Pedestrian Accidents in Asheville, NC

The Asheville Police Department handles crashes inside the city. On I-40, I-26, and the I-240 connector the NC State Highway Patrol is frequently the responding agency, and in the rest of the county it may be the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office. The NC Division of Motor Vehicles also takes crash-report requests statewide. On a mountain interstate it's easy to lose track of where you were. Note the exit number.

Asheville is the seat of Buncombe County, so a filed injury suit goes to the Buncombe County Courthouse. North Carolina separates civil cases into District Court and Superior Court depending on the amount claimed. Most claims are settled with an insurer without a suit being filed at all. If yours is filed, North Carolina gives you 3 years from the crash to do it.

The deadline and the fault rule are the same, but the other side is a company. A carrier's insurer may have its own account of the descent, the load, and the driver's hours before you are out of the hospital, and in a state where 1% of fault on you ends everything, that head start matters. The report may sit with the Highway Patrol rather than Asheville Police.

In North Carolina, the deadline is generally 3 years from the date of the accident. 3 years personal injury; wrongful death 2 years. Deadlines are strict — the sooner you act, the more options you have.