Pedestrian Accident Lawyer in Santa Clarita

What do Santa Clarita’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, Santa Clarita ranked 58th of 62 cities its size for pedestrians killed or injured, with 37 victims, which is better than most. For pedestrians aged 65 and over it ranked 62nd of 62, with 2 victims, the best position in the entire group. These are rate-based rankings, adjusted for population and daily vehicle miles travelled, so the comparison is with the other 61 California cities of 100,001 to 250,000 people rather than with raw counts anywhere else. We are not going to turn that into a crisis. On the state’s own measures Santa Clarita is a comparatively safe city of its size to walk in, and saying otherwise would misstate the data.

The one pedestrian measure here that is not toward the better end is children. Santa Clarita recorded 6 pedestrian victims under 15 in 2023, ranking 36th of 62, which is the middle of its group. That matters more in this city than it would in most, because of where an injured child is taken. Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia holds a Level II adult trauma designation and is the only designated trauma center in the Santa Clarita Valley, but it carries no pediatric trauma designation. Designations are made by the Los Angeles County EMS Agency as the local agency, and the California EMS Authority publishes the consolidated list, updated 8/25/2025. So a seriously injured child is likely to be transported out of the valley, which in practice means two sets of medical records, two billing trails and potentially two hospital liens in one case.

A good ranking does not make an individual case easier, and in one respect it makes it harder. Santa Clarita publishes no Local Roadway Safety Plan, no Vision Zero plan and no High Injury Network, so there is no City document naming the crossing where you were struck and no published list of priority locations to point to. What the City’s Traffic and Transportation Planning Division does publish is speed limit maps, a speed hump and cushion programme, traffic signal battery backup locations, a restricted routes map and its Trails and Paseos and Bike Santa Clarita material, and those are the records worth requesting early. Street classification is worth checking too. The City designates Sierra Highway, the old alignment of State Route 14, and Railroad Avenue as north-south major highways, with Lyons Avenue east of Railroad Avenue, Dockweiler Drive and Newhall Avenue as secondary highways. A major highway crossing is a wider and faster crossing than a secondary one, and that difference tends to carry weight.

The report will come from the Sheriff. Santa Clarita contracts its policing to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department rather than running a police force, so the handling agency is the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station at 26201 Golden Valley Road, on (661) 260-4000, and every collision in a contract city is documented on a CHP 555 form under the Sheriff’s own policy. The Sheriff’s published fee schedule, effective 30 June 2022, charges $25 for a report when you can give the file number and $35 if a search is needed without one, and the Records and Identification Bureau in Norwalk is the alternative source, on (562) 345-4448 by mail or (562) 345-4441 for a collection appointment.

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

California is a pure comparative fault state, so an argument that you stepped out, or crossed away from a marked crosswalk, reduces a recovery rather than ending the claim. The deadline is generally two years from the injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, or six months for a written claim against a public entity under Government Code section 911.2, and the shorter one governs. Filing is fixed by Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(A): a Santa Clarita case goes to the North Valley District at the Chatsworth Courthouse, 9425 Penfield Avenue, because the Santa Clarita Courthouse has criminal and traffic divisions only.

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