Oakland is not a San Francisco neighborhood with a different name on the sign. It is a port city with wide East Oakland arterials, designated truck routes onto I-880, and its own courthouse. If you were hurt in a crash here, the facts that matter are Oakland facts: which street, which truck route, whether a City or Port or AC Transit vehicle was involved, and whether you were taken to Highland.
I am an Oakland car accident lawyer in the only way that sentence should mean anything. I take Oakland cases. I file them in Alameda County. I try them. I work from 1388 Sutter Street in San Francisco, and I have represented injured people since 2009. You get me on the file, not a case manager reading a script. Free consultation. No fee unless I recover. (415) 851-4557. I handle these cases in English and Spanish.
This page is for crashes in Oakland. If your crash was in San Francisco, use the San Francisco car accident page. Prefer Spanish? Read this page in Spanish.
Oakland’s crash geography is the Port, I-880, and the High Injury Network
The City of Oakland’s 2024 High Injury Network (updated May 2024, using 2017–2021 crash data) is blunt: about 8% of city streets account for 60% of severe and fatal collisions. That is not a slogan. It is the map OakDOT uses to decide where to rebuild streets.
International Boulevard is still on that map. So are newer or expanded stretches: roughly 50 blocks of MacArthur Boulevard from Fruitvale to 73rd, Claremont Avenue from College to the DMV, plus segments of San Leandro Street and Bancroft Avenue. About 84% of the corridors added on the new map sit in equity-priority neighborhoods. If your crash was on one of those streets, the city’s own data is already evidence that the location was dangerous. I use that.
OakDOT has also published a list of 20 high-injury intersections. An Oaklandside review of SWITRS records (2017–2023) put numbers on several of them:
- International Boulevard and 73rd Avenue: 89 injuries.
- International Boulevard and 80th Avenue: 38 injuries and 2 fatalities.
- High Street and Foothill Boulevard: 51 injuries, next to Fremont High School.
- Hamilton Street and Hegenberger Road: 58 injuries and 3 fatalities, with virtually no pedestrian or bike infrastructure.
International Boulevard appears at five of those 20 intersections (102nd, High, 64th, 73rd, and 80th), not four. I am not going to pretend a crash on International is the same as a crash on a quiet street in the hills.
73rd Avenue itself, from MacArthur to International, is entirely on the 2024 HIN. Oaklandside’s own reporting counted roughly 153 people hit while walking, biking, and driving on that stretch between 2019 and 2023, on a street posted 30 miles per hour. That is not bad luck.
West Oakland and the seaport add a second pattern: trucks. The Port of Oakland publishes designated local truck routes (Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 10.52) that feed I-880, including Maritime Street, 7th Street, West Grand Avenue, and Frontage Road. A collision with a container truck on those streets is a commercial case. It is not a two-sedan fender bender with a different zip code typed in.
Freeways that actually run through Oakland: I-880 (Nimitz) along the port, airport, and Coliseum; I-580 (MacArthur); I-980 downtown; I-80 at the Bay Bridge approach. I-680, I-280, and US-101 do not. I will not name them here as if they did.
Walking or on a bike when it happened? Those claims build differently than a two-car crash — see my pages on pedestrian accidents and bicycle accidents.
Highland is where serious Oakland crash patients go
Wilma Chan Highland Hospital is the East Bay’s only adult Level I trauma center. If your injuries were bad enough for the ambulance to skip a neighborhood ER, you likely went to Highland. That matters for the medicine (the record is generated there) and for the damages (Level I trauma care is expensive because the injuries are). Kaiser Oakland on Broadway is a major emergency department. It is not a designated trauma center. UCSF Benioff Children’s Oakland is Level I for children, not the typical adult crash destination.
Washington Hospital in Fremont is now a Level II trauma center. That does not change Highland’s role inside Oakland. If you were treated at Highland, say so when we talk. I will get those records.
These cases file in Alameda County, not San Francisco Superior Court
A crash in Oakland is an Alameda County case. Unlimited and limited civil personal injury is filed at the René C. Davidson Courthouse, 1225 Fallon Street in Oakland, or at the Hayward Hall of Justice, 24405 Amador Street. Fremont Hall of Justice is criminal and traffic. It is not where your injury lawsuit belongs. (Alameda County Superior Court Local Rule 1.9; locations on the court’s own site.)
I know the difference between filing in San Francisco and filing in Oakland because I do both. Insurance companies know it too. They should not get to pretend your Oakland crash is a San Francisco file with a longer commute.
Six months, not two years, if a public entity is in the crash
California’s ordinary deadline for a personal injury lawsuit is two years. That is not the deadline that catches Oakland crash victims.
If a City of Oakland vehicle, a Port of Oakland operation, an AC Transit bus (including Tempo BRT on International Boulevard), or BART is in the crash, you generally have six months from the date of injury to present a government claim. That is Government Code section 911.2. It is statewide law. It is not an Oakland ordinance. Miss it and the claim can be barred even if the two-year lawsuit deadline has not run.
Oakland BART stations in the city include 12th Street Oakland City Center, 19th Street Oakland, West Oakland, Lake Merritt, Fruitvale, Coliseum, MacArthur, Rockridge, and the Oakland Airport connector. A crash involving a public bus, a city truck, or a BART-related public entity is a government-claim case first. Call me before you assume you have two years.
What I actually do on an Oakland file
I build the case from the street up.
That means the police report, yes, and also OakDOT’s HIN map, the intersection history, whether the other driver was on a designated truck route, whether the vehicle was a port hauler or an AC Transit coach, and whether Highland’s trauma record supports a brain injury, a spinal injury, or a “soft tissue” story the insurer wants to tell. Rear-end crashes on a wide, high-speed street like 73rd are not the same as a parking-lot tap. Pedestrian and Tempo-platform crashes on International are not the same as a freeway sideswipe on I-880. I do not use one injury checklist for all of them.
Compensation I pursue when the facts support it: medical bills (including Level I trauma and later care), lost wages, diminished earning capacity, pain and suffering, and the property damage. I do not quote “average Oakland settlements.” There is no honest average. There is your crash, your records, and the coverage that actually exists.
I have recovered more than $25 million for injury victims in the Bay Area. Some of those people were hurt in Oakland. The number is not a promise about your case. It is a record of work. See the full case results.
I am a solo trial lawyer. Since 2009. If a public-entity claim has to go out this week, I do not wait for a committee. If we are in René C. Davidson, I am the lawyer who shows up. More on my background is on the About page.
Frequently asked questions
Usually not. Designated Port and West Oakland truck routes (Maritime, 7th, West Grand, Frontage, onto I-880) mean commercial policies, possible motor-carrier rules, and sometimes a public-entity layer if Port operations are involved. Bring the truck number, any photos of the USDOT number, and the street.
It documents that your injuries were treated at the East Bay’s only adult Level I trauma center. Insurers still argue. The record from Highland is one of the strongest medical starting points you can have in Oakland. I will obtain it. Do not assume Kaiser or a follow-up clinic replaced it.
Yes, if the crash was in Oakland. Venue follows the crash and the defendants, not my office address. René C. Davidson or Hayward Hall of Justice, not San Francisco Superior Court, and not Fremont Hall of Justice.
Present a government claim within six months under Government Code section 911.2. Do not wait for the two-year personal injury statute. The same six-month clock can apply to the City of Oakland, the Port, and BART. Call the same week if you can.
Sometimes, when a dangerous condition of public property is a real cause and the claim is presented on time. Sometimes the case is only against the other driver. I will not tell you it is a city case until the facts support it. The HIN map and OakDOT’s own data on 73rd are useful. They are not, by themselves, a verdict.
Yes. Your right to a personal injury claim in California does not depend on immigration status. I will talk to you in Spanish if that is easier. This is not an immigration case.
Talk to me
If you were hurt in an Oakland crash, call or text (415) 851-4557. I answer. The consultation is free. You do not pay a fee unless I recover.