Car accident claims in Bakersfield, California

Officers in Bakersfield reported 8,441 crashes between vehicles, or involving a single vehicle, across 2023, 2024 and 2025 — what most people mean by a car accident. That is out of 9,199 crashes in total; the rest involved a pedestrian or a cyclist, which are different claims and are covered on their own pages.

What kind of crashes these were

The reports break down like this. A collision type is the officer's description of the geometry, and it matters because the geometry is usually the first argument about fault.

Striking a bicycle is not one of the categories. The crash report records a collision type — the geometry — and cycling is not a geometry, so a driver hitting a cyclist is recorded under whichever shape the collision took. Bicycle involvement is a separate field on the report, and Bakersfield records 282 of those. Bicycle accidents.

Broadside crashes lead the list here, which is an intersection pattern rather than a highway one — someone crossed a path they were meant to yield. Those cases turn on signal phase and right of way. Intersection accidents.

The sections officers cite in Bakersfield

These are the Vehicle Code sections officers most often recorded as the primary collision factor, with what each one means in plain terms.

• Veh. Code, § 22107 — Unsafe turn or lane change, on 1,897 reports. Turning or changing lanes before it was safe to do so, or without signalling when another vehicle could be affected.
• Veh. Code, § 22350 — Basic speed law, on 1,732 reports. Driving faster than was safe for the conditions — which is not the same as breaking the posted limit, and is why a driver can be at fault for speeding at 30 in a 35.
• Veh. Code, § 23152, subd. (a) — Driving under the influence, on 1,171 reports. Driving under the influence of alcohol.

None of that decides anything. It is the officer's opinion at the roadside, and it is the opinion an adjuster will quote at you first. Dealing with the adjuster · recorded statements.

40% of Bakersfield crash reports were hit-and-run — 3,718 reports, 286 of them classed as a felony. The median California city sits at 22%. That is well above the middle of the state. It is a count of how often a driver left, not a measure of how dangerous the roads are, and part of any gap between cities is how consistently each agency records the field.

If the driver was never found, the claim usually runs through your own uninsured motorist coverage, and the notice deadlines there are short. Uninsured motorist claims.

Where they cluster

The junctions inside Bakersfield carrying the most reported crashes were 4TH St & Union Av (40), Oak St & Truxtun Av (37), Ming Av & Wible Rd (34), California Av & Union Av (33) and White Ln & Wible Rd (33). The full Bakersfield junction list.

A question about Bakersfield

Does it help my claim that the crash was at one of Bakersfield's worst intersections?

Not by itself. 4TH St & Union Av carried 40 reported crashes across 2023, 2024 and 2025, more than any other junction in Bakersfield, but a count of crashes at a corner is not evidence about yours. It says the place is busy. What decides a claim is what happened in your collision — the signal phase, the right of way, the physical evidence. A history of crashes can matter in a claim against the city or the county for the design of the road, which is a different case with a much shorter deadline.

The general questions — how fault is decided, what happens when the other driver has no insurance, whether being partly at fault ends a claim — are answered once on the car accidents page rather than repeated on every city page.

Sources: counts from the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), California Highway Patrol, 2023, 2024 and 2025 exports, retrieved 2026-09-06. Counts are of reported crashes and are not adjusted for exposure; method and limitations. The cited sections above link to their current text on leginfo.

This is general information, not legal advice.