12 News reported that one person was killed and two others were injured in a crash along northbound Loop 101 at Union Hills Drive in Glendale. According to that report, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said the crash resulted in one person's death. No further details about how the crash happened have been reported, and no finding of fault has been made.
In Arizona, a death caused by another party's wrongful act creates two separate claims. The wrongful death claim under A.R.S. § 12-611 through A.R.S. § 12-613 belongs to the surviving spouse, children, or parents of the person who died, or to the estate if none of those survivors exist, and it compensates them for their own losses: lost income and support, lost companionship, and grief. The survival claim under A.R.S. § 14-3110 belongs to the estate and covers what the person who died experienced before death, including medical expenses and lost earnings. Only one wrongful death action may be filed, and a personal representative brings it on behalf of all statutory beneficiaries. The deadline is generally two years under A.R.S. § 12-542, measured from the date of death. If a government entity or employee is a defendant, a written notice of claim must be served within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01.
The Investigation Is Not the Same Thing as Your Claim
When the Department of Public Safety investigates a fatal freeway collision, it is building a record for a possible criminal or traffic case. That record is useful to a family, but it is not written for them and it does not decide a civil claim. A citation is not proof of liability, and the absence of one is not proof that nobody is responsible.
A completed fatal collision report can take weeks or months. You do not have to wait for it to start protecting the evidence that matters. Request the report number early, then ask for the full report, any scene photographs, any scene measurements or reconstruction materials, and any 911 or dispatch audio. Written preservation requests sent to the companies that may own involved vehicles matter as well, because event data recorder information, maintenance records, and commercial driver logs can be overwritten or destroyed on a routine schedule.
The two people reported injured have claims of their own, separate from any wrongful death claim. Those personal injury claims carry their own two-year deadline under A.R.S. § 12-542, measured from the date of injury, and they are not waived by someone else filing first.
Shared Fault Does Not End an Arizona Claim
Insurers often respond to a fatal crash by suggesting the person who died contributed to it. In many states that argument can defeat a claim entirely. In Arizona it cannot. Under A.R.S. § 12-2505, Arizona applies pure comparative fault, which means recovery is reduced in proportion to a plaintiff's share of fault but is never barred by it. A family found to carry a portion of fault still recovers the remaining percentage.
This matters most in freeway cases, where speed, lane position, and following distance are disputed and where an early recorded statement can be used to assign blame before the physical evidence is analyzed. You are not required to give a recorded statement to another driver's insurance company. You are generally required to cooperate with your own insurer, which is a different obligation and one worth reading your policy on before any call.
Practical Steps in the First Weeks
Open the estate. An Arizona wrongful death action is filed by a personal representative, so if no one has been appointed, that probate step comes first and it takes time.
Keep the vehicle. Do not authorize a salvage sale or let an insurer dispose of it until it has been inspected and its data downloaded. Once it is gone, that evidence cannot be recreated.
Collect the financial record. Tax returns, pay records, benefit statements, and retirement account documents establish the support a household lost. Gather them while they are accessible.
Track every expense. Funeral and burial costs, medical bills incurred before death, and travel costs for family are recoverable categories, and they are far easier to prove with receipts than with recollection.
Route the insurers. Adjusters may contact surviving family within days. You can tell them that counsel will respond and give no further detail. Nothing you say in the first week will help a claim, and some of it can hurt one.
If your family is dealing with a death from a crash in the area, our Glendale wrongful death attorneys can explain where your claim stands and what deadlines apply to it.