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Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 21, 2026
If you were hurt in a car crash in Whittier 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 Whittier and across Los Angeles County. 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.
Call now or keep reading. The sections below explain where Whittier crashes happen, what to do first, the deadlines that control your case, and how a claim is valued.
Whittier has one freeway, one boulevard that explains most of its crash history, and its own police department, and the line between them decides who holds your report. The San Gabriel River Freeway, I-605, on the city’s western edge, is a state highway: a crash on it, or on its ramps, is a Highway Patrol report, and Caltrans is the public entity if the road itself was part of the problem. Whittier Boulevard was State Route 72, a state highway, for most of the last century; in 2025 the California Transportation Commission approved turning the stretch through the city over to the City of Whittier, so for a recent crash on the boulevard the City is the entity for the road, an older one may still point to Caltrans, and we sort that out at the first meeting. Every other street in the city, Beverly Boulevard, Painter Avenue, Lambert Road, Pickering Avenue, Colima Road, Greenleaf Avenue and Philadelphia Street among them, is a City street: the Whittier Police Department writes the report, and the City of Whittier is the public entity for the street, its signals and its crosswalks. The state crash database, which counts every crash any agency reports inside the city, shows how little of Whittier’s crash picture is freeway: of the 2,274 crashes reported in the city in 2024 and 2025, the 605 accounted for 308, and the Highway Patrol handled about one crash in five. Whittier Boulevard alone had 307, nearly three times the next busiest street, Beverly Boulevard at 107, followed by Painter Avenue at 81, Lambert Road at 74, Pickering Avenue at 73 and Colima Road at 69. Over the seven years from 2019 through 2025, 38 people were killed in crashes inside the city, 33 of them on City streets rather than the freeway, and 11 on Whittier Boulevard, more than on any other road. That does not make any one place responsible for a crash. It does decide which agency holds your report.
The City’s own Local Roadway Safety Plan, adopted in 2023, counts the surface streets for 2017 through 2021: 3,550 collisions on City streets in five years, 19 of them killing someone and 87 causing a severe injury. About three collisions in four happened at or near an intersection, and intersections were involved in 31 percent of the fatal and severe-injury crashes, against 24 percent statewide. The signalized intersections with the most collisions were Colima Road at Whittier Boulevard, 56, and Painter Avenue at Whittier Boulevard, 46, followed by Whittier Boulevard at Santa Fe Springs Road and at Norwalk Boulevard; among intersections without a signal, Whittier Boulevard at Cole Road had the most, 17. A crash on the boulevard often has a history in the City’s own files, and that history is evidence.
Four patterns matter for a Whittier case. The first is the turn: improper turning was the leading primary factor in the City’s plan, behind 22 percent of collisions, ahead of unsafe speed at 20 percent and right-of-way violations at 17 percent, and the plan put aggressive driving behind 29 percent of all collisions. The second is the hour: by the state database, crashes after dark were 36 percent of the 2024 and 2025 total but seven of the twelve deaths. The third is the driver who leaves: 732 of the crashes reported in Whittier in 2024 and 2025, 32 percent, were hit-and-runs, against 28 percent across Los Angeles County, and 124 of them were felony hit-and-runs in which someone was hurt or killed. The fourth is how the city compares: the state’s Office of Traffic Safety ranked Whittier tenth worst of 103 cities its size for injury and fatal hit-and-run crashes in 2023, and 32nd for people killed or injured overall.
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. On a Whittier street, Whittier Boulevard included, the Whittier Police Department writes the report; on the 605 it is the Highway Patrol. 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; a driver who is hard to reach next week is harder to find next year. Say nothing about fault, to the other driver or to anyone’s insurer, and do not give a recorded statement to the other side.
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 Whittier the entity is Caltrans for the 605 and its ramps, the City of Whittier for a City street, a signal or a City vehicle, and for Whittier Boulevard either one, depending on when the crash happened; a claim about the road itself goes to the entity that owned the road that day, and we present it to both when the answer is in doubt. Once an entity rejects the claim, Government Code § 945.6 gives six months from the rejection notice to file suit. 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. The Los Angeles Superior Court’s own filing locator assigns a Whittier car accident lawsuit to the Norwalk Courthouse. Whittier has a courthouse of its own, but it hears family law and restraining-order matters, not injury cases; the court assigns the courthouse by where the crash happened, and we confirm it at the first meeting.
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 a Whittier 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. Do not assume the other driver is local or well insured: when nearly one reported crash in three is a hit-and-run, the driver is often never identified at all. Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is often the policy that pays; it has strict notice conditions, so get advice early. 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 police report, the physical evidence, the vehicles’ damage patterns, camera footage from City signals and nearby businesses before it is overwritten, and witness statements taken while memories are fresh. We build the case from that evidence before the insurer builds its own version. Turns are where many Whittier cases are decided, because the City’s own plan puts improper turning ahead of every other cause, and a driver who turns across traffic without the right of way is at fault even when the other car was speeding. Speed is the other battleground, because the basic speed law, Vehicle Code § 22350, makes a driver responsible for a speed that was unsafe for the conditions even when it was under the posted limit. 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; they 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 wrongful death page explains who can file and what the claim covers. For injuries that did not start in a car, our Whittier personal injury attorney page covers every case type we handle in the city.
Our office is in Torrance, on Del Amo Boulevard at Hawthorne Boulevard, 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.
The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Separately, its trial results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict against the State of California over a highway crash cushion, tried to a jury at the Burbank Courthouse after a $10,000 pre-trial offer; it is a real jury verdict in a specific case, and outcomes always depend on the facts. See our case results.
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?
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; for a Whittier street, a signal or a City vehicle that claim goes to the City of Whittier, for the 605 it goes to Caltrans, and for Whittier Boulevard it goes to the entity that owned the road on the day of the crash. Both guides are linked above.
Yes, in most cases. Report it to the Whittier 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. You are not alone in this: by the state crash database, 732 crashes reported in Whittier in 2024 and 2025 were hit-and-runs. 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. Whittier Boulevard is a place name here, not a cause; the driver’s choice to leave is what changes the case.
The 605 and its ramps are a state highway, so the Highway Patrol writes the report, and if a ramp, a barrier, a sign or the road design was part of the problem, the six-month government claim goes to Caltrans, not to the City of Whittier. On a City street it is the reverse: Whittier police write the report and the City of Whittier is the entity for the road. The driver’s own liability does not depend on who owns the road, and most cases are ordinary claims against the driver and the available insurance.
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. The written contingency fee agreement linked above sets out the arrangement in detail.
Gammill Law represents people hurt in car crashes in Whittier, from Uptown and the Whittier College neighborhoods to Friendly Hills, East Whittier and the Whittier Boulevard corridor, across the cities around it, from La Habra, La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs to Pico Rivera, Montebello, Norwalk and Downey, and the unincorporated Hacienda Heights and South Whittier areas, throughout the City of Los Angeles, and throughout the South Bay, including Torrance, Gardena, Inglewood, Carson, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. For a crash inside the City of Los Angeles, see our Los Angeles car accident lawyer 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.
