Pedestrian Accident Lawyer in Pasadena

What do Pasadena’s crash figures show for pedestrian accidents?

In the California Office of Traffic Safety rankings for 2023, where rank 1 is the worst in the group, Pasadena ranked 1st of 62 cities its size for pedestrians aged 65 and over killed or injured, with 19 victims. For pedestrians of all ages it ranked 5th of 62, with 75 victims. Neighbouring Glendale ranked 2nd in that same older-pedestrian category, which makes this corner of the San Gabriel Valley genuinely dangerous for people on foot rather than a statistical blip in one city. These rankings are rate based, adjusted for population and daily vehicle miles travelled, so they say Pasadena is worse than comparable cities, not that it has California’s highest raw count. The City’s own 2022 Local Roadway Safety Plan found that bicycle and pedestrian crashes made up 14.9 percent of the collisions that killed or seriously injured somebody between 2015 and 2019, a far higher share than their share of collisions overall, which is the usual pattern: people on foot are a minority of crashes and a majority of the serious harm.

For a claim that produces two concrete advantages. First, Pasadena has written down where it happens. Its October 2025 Focused Local Roadway Safety Action Plan names eight Safety Corridors, including Lake Avenue, Colorado Boulevard, Fair Oaks Avenue and Washington Boulevard, and states that 80 percent of its killed-or-seriously-injured collisions occur on just 13 percent of the City’s roadways. Its 2022 plan ranks intersections, with four of the five worst on Lake Avenue. Second, the City is spending money on exactly that corridor: $9.9 million of Caltrans Active Transportation Program Cycle 6 funding on North Lake Avenue between Mountain Street and Maple Street, a 0.6 mile stretch carrying around 36,800 vehicles on an average weekday, with raised medians, curb extensions, high-visibility crosswalks and sidewalk widening, final design expected in 2026 and construction in 2027. A city that has identified a crossing risk, ranked it, and funded a fix has created a documentary record about what it knew. If the City is a potential defendant, the claim goes to the City Clerk’s Office at 100 N. Garfield Ave., Room S228 within six months under Government Code section 911.2, and the claims line is (626) 744-4333.

Where is a Pasadena pedestrian accident case filed, and what are the deadlines?

Under Los Angeles Superior Court Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(A), an unlimited civil action for bodily injury or wrongful death is filed in the judicial district where the incident arose, which for Pasadena is the Northeast District, heard at the Pasadena or Alhambra courthouse. The deadline is generally two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, and six months to present a written claim where a public entity is involved under Government Code section 911.2, in which case the shorter deadline governs.

More on local practice on the Pasadena personal injury page, and on the law itself on the Los Angeles pedestrian accident page. The other collision types with Pasadena’s own published figures: car accidents, bicycle accidents and motorcycle accidents. Mass tort claims are taken on for Pasadena residents as well, and those are set out on the mass torts page.