California’s 10 Deadliest Counties for Motorcyclists

A BANA LAW analysis of 18,923 motorcycle crashes that killed or seriously injured someone across all 58 California counties.

The Findings, in Brief

Between 2019 and 2023, 3,024 people were killed and 3,674 more were seriously injured in motorcycle-involved crashes on California roads. Just 10 counties account for 69% of those deaths.

Los Angeles County leads by a wide margin: 632 deaths in five years, more than the next two counties combined. San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside, and Orange round out the top five, together accounting for nearly half of California’s motorcycle-crash deaths.

But the absolute count is only half the story. When you account for how many motorcycles are actually registered in each county, the picture flips. By that measure, Merced County is the deadliest place in California to ride a motorcycle. Kern, Yuba, Lassen, Tulare, and Madera counties all have higher fatality rates per registered motorcycle than Los Angeles.

The deadliest single corridor for motorcyclists in California, measured by death rate per mile, is State Route 91 through Riverside County. The deadliest scenic mountain road for riders is Ortega Highway (SR-74), confirming what California riders have called “the bloody Ortega” for years.

The 10 Deadliest California Counties for Motorcyclists, 2019–2023

Ranked by total motorcyclist deaths in motorcycle-involved crashes across the five-year period:

#	County	Crashes	Killed	Severely Injured	Total Killed or Hurt
1	Los Angeles	4,621	632	1,272	1,904
2	San Bernardino	1,198	266	194	460
3	San Diego	1,754	249	554	803
4	Riverside	1,312	245	177	422
5	Orange	939	176	182	358
6	Sacramento	844	151	167	318
7	Kern	549	130	20	150
8	Fresno	400	97	21	118
9	Alameda	627	81	144	225
10	San Joaquin	380	70	64	134

Source: BANA LAW analysis of California Highway Patrol SWITRS data via UC Berkeley TIMS, 2019–2023. Filtered for fatal and serious-injury crashes involving a motorcycle.

Why Los Angeles County Dominates

LA County’s 632 motorcycle-crash deaths over five years represent more than 21% of the California total. The county’s combination of dense freeway network, year-round riding weather, and 157,850 registered motorcycles produces a sheer volume of riding that no other county matches. Three of California’s top five deadliest single corridors run through LA County: I-10, Pacific Coast Highway, and I-5. Interstate 10 alone accounted for 19 motorcyclist deaths in five years — the most of any single road in the state.

From my practice representing motorcycle riders and their families, the patterns inside that LA County number are consistent. Left-turn collisions at intersections, lane-change collisions on freeways, and other drivers simply not seeing the motorcyclist account for the majority of cases I see. The county’s per-capita rate is actually below the statewide average — LA isn’t unusually dangerous for any individual rider, but the absolute volume of riding produces an absolute volume of tragedy.

The Counter-Intuitive Finding: Los Angeles is Not the Most Dangerous County to Ride In

Counting absolute deaths makes LA, San Bernardino, and San Diego look the most dangerous. But that ranking reflects how many motorcycles are on the road, not how dangerous it actually is to ride one.

When you adjust for registered motorcycles in each county, the ranking changes dramatically. The 10 counties with the highest motorcyclist death rate per registered motorcycle are concentrated in the Central Valley and inland California, not the coastal urban centers.

California’s 10 Most Dangerous Counties Per Registered Motorcyclist

Annual motorcyclist deaths per 100,000 registered motorcycles, 2019–2023 average:

#	County	Deaths per 100K Registered M/C (annual)	vs Statewide Avg (70.9)
1	Merced	173.5	2.4× higher
2	Kern	145.4	2.1× higher
3	Yuba	144.7	2.0× higher
4	Lassen	139.7	2.0× higher
5	Tulare	124.3	1.8× higher
6	Madera	123.4	1.7× higher
7	Tuolumne	118.8	1.7× higher
8	San Bernardino	118.7	1.7× higher
9	Fresno	108.9	1.5× higher
10	Butte	104.5	1.5× higher

Source: BANA LAW analysis combining SWITRS fatality data (2019–2023) with California DMV registered motorcycle counts (2019). Counties with fewer than 1,000 registered motorcycles excluded to avoid statistical noise.

Los Angeles County — the absolute leader in deaths — ranks 21st when measured per registered rider. Statistically, an individual motorcyclist in Merced County is more than twice as likely to die in a crash as one in Los Angeles.

Why the inland and Central Valley counties? In my experience handling cases across these regions, several factors compound. Rural and exurban highways carry higher speeds. Long, lightly-traveled stretches between communities mean longer emergency response times when crashes happen. Recreational riding on mountain roads brings out riders less familiar with the specific corridor. And the data reflects what crash investigators have known for years: when a motorcycle crash happens on an open rural highway at 70 mph, the outcomes are simply more severe.

California’s Deadliest Single Roads for Motorcyclists

County-level data tells you where motorcyclists die in absolute terms. Per-capita data tells you which counties are most dangerous for an individual rider. But the most actionable question for riders is simpler: which specific roads should you ride with extra caution?

By Total Deaths

These ten corridors recorded the highest absolute motorcyclist death counts statewide:

#	Corridor	County	Fatal & Serious-Injury Crashes	Killed
1	Interstate 10	Los Angeles	150	19
2	State Route 74 (incl. Ortega Highway)	Riverside	90	18
3	Pacific Coast Highway (SR-1)	Los Angeles	97	15
4	Interstate 5	Los Angeles	112	15
5	State Route 91 (91 Freeway)	Riverside	82	15
6	Interstate 5	San Diego	135	15
7	US 101	Santa Clara	67	13
8	Interstate 880	Alameda	121	12
9	Angeles Crest Highway (SR-2)	Los Angeles	78	12
10	Interstate 405	Los Angeles	155	12

By Death Rate Per Mile

Total deaths reward long highways. A more useful question for riders: which roads kill the most motorcyclists per mile? When we compute deaths per mile of corridor, the ranking changes — and the deadliest single freeway segment for motorcyclists in California emerges:

State Route 91 through Riverside County: 0.96 motorcyclist deaths per mile over five years.

That rate is roughly twice the per-mile rate of any other major freeway in California. The 15-mile Riverside section of the 91 Freeway recorded 15 motorcyclist deaths and 82 fatal-or-serious-injury crashes between 2019 and 2023. The corridor’s combination of heavy commuter traffic, high speeds, frequent lane changes, and the chronic congestion that sends commuters threading between vehicles produces a per-mile death rate unmatched on any other California freeway.

The Famous Scenic Corridors

Two roads are widely known to California riders as the state’s deadliest scenic mountain corridors: Ortega Highway (SR-74) in Riverside County and Angeles Crest Highway (SR-2) in Los Angeles County. The data confirms what experienced riders have always said:

Corridor	Length	Killed	Fatal & Serious-Injury Crashes	Deaths per Mile
Ortega Highway (SR-74, Riverside section)	21 mi	11	30	0.52
Angeles Crest Highway (SR-2)	66 mi	14	88	0.21
Pacific Coast Highway (SR-1, LA County)	75 mi	13	104	0.17
San Gabriel Canyon Rd (SR-39)	27 mi	11	84	0.41

Ortega Highway runs 21 miles through Riverside County from the Orange County line down to Lake Elsinore. Its blind curves, missing center divider, and steep canyon grades have earned it the nickname “the bloody Ortega” among California riders. The data confirms why: 11 motorcyclist deaths in five years on a road shorter than the average commute, putting Ortega’s per-mile death rate above every California scenic corridor we measured.

California’s Motorcycle Crisis: Is It Getting Better?

Motorcyclist deaths in California rose 35% between 2019 and 2022. Then, in 2023, they declined for the first time in five years.

Year	Motorcyclist-Involved Crash Deaths	Year-over-Year Change	vs. 2019 Baseline
2019	500	—	baseline
2020	580	+16%	+16%
2021	647	+12%	+29%
2022	675	+4%	+35%
2023	622	−8%	+24%

The 2023 decline is the first improvement since the pandemic. But context matters: even after that decline, California’s motorcycle-crash deaths in 2023 were 24% above 2019 levels. The post-pandemic surge in serious crashes that affected drivers nationally hit motorcyclists particularly hard, and the gains made in 2023 only erased a fraction of those losses.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the deadliest California county for motorcyclists?

Los Angeles County is the deadliest California county for motorcyclists by total deaths. Between 2019 and 2023, 632 motorcyclists were killed in motorcycle-involved crashes in LA County — more than the next two counties (San Bernardino with 266 and San Diego with 249) combined. LA County alone accounts for 21% of California’s motorcycle-crash deaths.

Which California county is most dangerous per registered motorcycle?

Merced County has California’s highest motorcyclist death rate per registered motorcycle, at 173.5 deaths per 100,000 registered motorcycles annually — more than twice the statewide average of 70.9. The top 10 counties by per-capita rate are concentrated in the Central Valley and inland California, not the coastal urban centers. An individual motorcyclist in Merced County is statistically more than twice as likely to die in a crash as one in Los Angeles County.

What is the deadliest single road for motorcyclists in California?

Interstate 10 through Los Angeles County recorded the highest absolute number of motorcyclist deaths of any single corridor in California, at 19 deaths between 2019 and 2023. Measured by death rate per mile, the deadliest motorcycle freeway is the 15-mile Riverside section of State Route 91, with 0.96 motorcyclist deaths per mile over five years — roughly twice the per-mile rate of any other major California freeway.

Is Ortega Highway really one of California’s deadliest motorcycle roads?

Yes. Ortega Highway (State Route 74) through its 21-mile Riverside County section recorded 11 motorcyclist deaths and 30 fatal-or-severe-injury crashes between 2019 and 2023. That places it among California’s deadliest scenic mountain corridors for motorcyclists. The road’s combination of blind curves, missing center divider, and steep canyon grades has earned it the long-standing nickname “the bloody Ortega” among California riders.

Are California motorcycle deaths going up or down?

California motorcycle fatalities rose 35% between 2019 and 2022, then declined 8% in 2023 — the first improvement in five years. However, even after the 2023 decline, motorcycle-crash deaths remained 24% above 2019 levels. The post-pandemic surge in serious crashes that affected drivers nationally hit California motorcyclists particularly hard, and the 2023 improvement only partially reversed those losses.

How many people are killed in California motorcycle crashes each year?

Between 2019 and 2023, 3,024 people were killed and 3,674 were severely injured in motorcycle-involved crashes in California — an average of approximately 605 deaths per year. The 2022 peak year recorded 675 deaths; the 2023 figure was 622. These counts include all fatalities in motorcycle-involved crashes, including motorcycle riders, passengers, and others involved in those crashes.

Which California counties have the most motorcycle crashes overall?

Ten counties account for 69% of California’s motorcycle fatalities. In order: Los Angeles (632 deaths), San Bernardino (266), San Diego (249), Riverside (245), Orange (176), Sacramento (151), Kern (130), Fresno (97), Alameda (81), and San Joaquin (70). These ten counties hold the majority of California’s motorcycle riding population, but as the per-capita data shows, they are not necessarily the most dangerous counties for individual riders.

What should I do if a family member was injured in a California motorcycle crash?

The most important decisions after a serious motorcycle crash get made in the first 30 days. Get medical attention promptly, document the scene if you can, preserve all motorcycle and gear evidence, avoid recorded statements with insurance adjusters before consulting an attorney, and watch for signs of traumatic brain injury that may not appear immediately. BANA LAW’s resource on the first 30 days after a California crash walks through the specific steps in detail. Legal consultations are free and contingent — no fees unless we win, no upfront fees, no costs to advance.

Why Motorcycle Crashes Cause Disproportionate Harm

Motorcyclists make up a small fraction of California’s vehicles but a disproportionate share of its road deaths. Two reasons explain why.

The first is physics. A motorcyclist has no enclosed cabin, no airbag, no crumple zone, and no seatbelt holding them in position. In a collision, the rider’s body absorbs forces that would be dispersed across a passenger car’s safety systems. Helmet laws and protective gear reduce the severity of head injuries but cannot eliminate the fundamental vulnerability.

The second is visibility. In a substantial portion of multi-vehicle motorcycle crashes I see, the at-fault driver tells the police officer some version of the same sentence: “I didn’t see the motorcycle.” Drivers conditioned to scan for cars and trucks routinely miss motorcycles in their mirrors, in their blind spots, and across intersections. Left-turn crashes — where a driver turning left across traffic fails to yield to an oncoming motorcyclist — are among the most common fatal-injury patterns in our data and in the cases I handle.

These patterns matter for liability. When a left-turning driver fails to yield to a motorcyclist with the right of way, California law generally places fault on the driver who made the turn. When a driver changes lanes into a motorcycle they failed to check for, fault generally falls on the lane-changer. Understanding these patterns isn’t only about prevention. It’s about ensuring that when crashes happen, the law treats fault accurately and the parties responsible are held accountable.

If You or a Family Member Has Been Injured in a California Motorcycle Crash

The most important decisions after a serious motorcycle crash get made in the first 30 days. Medical care, evidence preservation, insurance company contact, and protecting your right to pursue a claim all come together in a narrow window when most injured riders and their families are focused on recovery, not paperwork.

Our firm’s resource on the first 30 days after a California crash walks through what to do, when to do it, and what mistakes to avoid. For motorcycle crashes specifically, the rules are slightly different — helmet evidence preservation, gear and motorcycle inspection, and the pattern of insurance carriers initially blaming the rider all require specific handling.

BANA LAW has represented California motorcycle riders and their families for more than 20 years. We have recovered substantial settlements and verdicts in motorcycle cases, including a $23.7 million Los Angeles County result in a motorcycle-versus-truck case involving a below-knee amputation, and a $6.5 million Los Angeles County settlement in a motorcycle-versus-truck case where the insurance carrier initially blamed our client for the crash. After we filed suit and obtained body-camera footage during discovery, the evidence established that the at-fault driver — operating in the course and scope of his employment — caused the collision. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome in your case.

If you are dealing with the aftermath of a serious motorcycle crash, the conversation about what comes next costs you nothing. We work on contingency: no fees unless we win, no upfront fees, no costs to advance. Headquartered in Los Angeles at 1875 Century Park East, Suite 1500, BANA LAW serves clients throughout California with consultation availability in San Bernardino and Fresno.

Methodology

Data Sources

• Crash data: California Highway Patrol Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), accessed via the UC Berkeley SafeTREC Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) at tims.berkeley.edu. Filtered for crashes flagged as motorcycle-involved with collision severity coded as 1 (Fatal) or 2 (Severe Injury). Date range: January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2023, the most recent five-year period of finalized SWITRS data at the time of analysis.
• Registration data: California Department of Motor Vehicles, Estimated Vehicles Registered by County, 2019.
• Cross-validation sources: California Office of Traffic Safety annual fatality data; UC Berkeley SafeTREC 2025 Traffic Safety Facts: Motorcycle Safety report.

Definitions

• “Motorcycle fatal-and-serious-injury crashes” (sometimes shortened to “deadly and serious-injury crashes”) refers to motorcycle-involved crashes in which at least one person was killed or severely injured.
• “Killed” counts all victims classified by the responding agency as fatally injured.
• “Severely injured” counts all victims classified by the responding agency as having suffered a severe injury (also called a suspected serious injury under MMUCC 5th Edition coding).
• “Per-capita rate” uses 2019 DMV registered motorcycle counts as the denominator. Counties with fewer than 1,000 registered motorcycles were excluded from per-capita rankings to avoid statistical noise from small denominators.

Verification

Every figure in this analysis was independently calculated through three distinct methods (line counting, dictionary parsing, and pandas DataFrame aggregation) with all three results required to match. Filter integrity was confirmed at 100% across all 58 California counties. Statewide totals were cross-checked against published OTS and SafeTREC fatality data and fall within expected methodological variance (under 7% per year, in the expected direction). DMV registration figures were transcribed from the source PDF and verified by summing all 58 counties against the published in-state total — an exact match.

Limitations and Disclosures

• This analysis uses 2019 motorcycle registration data as the per-capita denominator across all five years of crash data. Registration totals shift modestly year-to-year (under 1% statewide) and the relative ranking of counties is highly stable, but readers should note that per-capita rates are a five-year average rather than a single-year snapshot.
• Per-mile corridor analysis uses postmile data from individual crash records to compute the active span of each corridor. Famous scenic corridors (Ortega Highway, Angeles Crest Highway, Pacific Coast Highway, San Gabriel Canyon Road) were segmented using PRIMARY_RD name matching from the SWITRS data itself, ensuring the per-mile figures reflect the named scenic segment rather than the entire state route designation.
• “Motorcyclist-involved crash deaths” includes all fatalities in motorcycle-involved crashes, whether the deceased was the motorcycle rider, passenger, another driver, or a pedestrian struck during the incident. This is broader than OTS’s “motorcyclist deaths” category, which counts only riders and passengers. The two methodologies produce numbers within 4–7% of each other in any given year.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on a specific matter, please consult a licensed California attorney.