Westbound Interstate 10 in Goodyear was closed following a multi-vehicle crash and a vehicle fire, according to KTAR News. The outlet reported that the closure was located at Litchfield Road near milepost 127, citing the Arizona Department of Transportation. No further details about the vehicles or anyone involved were reported.
When three or more vehicles collide in Arizona, fault is rarely assigned to one driver alone. A.R.S. § 12-2505 applies pure comparative fault, which means each party, including an injured person, is responsible only for its own percentage share of the damages; a person found 30 percent at fault recovers 70 percent of proven losses, and there is no cutoff that bars recovery. In practice, that means an injured driver in a pileup may have claims against several insurers at once, each of which has an incentive to argue that the others, or the claimant, carry the larger share. Fire damage adds a second layer, because the condition of a burned vehicle can be the evidence that decides sequence and impact. Arizona gives most injury claimants two years from the date of injury to file suit under A.R.S. § 12-542, and claims against a public entity require a written notice of claim within 180 days under A.R.S. § 12-821.01.
How Fault Gets Divided Among Multiple Drivers
Under A.R.S. § 12-2505, a jury assigns a percentage of fault to every person or entity that contributed to the harm, and each defendant generally pays only its own share. That rule cuts both ways. It means you are not shut out of recovery because an insurer claims you were partly responsible, but it also means you may need to pursue more than one policy to be made whole.
Freeway chain-reaction collisions turn on sequence: which vehicle struck which, in what order, and whether a driver had room to stop. Insurers reconstruct that sequence from physical damage patterns, electronic data recorders, commercial vehicle telematics, and any available video. If a driver left the scene, A.R.S. § 28-661 imposes a duty to stop and remain at the scene of a crash involving injury or death, and a violation can matter to both the criminal case and the civil claim.
Do not accept a single insurer's early account of who was at fault. An adjuster who tells you their driver was third in line and therefore not responsible is making an argument, not stating a finding.
Why a Vehicle Fire Changes the Evidence Problem
Fire destroys the things a claim depends on. Crush patterns, paint transfer, tire marks, restraint system data, and the stored data in a vehicle's event recorder can all be lost or degraded. Once a burned vehicle is towed, salvage yards and insurers move quickly to dispose of it.
If you were in a crash involving fire, send a written request to your insurer and to the tow yard asking that the vehicle be preserved and not sold, scrapped, or repaired until it can be inspected. Note the tow company name and the storage location before the vehicle leaves the scene if you are able. A burned vehicle can also raise a product or maintenance question that is separate from the question of which driver did what, and that question cannot be answered after the vehicle is gone.
Practical Steps in the First Weeks
Get evaluated even if you walked away. Spine, brain, and internal injuries commonly present hours or days later, and a gap between the crash and the first medical visit is the most common argument insurers use to discount a claim.
Request the crash report once it becomes available and read it for the list of involved vehicles and insurers; that list tells you how many policies may be in play. Photograph your injuries as they develop. Keep every bill, even the ones your health insurer paid, because those amounts are part of your damages. Report the crash to your own insurer promptly, which is required under most policies, but decline to give a recorded statement to any other driver's insurer until you understand what fault is being alleged against you. If a death resulted, Arizona's wrongful death statutes at A.R.S. § 12-611 to § 12-613 limit who may bring the claim, and the separate survival claim is governed by A.R.S. § 14-3110.
If you were hurt in this closure or in another collision on the West Valley freeway system, our Goodyear car accident practice page explains how these claims are handled locally.