A crash on Sherman Way or Reseda Boulevard sets off a short sequence, and most of it happens in the first week. On day one you call 911, let the LAPD write a report, and get examined at an emergency room or an urgent care before you sleep. Over the next few days you report the collision to your own insurance company, file the DMV SR-1 if anyone was hurt or the damage passed $1,000, and decline the recorded statement that the other driver’s insurance company will ask for. By the end of the week you should know your report number, have a medical record with the date of the crash on it, and have spoken with a lawyer before signing anything.
Reseda’s collisions look alike: a left turn across four lanes on Sherman Way, a rear-end crash in the Reseda Boulevard turn pocket at Victory, a car pulling out of a strip mall driveway on Vanowen into traffic that was moving faster than it looked. The police station that covers the neighborhood is on Vanowen Street in Reseda itself. This guide goes through the week in order, with the addresses, the offices and the deadlines that apply.
Day one: the scene
Sherman Way, Victory Boulevard and Vanowen Street carry traffic east and west, Reseda Boulevard and Tampa Avenue carry it north and south between the 101 and the north Valley, and the signals sit far enough apart for speeds to climb between them. Most Reseda crashes happen at those signals or in the driveways between them.
If the car still moves and nobody is badly hurt, get it out of the lane. Then call 911 even when the damage looks minor. Paramedics document injuries on the spot, and the officer’s report is the first thing every insurance company reads.
While you wait for the officer:
- Photograph every vehicle from all four corners, the resting positions, skid marks, debris, the signal or stop sign, and anything that blocked a view.
- Photograph the other driver’s license, insurance card and plate instead of copying them by hand.
- Ask anyone who stopped for a name and cell number. Witnesses on Sherman Way are gone in minutes.
- Note the storefronts with cameras. Businesses along Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way often have exterior video, and most systems record over themselves within weeks.
- Answer the officer’s factual questions, exchange information, and say nothing about fault or about feeling fine.
Before the officer leaves, ask for the report number and the officer’s name and serial number.
Day one: get examined
Be seen the same day, or the next morning at the latest. Adrenaline hides a neck strain, a disc injury or a concussion for hours, and the date on the first medical record anchors the claim. Let two weeks pass and the insurance company will argue that whatever hurts came from somewhere else.
The emergency rooms nearest Reseda are UCLA West Valley Medical Center, formerly West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, at 7300 Medical Center Drive in West Hills, and Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center at 18321 Clark Street in Tarzana. To the north, Northridge Hospital Medical Center is at 18300 Roscoe Boulevard. For soreness, sprains and cuts, an urgent care creates the same-day record you need. Go to the emergency room for a blow to the head, loss of consciousness, chest or abdominal pain, numbness or bleeding that does not stop.
Tell the doctor about every symptom, including the ones that seem small. Headaches, trouble concentrating, light sensitivity and sleep changes in the days after a crash are concussion symptoms, and our page on brain injury cases covers what that documentation looks like.
Days two and three: the calls
Report the crash to your own insurance company promptly, and ask what coverage you carry. Medical payments coverage, if you bought it, pays medical bills regardless of fault. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which insurers must offer under Insurance Code 11580.2, becomes the whole case when the driver who hit you carries California’s minimum of $30,000 per person under Vehicle Code 16056, or nothing at all.
The other driver’s insurance company will call within a day or two and ask for a recorded statement. Nothing obligates you to be recorded by a company that insures someone else, and the questions are designed to produce quotable answers before you know how badly you are hurt. Decline politely and talk to a lawyer first.
An early settlement offer deserves the same caution. Money offered in the first two weeks arrives before anyone knows whether you need an MRI, and signing the release closes the claim for good.
Within ten days: the SR-1
Under Vehicle Code 16000, a driver involved in a California crash that causes injury or death, or more than $1,000 in damage to any one person’s property, must file the DMV form SR-1 within 10 days. The rule applies whether or not police came to the scene, and skipping it risks a license suspension.
The police report: LAPD West Valley and the Valley Traffic Division
Reseda is part of the City of Los Angeles, so collisions on its surface streets are handled by the LAPD. The station that covers Reseda, along with Tarzana, Encino, Lake Balboa, Northridge and Warner Center, is the West Valley Community Police Station at 19020 Vanowen Street, Reseda, CA 91335, phone (818) 374-7611.
Collision investigations in the Valley run through the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division at 7870 Nollan Place in Panorama City, which serves the West Valley station and the other Valley stations. That is the office for a witness you found after the officer left.
Getting a copy of the report is a separate process. You can request one online through the LexisNexis portal the LAPD uses, in English or Spanish, but the department asks you to allow a minimum of 45 days from the date of the collision before requesting online. You can also request by mail from the LAPD Records and Identification Division, Document Processing Unit, P.O. Box 30158, Los Angeles, CA 90030, with the report number, the parties’ names, the date, time and location, the plate numbers and a signed declaration, plus a $19 check or money order. Reports involving arrests, fatalities or juveniles have to be requested by mail.
When the report arrives, read all of it. It contains a diagram, each driver’s account, any witness statements, insurance information and a line where the officer names the Vehicle Code section they believe was violated. That line carries less weight than people think. The officer usually did not see the crash, and the report does not decide fault in a civil case. Insurance companies lean on it anyway, so errors such as reversed party numbers or a missing witness should be corrected through the reporting officer in the first month.
If the crash was on the 101
The 101 runs along Reseda’s southern edge, and crashes on it, including the Reseda Boulevard and Tampa Avenue ramps, belong to the California Highway Patrol rather than the LAPD. The CHP’s West Valley Area office at 5825 De Soto Avenue in Woodland Hills covers most of the San Fernando Valley, and CHP reports are requested from the Area office that wrote them.
If a Metro bus, a city vehicle or a public street was involved
The Metro G Line busway, the former Orange Line, crosses the south end of Reseda, and Metro buses run all day on Sherman Way, Reseda Boulevard and Vanowen. When a bus, a city truck or a road defect the City of Los Angeles was responsible for is part of the crash, a different clock starts.
Under Government Code 911.2, a written claim must be presented to the public entity within six months of the injury. Not a lawsuit, a claim, on the entity’s own form. Miss it and the case is generally over before it starts. Bus camera footage is overwritten well before then, so a preservation letter goes out in the first days. Our bus accident page explains how those cases are built.
The deadlines behind the first week
Once a claim is properly submitted, the Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations require the insurance company to accept or deny it within 40 days of receiving proof of claim (10 CCR 2695.7), or explain in writing why it needs more time. A claim that goes silent is not following the rules.
The deadline to file a lawsuit for personal injury in California is generally two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. Where a minor is injured, Code of Civil Procedure 352 tolls that period, but tolling does not extend the six-month claim rule for public entities.
California applies pure comparative negligence under Li v. Yellow Cab. A driver found partly at fault still recovers the share of damages the law allows, reduced by that percentage, which is why an early admission at the scene or on a recorded call costs so much.
Where a Reseda case is filed
Civil cases from Reseda are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Under the court’s Local Rule 2.3, an unlimited civil personal injury case (one seeking more than $35,000) is filed in the Central District at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, downtown. The court may later transfer it to a district courthouse such as the Van Nuys Courthouse East at 6230 Sylmar Avenue, which serves the Northwest District, or the Chatsworth Courthouse at 9425 Penfield Avenue, which serves the North Valley District. Most cases settle, but a filed case usually runs 12 to 24 months and includes a deposition.
How we handle Reseda cases
Manoukian Law Firm’s office is at 9520 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Suite 102, in Chatsworth, about fifteen minutes from Reseda. When a client describes a left-turn crash at Sherman Way and Reseda Boulevard, we know the sight lines. Every file is handled by the attorney you hire, from the first call to the end.
The work in the first weeks is practical: pulling the West Valley report, requesting the hospital records, sending preservation letters to the businesses whose cameras faced the intersection, and taking over the insurance calls so that you can go to physical therapy instead. Meetings happen at the Chatsworth office or by phone or video, and the firm helps clients in English, Spanish and Armenian. You can read more about car accident claims, see the Reseda page for the neighborhood, or look through the communities we serve across the Valley.
Key points
- On Reseda’s surface streets the LAPD West Valley station at 19020 Vanowen Street handles the report; on the 101 it is the CHP West Valley Area office in Woodland Hills.
- LAPD collision reports are requested online after 45 days or by mail from the Records and Identification Division, and the officer’s opinion on fault does not decide a civil case.
- Be seen the same day at UCLA West Valley Medical Center, Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana, Northridge Hospital or an urgent care, and report every symptom.
- File the DMV SR-1 within 10 days, report to your own insurer, and decline a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company.
- Claims involving Metro, the City of Los Angeles or another public entity require a written claim within six months under Government Code 911.2.
- The general deadline to file a lawsuit is two years under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get an LAPD collision report in Reseda?
The LAPD asks you to allow at least 45 days from the date of the collision before requesting the report online, and mail requests take their own time. A lawyer can request the report for you and follow up with the Valley Traffic Division if it is delayed.
What if the police never came to the scene?
Officers are not always dispatched to crashes that look like property damage only. You can still make a report at the West Valley station on Vanowen Street afterward, and the SR-1 requirement applies either way. Your photographs, the other driver’s insurance information and witness names become the record.
The other driver only had minimum coverage. What happens?
California’s minimum liability limits are $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident under Vehicle Code 16056, which a hospital visit and follow-up care can pass quickly. Your own underinsured motorist coverage is usually the next place to look, and that claim has its own notice requirements, so check your policy early.
Should you go to the emergency room or an urgent care?
Go to the emergency room for a blow to the head, chest or abdominal pain, numbness, or bleeding that will not stop. For soreness, sprains and minor cuts, an urgent care creates the same-day record. When in doubt, choose the emergency room.
If you were hurt in a crash in Reseda or anywhere in the San Fernando Valley, we are glad to talk it through, whether or not you hire anyone. Call Manoukian Law Firm at (818) 818-5031 or reach us through the contact page. Consultations are free and there is no fee unless we recover for you.
