash involving a motorcycle. Tempe is ground zero for AV safety policy in Arizona.

Where Tempe Crashes Concentrate

MAG's Top 100 Crash-Risk Intersections list includes three Tempe locations. Elliot Road and Kyrene Road at 58th. Broadway Road and Hardy Drive at 62nd. Baseline Road near the Loop 101/202 interchange at 68th, with 257 crashes over the study period, the highest raw count of any Tempe intersection on the list.

The Mill Avenue corridor near ASU is a different kind of danger. Nightlife, pedestrians, cyclists, rideshare pickups, and through traffic all sharing the same space. Late-night impaired driving crashes happen here regularly.

We Handle Tempe Cases

Our offices are in Buckeye and Maricopa. We handle cases across Maricopa County. Tempe's crash patterns are well-documented, and we pull the same ADOT data, MAG intersection reports, and Vision Zero corridor data that builds the case.

If you or someone in your family was in a crash in Tempe, call (602) 654-0202 or use our contact form. The consultation is free. We don't charge unless we recover money for you.