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Personal Injury
California Motorcycle Accident Statistics
How dangerous is riding in California — and what do the numbers say about who actually causes crashes? Below are some statistics that matter to riders and to injury claims: deaths and serious injuries, county rankings, the crash causes state data records, and how California compares nationally. Figures are drawn from the state's SWITRS crash database, the California Office of Traffic Safety, and NHTSA's federal fatality data. If one of these numbers describes your crash, our motorcycle accident attorneys can tell you what it means for your claim.
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Understanding Your Motorcycle Accident Case
Explore essential resources on your rights, your options, and what to expect — everything you need to navigate the legal process, all in one place.
California's Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) data, as analyzed by UC Berkeley SafeTREC, attributes fatal and serious-injury motorcycle crashes to these primary collision factors: unsafe speed, 28.2%; improper turning, 19.8%; automobile right-of-way violations, 19.3%; driving under the influence, 8.7%; and unsafe lane changes, 5.2%. Read the middle two together and the pattern every rider knows emerges: nearly two of every five crashes trace to a turning or right-of-way error — the left-turning driver and the merging driver.
Los Angeles County leads with 125 motorcyclist fatalities in 2023, followed by San Diego (52), Riverside (50), San Bernardino (48), and Orange (42) (FARS/SWITRS via UC Berkeley SafeTREC). Los Angeles County also recorded 754 serious rider injuries and more than 3,200 riders killed or injured overall — a concentration that matches its freeway density and year-round riding season. County-level exposure matters in litigation, too: venue, jury pools, and local roadway conditions all shape case strategy.
In 2023, 6,335 motorcyclists died in crashes nationwide — about 15% of all U.S. traffic deaths — at a fatality rate of 31.39 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, versus 1.13 for passenger car occupants (NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts, DOT HS 813 732). California accounted for 583 of those deaths. One place California outperforms is helmet compliance: in universal-helmet-law states like this one, only about 10% of killed riders were unhelmeted, versus 51% in states without such laws — California recorded just 33 unhelmeted rider deaths, down from 43 the year before. The legal side of that story is on our California helmet law page.
The recent trend is improving: rider deaths fell 10.2% from 2022 to 2023 (649 to 583), inside a broader drop in California traffic deaths overall (4,539 to 4,061; California OTS). The longer arc is less encouraging — rider deaths remain roughly 19% above 2019's 491, mirroring the national surge in motorcyclist fatalities since the pandemic. We update this page as new state and federal releases publish.
The profile from state and federal data (FARS/SWITRS via SafeTREC): overwhelmingly male — 95% of fatalities and 89% of serious injuries — with riders aged 25 to 34 the largest single group, at 22% of deaths and 26% of serious injuries. Impairment appears in a meaningful minority of fatal crashes, and unlicensed operation remains a recurring factor. None of these demographics changes a victim's legal rights — but they do shape the biases injured riders meet from insurers, which is why data like this and the Berkeley lane-splitting research belong in demand packages.
Meet Our Motorcycle Accident Attorneys
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Colin M. Jones, Esq.Senior Partner and Senior Trial Attorney, Chair of the Personal Injury Litigation Department
Jennifer P. Burkes, Esq.Senior Partner & Strategic Advisor, Personal Injury Litigation Department
Mary Lee Caruso, Esq.Senior Partner
Ryan Casey, Esq.Senior Partner and Trial Attorney
Tae-Yoon Kim, Esq.Senior Partner
Alivia E. Abreu, Esq.Partner
Shervin G. Ghanoongooi, Esq.Partner
Christopher Goodroe, Esq.Partner
Nathan A. Guest, Esq.Partner and Trial Attorney
Brian M. Jacobson, Esq.Partner
Ariella Perry, Esq.Partner$28.5M
Recovery for victims of a rear-end collision involving a commercial truck.
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Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Each case is unique and evaluated on its own facts.
How Many Motorcyclists Are Killed in California Each Year?
583 motorcyclists were killed on California roads in 2023 — down 10.2% from 649 in 2022, but still nearly 19% above the 491 deaths of 2019 (NHTSA FARS; California OTS). Motorcyclists account for 14% of all California traffic deaths, despite motorcycles being a small fraction of registered vehicles and miles traveled. Nationally, the picture is starker: per mile traveled, motorcyclist fatalities occur at roughly 28 times the rate of passenger-car occupants (NHTSA). Those two numbers — 14% of deaths, 28× the per-mile risk — are the statistical shape of why rider injury claims so often involve catastrophic damages.
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Motorcycle Accident FAQs
Our Most Frequently Asked Questions
We've answered the most common ones below. If yours isn't here, call us — we're available 24/7.
In the most recent complete year of state data, 583 riders were killed and thousands more seriously injured — Los Angeles County alone recorded over 3,200 riders killed or injured.
By raw fatalities: Los Angeles (125), then San Diego (52), Riverside (50), San Bernardino (48), and Orange (42).
Unsafe speed is the largest single primary factor (28.2%) — but turning and right-of-way violations by other vehicles combine to nearly 40%, which is why 'the car turned in front of me' is the classic California rider crash.
Per mile traveled, motorcyclists die at roughly 28 times the rate of passenger-car occupants — 31.39 versus 1.13 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles (NHTSA). Riders don't crash more often so much as they pay far more per crash, which is why injury severity drives these claims.
Because they rebut bias with data: state crash records show most serious motorcycle crashes trace to driver error, not rider recklessness — context that supports reconstruction findings in negotiations.