A driver injured in a crash near 19th Avenue and Thomas Road in Phoenix, which authorities said happened around 11:15 a.m. on August 24, died on August 30, 12 News reported. The cause of the crash has not been determined.
A death that follows days or weeks after a collision changes which clock a family is running against, and the change works in their favour. Most Arizona personal injury claims must be filed within two years of the injury under A.R.S. § 12-542. A wrongful death claim also runs two years, but it runs from the date of death, not the date of the crash that caused it. Where someone is hospitalised and dies later, that distinction can move the deadline by weeks, months, or in a long hospitalisation considerably more. Two separate claims usually exist side by side: the wrongful death action under A.R.S. §§ 12-611 through 12-613, brought for the family, and a survival action under A.R.S. § 14-3110, brought by the estate for what the deceased could have claimed had they lived, including the medical bills and the pain endured in those final days.
Why the gap between injury and death matters practically
The hospital period is usually where the largest medical bills in the whole case are generated, and those bills belong to the survival action rather than the wrongful death claim. Families who pursue only the wrongful death action often leave that money unrecovered, because nobody told them a second claim existed.
The insurer will have been treating this as an injury claim from the day of the crash. When death follows, the claim changes character entirely: different claimants, different damages, a different statute, and a different deadline. It is worth confirming who is entitled to bring the action before anyone signs anything, because A.R.S. § 12-612 fixes both who may sue and in what order.
If a public entity may be involved
Where a city, county or state vehicle, employee, or road condition is part of the picture, a much shorter clock applies regardless of the above: a Notice of Claim must be served within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, and missing it bars the claim outright no matter how strong it is.
If your family is facing this, our Phoenix wrongful death lawyer page explains how these claims work locally.