San Jose got some encouraging news this year. According to San José Spotlight, the city recorded 41 traffic deaths in 2025, its lowest count since 2012 and a 16 percent drop from the 49 deaths in 2024. That is real progress from the 2022 peak of 63.
But there is a second number that matters just as much if you or someone you love was injured on a San Jose street, and it is not improving at the same pace. The same reporting notes that San Jose has not had the same success reducing serious injury crashes that it has had with fatalities. In plain terms: fewer people are dying, but the number of people left with life-altering injuries is holding stubbornly high.
That gap is the whole story for injury victims. A crash you survive can still take your health, your income, and your independence. And the insurance company on the other side knows that “non-fatal” does not mean “minor.”
Where San Jose crashes keep happening
The city’s Vision Zero work has focused on a handful of corridors that show up again and again in the crash data. If you drive San Jose, you already know them: Senter Road, the Story Road and Keyes Street corridor, Tully Road, McKee Road, and King Road. Many run through East and Central San Jose, and speed is a recurring factor.
The city is responding with quick-build street changes, a $12.9 million federal grant for safety upgrades on four transit corridors, the multilingual “Slow Down, San Jose” education campaign, reduced speed limits on 18 roadways, and automated speed cameras that are waiting on funding. These are good steps. But street redesigns take years, and they do nothing for the person who was hit last week.
What to do if you are hurt in a San Jose crash
The first 48 hours shape everything that follows. A few steps protect both your health and any claim you may have:
- Get medical care the same day, even if you feel okay. Soft-tissue and brain injuries often show up later, and a gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster uses to discount a claim.
- Photograph the scene, the vehicles, the roadway, and your injuries before anything is moved.
- Get the report number from San Jose PD or the CHP.
- Do not give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement. The adjuster works for the insurance company, not for you.
- Talk to a lawyer before you accept any offer.
Why the injury-versus-fatality gap matters for your claim
Serious injury cases are exactly the ones insurers fight hardest. The medical bills are larger, the future care is harder to predict, and the long-term losses are real but easy to dispute. That is where preparation matters. We document the full extent of an injury the way we know the defense will attack it, because before founding NMF Law Group, APC, our lead attorney spent nearly a decade defending insurance companies. We know how they value a Santa Clara County claim from the inside.
A San Jose crash case is generally filed in the Santa Clara County Superior Court in downtown San Jose. The expressway and arterial speeds that drive the city’s injury numbers often mean broadside and high-speed impacts, with injuries far worse than a typical fender-bender.
Talk to a lawyer, free
If you were injured in a crash anywhere in San Jose, tell us what happened in a free consultation and we will tell you what your claim is realistically worth. There are no attorney’s fees unless we win.
Learn more about how we handle San Jose car accident cases, or read about our work on pedestrian accident claims, since people on foot remain a large share of San Jose’s most serious cases.
Source: San José Spotlight, “San Jose traffic deaths dropped in 2025,” January 23, 2026.