12 News reported that a child was killed in a collision on Interstate 10 in Phoenix, and that the eastbound lanes at 43rd Avenue have since reopened after a temporary closure. No determination of fault has been reported, and no one has been charged or convicted of anything. What follows is general Arizona law, not a statement about who was responsible.
When a child dies in an Arizona traffic collision, the claim belongs to the surviving family, not to the child. Arizona's wrongful death statutes, A.R.S. § 12-611 through A.R.S. § 12-613, allow a parent or guardian to bring an action for the death of a minor child, and the recoverable damages are the family's own losses: grief, sorrow, loss of love, companionship and affection, loss of the child's anticipated society, and funeral and burial expenses. A separate survival action under A.R.S. § 14-3110 may be brought by the estate for losses the child sustained before death. The general deadline is two years from the date of death under A.R.S. § 12-542. If a government entity or employee may share responsibility, a written notice of claim must be served within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, a far shorter window that is easy to miss while a family is grieving.
The Two Deadlines, and Why the Shorter One Matters Most
Most families hear about the two-year statute of limitations in A.R.S. § 12-542 and assume there is time. There often is. But freeway cases frequently involve more than private drivers. Road design, signage, lane configuration, construction zones, barriers, and maintenance all sit with public entities, and any claim touching a public entity or public employee is governed by A.R.S. § 12-821.01: a written notice of claim, with a specific sum that will settle the claim, served within 180 days after the cause of action accrues. Miss it and that portion of the case is gone, even with nearly eighteen months left on the two-year clock.
That is the practical reason to have someone evaluating liability early, even if the family is not ready to make decisions. Identifying whether a public entity is a potential defendant is a question that has to be answered in the first few months, not the second year.
Arizona Divides Fault; It Does Not Use Fault to Bar a Claim
Arizona applies pure comparative fault under A.R.S. § 12-2505. A family's recovery is reduced by whatever percentage of fault a jury assigns to the person whose damages are at issue, but it is not eliminated. Insurers understand this and often lead with fault arguments early, sometimes in a recorded phone call made within days of a death. Those arguments are not a legal bar. They are a negotiating position, and they are frequently made before the investigating agency has finished its work or released a report.
Practically: do not give a recorded statement to any insurer, including your own, until you understand what the investigation shows. You can confirm basic facts and report the loss without narrating or speculating about how the collision happened.
What to Preserve in the First Few Weeks
Freeway evidence disappears quickly. Lanes reopen, debris is cleared, and vehicles are moved to storage yards where they can be sold or scrapped on a short timetable.
- Request the collision report from the investigating agency, and the number assigned to the case, so you can follow up on the report and any supplemental findings.
- Tell the tow yard and your insurer in writing not to release, repair, or dispose of any involved vehicle. Modern vehicles store crash data that is lost once the vehicle is gone.
- Write down the names and numbers of anyone who stopped at the scene. Keep that list private rather than posting it.
- Identify every available insurance policy, including underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage on policies in the household. Coverage is often the limit on what any case can actually recover.
- Keep every receipt connected to the death, including funeral and burial costs, which are recoverable.
- Do not sign anything from an insurance company, especially a release or a medical authorization, before someone has read it.
If your family is dealing with the death of a child on a Phoenix roadway, our Phoenix wrongful death attorneys can explain which deadlines apply to your situation before any of them run.