Car Accident Lawyers in Reading, PA

When Reading’s own police department sat down to study its crash data, the pattern that jumped out was not drag racing or drunk driving. It was something more mundane: drivers pulling onto a main road from a side street with no signal to tell either of them who goes first. Between January 2020 and July 2021, that pattern and others like it added up to 5,425 vehicle crashes and 136 crashes involving a pedestrian across the city — numbers a car accident lawyer working Reading cases ends up citing almost as often as the police who compiled them.

Where Reading’s Crashes Cluster

Kenhorst Boulevard stood out in that review with 27 crashes tied specifically to intersections lacking full signal control — a stretch where side streets feed into a busy corridor without the benefit of a light to sort out right-of-way. City council has separately pushed for safety changes at Schuylkill Avenue and Lackawanna Street following a fatal crash there, and Reading’s state-maintained routes — the kind PennDOT, not the city, is responsible for signing and maintaining — show up again and again in the more serious case files local attorneys handle.

None of this is unique to Reading in isolation, but the concentration is notable for a city of roughly 95,000 people: a disproportionate share of crashes traced back to a handful of intersections rather than spread evenly across the road network, which is exactly the kind of pattern that shapes how fault gets argued once a claim is filed.

Full Tort, Limited Tort, and Who Yielded

Pennsylvania requires every auto policy to elect full tort or limited tort coverage under 75 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 1705. Full tort keeps the unrestricted right to sue for pain and suffering; limited tort trades that right away for a lower premium, unless the injury is "serious" or a statutory exception applies. At an uncontrolled intersection — the exact setup behind Kenhorst Boulevard’s crash count — fault is rarely obvious, and a claimant’s tort election can end up mattering as much as who technically had the right of way.

No Cap Against a Private Driver, Caps Against the Government

Pennsylvania places no statutory ceiling on compensatory damages in an ordinary claim against a private at-fault driver. That changes the moment a city vehicle, a county road defect, or a state highway design flaw enters the picture: claims against Reading or Berks County are capped at $500,000 under the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act, and claims against PennDOT or another Commonwealth agency are capped at $250,000 per plaintiff and $1,000,000 per occurrence. Given how many of the city’s worst crash locations trace back to municipal or state-maintained roads, that distinction comes up more often in Reading than in a lot of other cities this size.

The 51% Rule and the Two-Year Clock

Pennsylvania’s modified comparative negligence rule, the 51% Rule under 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 7102, reduces a claimant’s award by their percentage of fault but erases it entirely once that share hits 51%. Most claims must be filed within two years of the crash under § 5524, though a notice requirement as short as six months typically applies first if the City of Reading, Berks County, or PennDOT could be named as a defendant.

Finding the Right Attorney in Reading

The Lawyer Atlas is a directory, not a law firm — we do not give legal advice and do not represent anyone. Given how often Reading crashes trace back to uncontrolled intersections and municipal or state roads, useful questions for a prospective attorney include whether they have handled claims against the city or PennDOT before, how they typically approach fault disputes at an unsignaled intersection, and how quickly they can confirm a tort election. Civil suits generally proceed through the Berks County Court of Common Pleas at 633 Court Street downtown. Consultations are almost always free, and representation is nearly always contingency-based.