Fresno, CA, October 17 – A police pursuit that began when Clovis officers tried to stop a felony suspect ended in a four-vehicle collision Friday night in Fresno, according to authorities. Several people were injured in the crash, and the suspect, who fled on foot afterward, was quickly caught and arrested, officials said. Emergency crews treated three adults with pain complaints at the scene, and an infant was taken for a precautionary evaluation.
Fresno police chase ends in four-vehicle crash near Armstrong and Shields avenues
Clovis police said the pursuit began when officers tried to stop a man wanted on felony charges, but he refused to stop and fled, prompting a chase through the area. The pursuit ended in a four-vehicle collision at the intersection of Armstrong and Shields avenues in Fresno Friday night, according to police.
Emergency crews treated three adults who complained of pain at the scene, officials said. An infant involved in the collision was taken to a nearby location for an evaluation as a precaution. After the crash, the suspect ran from the scene on foot but was caught a short time later, according to Clovis police.
The extent of the injuries to the three adults has not been detailed, and it is not known how many people were riding in each of the four vehicles involved. The suspect has not been identified, and Clovis police have not said what the original felony charges involved. No additional details about the cause of the collision have been made public.
What the at-fault driver is required to carry, and why it often is not enough
Vehicle Code section 16056 sets California’s minimum liability limits, and they changed recently. For a policy issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2025, the minimum is $30,000 for injury to or death of one person, $60,000 where two or more people are hurt, and $15,000 for property damage. Policies written before that date may still carry the older minimum of $15,000, $30,000 and $5,000.
Those are floors, not typical limits, and a single hospital admission can exhaust the lower figure before any other loss is counted. Where the at-fault driver carries the minimum, the uninsured and underinsured motorist cover on the injured person’s own policy is often the part that matters most, and it is worth checking early rather than after the other insurer has made an offer.
The deadline that applies to a claim like this one
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives two years for an action for injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The same two years covers an injury claim and a death claim; there is no separate, shorter period because someone died.
If a public agency may be involved, the deadline is much shorter
Where a city, county, transit agency, school district or state agency is a potential defendant, Government Code section 911.2 requires a written claim to be presented to that entity within six months. The six months runs from when the claim accrues, and the claim is presented to the entity itself: a school district and a city are separate public entities with separate processes.
Two things follow that are easy to get wrong. The six months is the deadline to present the claim, not the deadline to sue, and it attaches to the public entity as a defendant rather than to the location of the crash, so a case with both a private and a public defendant is not entirely governed by it. Once the entity mails a written rejection, Government Code section 945.6 allows six months to file suit, which is shorter than the window that just closed. If no written rejection is ever sent, that period is two years from accrual.
Missing the six months is not automatically the end of it. Government Code section 911.6(b) requires the board to grant a late claim application on any of six grounds, including where the person was a minor, or was physically or mentally incapacitated, for the whole of the six months or for any part of it.
A claim against the City of Fresno is presented to the City Clerk, and the six months in Government Code section 911.2 applies to it.
Talking to someone about it
Culver Legal represents people injured in collisions across California. A conversation about what happened costs nothing, and we work on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we win. If we do not win, we do not pass the case costs on to you either.
Nothing on this page is legal advice about any particular case, and the facts of a reported collision often change as the investigation continues.
