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Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: September 24, 2026
If you were hurt in a car crash in El Segundo that another driver caused, California law lets you recover your medical bills, lost income, vehicle damage, and pain and suffering, and it puts a deadline on doing it. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a South Bay trial firm that represents people hurt in crashes in El Segundo and across the South Bay. The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Its results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict; every case is different, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Sepulveda Boulevard is State Route 1 through El Segundo and the spine of the city’s traffic, carrying airport, refinery and aerospace commuters north and south. The east-west arterials are Imperial Highway along the airport’s southern edge, Rosecrans Avenue, and the in-city stretch of El Segundo Boulevard, with Grand Avenue and Main Street serving downtown and the beach; the 105 ends near Sepulveda to the north and the 405 lies east of the city. Caltrans’ 2024 traffic census counted about 67,000 vehicles a day on Sepulveda Boulevard at Rosecrans Avenue and about 62,000 at El Segundo Boulevard; the Rosecrans count was up about 6,000 a day from 2023. The reason a city of about 17,000 residents carries that much traffic is what surrounds it: the airport immediately to the north, the refinery and the aerospace campuses on the industrial land that covers more than half of the city, and the beach to the west, so most of the drivers on El Segundo’s streets are passing through or commuting in rather than going home. That does not make any one place responsible for a crash.
The state’s numbers show a trough and then a sharp rise. According to the Office of Traffic Safety’s crash rankings for El Segundo, 61 people were killed or injured in the city’s crashes in 2019, 63 in 2021, 111 in 2022, and 120 in 2023; the state did not publish a 2020 ranking for the city, and the count had been higher still in 2018, at 142. Speed is the first signature of the newest year: the 2023 rankings counted 21 speed-related injury crashes in El Segundo, 10th of 103 cities its size, and on a wide arterial like Sepulveda the basic speed law, Vehicle Code § 22350, makes the posted limit a ceiling, not a permission. Hit-and-run is the second: 9 hit-and-run injury crashes in El Segundo in 2023, 12th of 103. Pedestrians are the third, measured two different ways. Across 2018 through 2022 the South Bay Bicycle Coalition Plus counted 38 pedestrian-involved collisions in El Segundo, a rate of 4.5 per 10,000 residents, the second-highest pedestrian collision rate among the eleven South Bay cities it studied; the raw counts are small for a city this size, and the per-capita rate is what stands out. In the state’s 2022 rankings El Segundo’s 23 pedestrian victims placed it second of 104 cities its size; in 2023 the count was 9, twelfth of 103. A driver must yield to a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk under Vehicle Code § 21950, and a driver who strikes a pedestrian or a cyclist has caused a car accident case like any other. The same 2023 rankings counted 3 bicyclists under 15 hurt or killed in El Segundo crashes, 5th of 103, and the South Bay Bicycle Coalition Plus study counted 19 bicycle collisions in the city over 2018 through 2022, a rate of 2.2 per 10,000 residents, fifth of the eleven cities. These are the state’s and the coalition’s numbers for a small city over specific years, not a description of the present and not about any one place.
El Segundo runs its own police force, and the crash report on city streets, including Sepulveda Boulevard, is written by the El Segundo Police Department, 348 Main Street, the city’s reporting agency. El Segundo has no hospital emergency room inside the city; the nearest emergency rooms are in Torrance and Inglewood.
Call 911 and get medical care, even if you feel fine at the scene; adrenaline hides injuries, and a gap in treatment becomes the insurer’s argument later. The El Segundo Police Department writes the report on a city street, and that report becomes the first document every insurer reads, so make sure it is written and get the report number. Photograph the vehicles, the road, the signals and your injuries. Get the other driver’s license, insurance card and plate, and the names and numbers of witnesses; airport rental cars and out-of-state plates are common on El Segundo’s streets, and a driver who is flying home tomorrow is hard to find next month. Say nothing about fault, to the other driver or to anyone’s insurer, and do not give a recorded statement to the other side. Our step-by-step guide on what to do after a crash walks through each of these.
If the other driver left the scene, report it to the police immediately and tell them everything you remember about the car. A driver involved in an injury crash must stop and stay under Vehicle Code § 20001, leaving is a crime, and a prompt police report is usually a condition of the victim’s own uninsured motorist claim, which is often the policy that pays when the driver is never found. And download our free guide, Crash Course: A California Car Accident Guide (2026), to keep every deadline and first step in one place.
Most California car accident lawsuits must be filed within two years of the crash. Under CCP § 335.1, the clock starts the day of the crash, and courts rarely excuse a missed deadline. Our plain-English guide to CCP § 335.1, California’s two-year statute of limitations, covers the rule and its narrow exceptions.
Government cases move much faster. If a city vehicle, a malfunctioning signal, or a dangerous stretch of road played a role, Government Code § 911.2 requires a written claim to the right public entity within six months, before any lawsuit, and the two-year rule does not save a missed claim. In El Segundo that entity is usually the City of El Segundo for city streets and signals or for a City or police vehicle; a crash on Sepulveda Boulevard can point at Caltrans instead, because Sepulveda through El Segundo is State Route 1 and part of the state highway system; the County of Los Angeles comes into it only where a county-run facility or county road is involved. Our guide to the California government claim deadline walks through the sequence. We identify the correct entity and file on time.
Where the case is heard. Most El Segundo car accident lawsuits are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Southwest District, at either the Torrance Courthouse or the Inglewood Courthouse; since 2022 the court has kept new personal injury cases in their local district courts from filing through trial. El Segundo has no courthouse of its own.
California requires drivers to carry only minimum liability coverage of $30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage (Vehicle Code § 16451, for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025). A single emergency room visit can exceed the per-person minimum. The real work in an El Segundo car accident case is finding every source of coverage that legally applies: the at-fault driver’s policy, an employer’s policy if that driver was working, a rental company’s coverage if the car was a rental, a rideshare company’s policy if the trip was on the app, and your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. That last policy matters here. A city of 17,000 residents with 67,000 vehicles a day on its state highway is crashed into mostly by people who do not live there, and when the other driver flees or carries only the minimum, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is often the policy that pays; it has strict notice conditions, so get advice early. A pedestrian or cyclist struck by a car may claim on their own auto policy’s uninsured motorist coverage even though no car of theirs was involved. If the driver who hit you was working for Uber or Lyft, the coverage that applies depends on what the app showed at the moment of the crash, and we obtain that record.
California is a fault state: the driver who caused the crash, and that driver’s insurer, pay for the harm. Fault is proved with evidence: the El Segundo Police Department report, the physical evidence, the vehicles’ damage patterns, camera footage from City signals and nearby premises before it is overwritten, and witness statements taken while memories are fresh. Our Torrance car accident attorney page explains how we build and prove crash cases across the South Bay. Partial fault does not bar your claim. California follows a pure comparative negligence rule: your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, never eliminated by it. Insurers exaggerate your share for exactly that reason, and we push back with evidence. Where a drunk or grossly reckless driver caused the crash, punitive damages may be available on clear and convincing proof under Civil Code § 3294; the state’s rankings counted 14 people hurt or killed in alcohol-involved crashes in El Segundo in 2022, 33rd of 104 cities its size, and in those cases punitive damages are never guaranteed, but they change how an insurer values the claim.
California law allows injured people to recover economic damages, meaning documented losses like emergency care, surgery, therapy, medications, future treatment, lost income, and vehicle repair or replacement, and non-economic damages, meaning the human losses: pain, anxiety, lost sleep, and the activities an injury takes away. When a crash takes a life, California law lets the closest family members bring a claim for their loss, and it has its own rules and deadlines; our El Segundo wrongful death page explains who can file and what the claim covers. If the crash caused a spinal cord injury, our guide to spinal cord injury claims in California explains how those cases are valued.
Our office is in Torrance, on Del Amo Boulevard at Hawthorne Boulevard, a few miles south down Sepulveda, and our attorneys bring more than 40 years of combined legal experience to every case we take. We prepare every case for trial from the first meeting, because insurers price a claim differently when the lawyer across the table will finish the fight in front of a jury.
We work on a contingency fee: nothing upfront, no hourly bills, and a fee only out of the recovery, under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law.
Injured and unable to travel? We meet clients at the hospital, at home, or wherever recovery requires. Call 310-750-4149 any time, including nights, weekends, and holidays.
Start with trial experience, because the value an insurer puts on your claim depends on whether your lawyer is ready to try the case. David Gammill has tried over 100 cases to verdict. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Before that, he spent seven years as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, so he knows how the other side prepares. Two practical questions cut through the rest: will the lawyer who signs you up be the one who handles your case, and can the firm point to real results in cases like yours? The firm’s record is set out above.
Two years from the crash for most claims, under CCP § 335.1. If a public entity may be responsible, a written claim is due to that entity within six months under Government Code § 911.2, and the two-year rule does not save a missed claim. Both guides are linked above.
Yes, in most cases. Report it to the El Segundo Police Department right away, because the report is the foundation of everything that follows, and a driver who leaves an injury crash has broken the law by leaving. If the police find the driver, the claim runs against that driver’s insurer like any other. If they never do, your own auto policy’s uninsured motorist coverage is usually the policy that pays, and it requires prompt notice and a police report, which is why the report matters so much. If the road itself played a part, a crash on Sepulveda Boulevard can point at Caltrans, because Sepulveda through El Segundo is State Route 1, and that claim has its own six-month deadline. Sepulveda is a place name here, not a cause; the driver’s choice to leave is what changes the case.
Not before you know what your claim is worth. An early offer arrives before your medical picture is complete, and signing a release ends the claim for good, including for injuries that show up later. Have an attorney review the offer against your treatment, your lost income, and the coverage that actually applies; the review is free, and the adjuster’s number rarely survives it.
Nothing upfront and nothing unless we win. We work on a contingency fee, paid only out of the recovery. Our page on what a personal injury lawyer costs explains the arrangement in detail.
Gammill Law represents people hurt in car crashes in El Segundo and throughout the South Bay, including Torrance, Gardena, Inglewood, Carson, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For other El Segundo injury cases, start at our El Segundo personal injury attorney page.
Your free case review includes a real evaluation with an experienced attorney, a clear explanation of your options, and an honest assessment of what your claim is worth. No obligation, and everything you share is confidential.
Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149 now. There are no upfront legal fees; a fee is collected only if we win.
This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice for any specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
