Injury claims in San Mateo County, California

I take injury cases from San Mateo County. This page covers what the state's crash record says about the county, which court a case from here is filed in, and what changes when the defendant is the county itself. This is general information, not legal advice.

The county's record, 2023 and 2024

Officers reported 12,913 crashes in San Mateo County across the two years. Those crashes killed 72 people and injured 6,903. The split was 6,523 in 2023 and 6,390 in 2024.

• 490 involved a pedestrian
• 380 involved a bicycle
• 354 involved a motorcycle
• 627 involved a commercial truck, 149 of them a tractor-trailer
• 3,173 were recorded as hit-and-run

The most common kind of crash was rear-end (4,144 reports) , then sideswipe (3,303). The Vehicle Code section officers cited most often was Veh. Code, § 22350 — 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. 32% of crashes were recorded in darkness or at dusk.

These are counts of reported crashes. They are not adjusted for population or for how much people travel, they say nothing about fault in any crash, and a small difference between two figures is ordinary variation rather than a finding.

Where in the county

The reports name 23 incorporated cities in San Mateo County. About 14% of the county's crashes were recorded outside any incorporated city — unincorporated county, where the roadway is usually the county's own responsibility rather than a city's.

The 20 cities with the most reports are shown; 3 more are in the data.

Where a San Mateo County case is filed

In the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, in the ordinary case. Code of Civil Procedure section 395 makes the county where the injury happened a proper court for the action, and the county where a defendant resided when the action was filed is a proper court too — so where a driver from one county hits someone in another, there is a real choice to make, and it is not always obvious which way to go.

The crash reports themselves name a court district, and in San Mateo County the ones appearing most often were San Mateo Superior Court Northern Branch, San Mateo Superior Court Southern Branch, Northern, Northern Traffic and Southern. That is the district for the traffic matter on the report. It is not a determination of civil venue and an injury case does not have to follow it, but it does show which courthouses actually serve this county.

The forms a California injury case starts with · how long a claim takes · why cases sit for years.

When the defendant is the county or a city inside it

A pothole, a signal stuck on the wrong phase, a bend with no warning sign, a crosswalk painted to nowhere — these point at a public entity, and they run on a different clock. A claim for injury against a public entity must generally be presented to the entity within six months of when the cause of action accrued. It is delivered or mailed to the clerk, secretary or auditor of the entity, or to its governing body at its principal office, and some entities now accept it electronically if their own ordinance says so.

Two things people get wrong about this. It is not a lawsuit, so filing in court does not satisfy it. And the two-year deadline everyone has heard of does not rescue a missed six months — once the claim is late, the route back is an application for leave to present a late claim, and then a petition to the Superior Court if the entity refuses.

Claims against a government entity in California · premises and dangerous conditions.

Trauma care in San Mateo County

San Mateo County has no designated trauma centre. Serious trauma is transported out of the county, often by air. For a claim that has two consequences worth planning for: the records that matter most are held by a hospital outside the county the case will be filed in, and the transport itself becomes part of the medical picture. Neither is a problem — both take longer than people expect.

Your medical records in an injury claim · liens and reimbursement.

Cities in San Mateo County with their own page

• San Mateo — 1,951 reported crashes, 8 killed, 1,069 injured
• Daly City — 1,097 reported crashes, 11 killed, 676 injured

Common questions

Which court hears an injury case from San Mateo County?

The Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo. Code of Civil Procedure section 395 makes the county where the injury happened a proper court, and so is the county where a defendant lived when the action was filed — so there is sometimes a genuine choice between two counties.

The county or a city in it may be at fault. What is the deadline?

Six months, and it is not a deadline to sue — it is a deadline to present a written claim to the entity itself. A claim for death or injury to person must generally be presented within six months of when the cause of action accrued, delivered or mailed to the clerk, secretary or auditor of the entity, or to its governing body. Missing it is usually fatal to the claim even though the ordinary deadline to file suit is two years.

Do these figures tell me whether a road is dangerous?

No. They are counts of reported crashes over two years, not rates. They are not adjusted for how many people travel, and a county with more people will report more crashes without being more dangerous. They are a record of what was reported, nothing more.

Sources: crash counts from the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), California Highway Patrol, 2023 and 2024 exports, retrieved 2026-09-02 (method and limitations). Trauma centre designations from the California Emergency Medical Services Authority, "California Designated / ACS Verified Trauma Centers", updated 25 August 2025. Venue: Code Civ. Proc., § 395 (amended Stats. 2002, ch. 806, § 8). Government claims: Gov. Code, § 911.2 (six months to present), § 915 (how and where to present; amended Stats. 2020, ch. 371, § 7), § 911.4 (leave to present a late claim) and § 946.6 (petition for relief).