Riverside recorded 275 fatal and injury crashes in which speed was the primary factor in 2023. On the Office of Traffic Safety’s population-weighted and mileage-weighted rankings, that placed the city 5th worst of the 15 California cities with more than 250,000 people. The year before it was 266 crashes and the same 5th place.
No category ranks worse in 2023, though drink-driving among under-21 drivers is tied with it, and it has not moved in two years. For a rider it changes what the case is about, because speed is provable from physical evidence and the evidence does not wait.
Hurt riding in Riverside?
The physical evidence of speed degrades in days, not months. One call starts the preservation.
What the Lane Splitting Statute Actually Says
This gets stated wrongly on a great many pages, including once on this firm’s own site in another city, so here is what the law is.
Vehicle Code 21658.1 is short, and it does less than either side usually claims.
It defines the term. Lane splitting means riding a motorcycle with two wheels in contact with the ground between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane, on divided or undivided streets, roads or highways.
And it authorizes the California Highway Patrol to develop educational guidelines about it, in consultation with the DMV, Caltrans, the Office of Traffic Safety and a motorcyclist safety organization.
That is the whole section. It does not declare lane splitting legal, and it does not make it an offense. California is unusual in having defined it in statute at all.
So there is no section of the Vehicle Code making lane splitting an offense, and 21658.1 recognizes it by name. An insurer arguing that lane splitting was in itself unlawful is overstating the position. What is genuinely in dispute is whether the maneuver was carried out with reasonable care, which includes Vehicle Code 21658, requiring a vehicle to be driven as nearly as practical entirely within a single lane and not moved from the lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety.
Do not accept “you were lane splitting, so it is your fault” as a statement of law. It is not one. The real argument is about care, and that is an argument with two sides.
Riverside’s Motorcycle Numbers, Stated Straight
89 motorcyclists were killed or injured in Riverside in 2023. On the Office of Traffic Safety’s population-weighted and mileage-weighted rankings, that placed the city 8th worst of the 15 California cities with more than 250,000 people in 2023. In 2022 the figure was 91 victims and the city ranked 6th of 15.
That is an improvement on both measures, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. The number worth attention here is the speed one above, not this one.
Where Speed Evidence Lives, and How Fast It Goes
Because speed is this city’s worst category, it is worth knowing what actually proves it.
- The scene itself. Skid and scuff marks, gouges, and the final rest positions of the vehicles. These are gone within days, and often within hours on a busy road.
- The vehicle’s own recorder. Many modern cars store pre-crash speed and braking data. Once the car is repaired or salvaged, that data usually goes with it.
- The motorcycle, which an insurer may declare a total loss and dispose of. Do not authorize disposal before someone has looked at it.
- Camera footage from nearby businesses and from other vehicles, which can be overwritten within days or weeks.
- The collision report, which is where the officer’s account and any citation live.
A letter asking that a vehicle and any footage be preserved costs nothing and is the single most useful thing that can happen in the first week.
If the Road Itself Was the Problem
A rider feels the road surface in a way a driver does not, and a defect that a car passes over without noticing can put a motorcycle down.
Government Code 835 makes a public entity liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property. The injured person has to show the property was in a dangerous condition, that it caused the injury, that it created a reasonably foreseeable risk of that kind of injury, and then either that an employee of the entity created it or that the entity had actual or constructive notice of it in time to have done something about it.
Whether anyone had reported that defect before you went down often decides the case.
And this route runs on six months, not two years, which is the next section.
Where a Public Entity Claim Goes
City Clerk’s Office, City of Riverside, 3900 Main Street, Riverside, CA 92522.
Under Government Code 911.2 and Chapter 1.05 of the Riverside Municipal Code, a claim for injury to a person must be presented within six months after the cause of action accrues, usually the date of the crash. The City states it as six months from the occurrence. It can be filed online through the City’s portal, in person, or by US Mail, and the Office of the City Attorney processes it on (951) 826-5896.
The entity then has 45 days under Government Code 912.4. That matters because Government Code 945.4 bars a lawsuit for money damages until the claim has been presented and the entity has either acted on it or is treated as having rejected it. A claim the entity simply ignores is deemed rejected once the 45 days are up, which is what allows the lawsuit to proceed.
If the six months has gone, Government Code 911.4 allows a late-claim application within a reasonable time and no more than a year after the claim arose, and Government Code 911.6 says it shall be granted on six defined grounds: mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect without prejudice to the entity; minority for the whole six months, or for any part of it where the application is made within six months of the person turning eighteen or a year after accrual, whichever comes first; incapacity for the whole six months, or for any part of it on the same terms; and death before the six months expired.
If the entity refuses the application, or does not act on it within its own 45 days, Government Code 946.6 allows a petition to the court. That petition has to be filed within six months of the day the application was denied or deemed denied, and if the court grants relief, the lawsuit itself has to be filed within 30 days after that.
The one-year outer limit is firm for most people, and there is one exception worth knowing. Under Government Code 911.4(c), time during which the injured person is mentally incapacitated and has no guardian or conservator is not counted toward that year. Time during which they were a minor is counted. If more than a year has gone and nobody was ever appointed to act for the injured person, that is a reason to ask rather than to assume.
Not every public entity is the City. A county road or a state highway belongs to a different entity with its own process.
Was it the road surface rather than a driver?
Then it is six months, not two years. That deadline passes before most people think to ask.
The Deadline Almost Nobody Is Told About
Presenting the claim is not the last clock. Once the entity mails or delivers a written rejection, Government Code 945.6 gives you six months from the date of that notice to file suit. That is shorter than the window you have just been through.
If the entity never sends a written rejection, the period is two years from when the cause of action accrued instead. So a claim that is ignored leaves more time than one that is formally rejected, which is the opposite of what most people expect.
What Insurance Is Actually There
California’s minimum liability limits are set by Vehicle Code 16056: $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident and $15,000 for property damage for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, against $15,000, $30,000 and $5,000 before that. The property damage figure matters here, because on a motorcycle claim the property in question is usually the bike. All three rise again for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2035.
A serious motorcycle injury passes those numbers quickly, which is why the question that decides many of these cases is not who was at fault but what coverage exists. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy is the thing to check, and it is worth checking before accepting that a low limit is the end of it.
Getting the Collision Report
Riverside has its own police department, so the report comes from them.
- $20.00 in person at the front counter, 10540 Magnolia Avenue, Suite B, Riverside, CA 92505.
- Online for an additional $10.00 through the department’s LexisNexis eCrash service.
- A report involving a fatality, or an on-duty emergency vehicle, is not available online and comes only from the Police Department.
- Reports are available about 10 working days after the incident.
- Records Bureau: (951) 826-5700, option 2. Mail requests need a check or money order payable to the City of Riverside.
Riverside Motorcycle Accident FAQs
Was I at fault because I was lane splitting?
Not as a matter of law. Vehicle Code 21658.1 defines lane splitting and authorizes the CHP to publish educational guidelines about it. It does not declare it legal and it does not prohibit it, so there is no rule saying you should not have been there. Whether the maneuver was carried out with reasonable care is a separate question and is the one actually in dispute.
Who is usually at fault in motorcycle accidents?
There is no reliable general answer and anyone offering one is guessing. What is worth knowing is that fault is decided by the physical evidence rather than by either party’s account, and that in California being partly responsible reduces recovery rather than barring it.
Should I get a lawyer for a motorcycle accident?
The honest answer is that it depends on whether evidence is at risk and whether the injuries are serious. If your motorcycle is about to be disposed of, if there is footage that will be overwritten, or if a public entity may be involved and a six-month clock is running, those are time-limited and worth a call today. A review costs nothing.
How long does a motorcycle accident claim take?
Longer than anyone wants, and the main driver is medical rather than legal: a claim should not usually be settled before the treating doctors know what the lasting position is, because a settlement is difficult to undo once signed. Cases involving a public entity add the claim presentation period on top.
The road surface put me down, not a driver. Do I have anything?
Possibly, under Government Code 835, but you have to show the entity created the condition or had actual or constructive notice of it in time to act. Whether anyone reported it before you went down often decides it, and the six-month deadline applies, so this is the version worth raising quickly.
Does my immigration status affect my claim?
No. Under Evidence Code 351.2, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either. It cannot be raised at trial and it cannot be asked about beforehand. It is not a question we ask you, and not one the other side gets to ask.
Contact a Culver Legal Riverside Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
Riverside ranked 5th worst of the 15 largest California cities for speed-related crashes in 2023, and the evidence that proves speed is gone in days. If the road surface was the problem, there is a separate six-month deadline to present a written claim to the public entity, alongside the ordinary two years. We speak Spanish. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
