Parrish Lane
The city's main street and its freeway connection. Closely spaced retail entrances, left turns across traffic, and queueing that backs up from the interchange at peak times. Rear-end and turning collisions dominate.
DAVIS COUNTY
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One Street Does the Work of a Whole City
Centerville is pressed into a narrow strip between the mountains and the wetlands, and nearly all of its commercial activity and most of its traffic funnels through a single east-west street. Parrish Lane connects the I-15 interchange to US-89 and the neighborhoods above it, carrying retail, commuter and through traffic on the same pavement.
When one road carries that much of a city, the crash patterns concentrate. Turning movements in and out of shopping approaches, queueing that backs up from the freeway ramps, and people crossing between parking areas account for a large share of what happens here.
I-15 and the Parrish Lane interchange
Where local traffic meets freeway speed. Short weaving distances and drivers sorting themselves late are the recurring conflict.
US-89
The rebuilt freeway along the east side, carrying fast north-south traffic through interchange merges rather than the signals drivers remember.
Legacy Parkway (SR-67)
The western corridor along the wetlands, with limited lighting and long gaps between exits.
400 West, Main Street and the bench streets
Older residential streets with narrow shoulders and driveways feeding onto through traffic, plus the trail crossings that bring people on foot and on bikes across the roadway.
If a road, a sign or a public vehicle was part of it, your clock may be one year — not four
The highways here belong to UDOT and the streets below them to the city and the county. When a crash involves a work zone, a missing or wrong sign, an untreated hazard, a signal fault or a government vehicle, the Utah Governmental Immunity Act requires a notice of claim within ONE year. That runs alongside the ordinary four-year deadline rather than instead of it, and missing it ends that part of the case however strong the rest of it is. Who owned and maintained the road is a question for the first weeks, not the second year.
Utah Is a No-Fault State — Until It Isn’t
After a crash in Utah, your own car insurance pays first, regardless of who caused it. That is personal injury protection, or PIP. Under Utah Code § 31A-22-307 it covers at least the first $3,000 of medical bills and 85% of lost wages.
Three thousand dollars does not go far. An ambulance to Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, a set of scans and a night of observation can pass it before a specialist has seen you. PIP is a floor, not a settlement, and it does not pay for pain and suffering. Once it runs out the bills are yours unless you can step outside the no-fault system and claim against the driver who hurt you.
You can do that when any one of these is true (Utah Code § 31A-22-309):
- Your medical expenses exceed $3,000.
- You have a permanent disability.
- You have permanent disfigurement.
- There was dismemberment, or a bone fracture.
- Someone was killed.
Cross that line and the other driver's insurer becomes responsible for the full picture: future treatment, lost earning capacity, and what the injury has cost you beyond the receipts. Below it, you are on your own. This is the single most important reason to keep every bill and to get properly examined rather than telling the doctor you feel fine.
Fault Is Shared in Utah — and 50% Ends Your Claim
Utah Code § 78B-5-818 sets out modified comparative fault. Your recovery is reduced by your share of the blame. If you are found 20% responsible, you collect 80%. If you are found 50% or more responsible, you collect nothing at all.
That rule is why insurers work so hard on the margins. On a retail corridor like Parrish Lane the argument is nearly always that you pulled out of an entrance without a clear gap, or that you were following too closely in traffic that stops constantly. Statewide, the leading causes of fatal crashes are failure to keep in the proper lane at 27%, failure to yield at 13%, and running off the road at 7%, and every one of them is an invitation to move some of the blame onto the injured driver.
For context, the Utah Highway Safety Office recorded 59,437 crashes, 27,094 injuries and 277 fatalities across the state in 2024. Most of those files are settled by an adjuster assigning percentages, quietly, without anyone pushing back. Photographs of the scene, the position of the vehicles, and an early statement from a witness are what move that number. They also disappear fastest.
Your deadlines
FOUR years to bring most injury claims from a vehicle crash, under Utah Code § 78B-2-307. TWO years for wrongful death. ONE year to file a notice of claim against a government entity — UDOT, UTA, Davis County, your city, or an unrepaired road hazard. The one-year notice is the deadline people actually lose claims to.
Cases We Handle in Centerville
Retail corridor and turning collisions
Parrish Lane and the shopping approaches, including left turns across traffic and drivers entering from a parking area into a moving lane.
Freeway and interchange collisions
I-15 and the Parrish Lane ramps, including chain-reaction impacts after a sudden stop.
Parking lot collisions
Backing and turning crashes in the aisles, and drivers who never see someone walking behind a row of cars. Private property does not mean there is no claim.
Pedestrian and cyclist injuries
Utah Code § 41-6a-1105 requires a rider to keep as far right as practicable, with express exceptions including a lane too narrow to share safely with a car, and § 41-6a-706.5 requires a driver to give at least three feet when passing. The trail crossings are a particular pressure point.
Slip, trip and fall
Ice left on a walkway after a storm, unmarked level changes, and water tracked inside an entrance. Utah premises liability law asks what the owner knew or should have known, and how long the hazard had been there.
Dog bites
Utah Code § 18-1-1 makes a dog's owner strictly liable for a bite. There is no one-bite rule here and no requirement to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous. A homeowner's or renter's policy is often the source of any recovery.
What To Do After an Accident in Centerville
- Call 911 and get a report. The Centerville Police Department responds inside city limits, while the Utah Highway Patrol handles I-15, US-89 and Legacy Parkway. Get the case number before you leave and note which agency wrote it.
- Be examined the same day. Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful has a 24-hour emergency department. Adrenaline hides fractures and concussions for hours, and a gap between the crash and your first visit is the first thing an adjuster points at.
- Photograph the scene before it is cleared. Vehicle positions, debris, skid marks, the signal or sign you were relying on, and the condition of the road surface.
- Get witness names and numbers yourself rather than assuming the report will list them. People passing through leave quickly, and they are far easier to find on day one than on day one hundred.
- Open your own PIP claim, and say nothing recorded to the other driver's insurer. Your own policy generally requires you to cooperate with your insurer. It does not require you to give the other side a recorded statement, and there is no reason to before you know how badly you are hurt.
Injury lawsuits arising in Centerville are filed in the Second Judicial District Court, which sits in Farmington for Davis County. Most claims settle without a filing, but the file should be built from the first week as though it will be.
This page is general information about Utah law, not legal advice about your situation. Every case turns on its own facts. Past results do not guarantee a future outcome.