Ask anyone who commutes from Inverness, Greystone or Chelsea, and they’ll have an opinion about US-280. It’s the main artery between downtown Birmingham and the fast-growing suburbs to the southeast, and it’s been widened, re-striped and argued over for years. It carries a lot of cars through a lot of traffic lights, and it crosses several city and county lines along the way. Those lines matter when you’ve been in a wreck.
A road with many jurisdictions
From the Red Mountain Expressway, 280 heads through Birmingham and Mountain Brook, skirts Homewood, passes the Summit and the Brook Highland area, and continues into Shelby County. Depending on exactly where your crash happened, the responding agency might be Birmingham police, Mountain Brook police, Hoover police, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office or state troopers. The report will be with whoever showed up. Our crash report guide covers the main agencies, and suburban departments sell their own reports.
Where a lawsuit gets filed can also depend on location and on where the defendant lives. A crash in Jefferson County usually means a case in the Jefferson County Circuit Court. A crash past the county line may end up in Shelby County Circuit Court in Columbiana. Alabama’s venue rules have their own wrinkles, and a lawyer can tell you which court fits your facts.
The kinds of crashes 280 produces
- Rear-end crashes at signals. Lights along the busy commercial stretch change quickly and traffic bunches up behind them.
- Left-turn crashes. Drivers turning across traffic into shopping centers misjudge oncoming speed.
- Red-light crashes at the big intersections, where someone tries to beat the yellow.
- Merge and lane-drop crashes near on-ramps and where lanes end.
- Distracted driving. Long, slow commutes are when people pick up phones.
Left turns and Alabama’s fault rule
Left-turn crashes deserve a closer look. A driver turning left generally has to yield to oncoming traffic. But the turning driver’s insurer may argue the oncoming car was speeding, ran a yellow, or wasn’t paying attention. Under Alabama’s contributory negligence rule, if a jury believes the injured driver was negligent at all, an ordinary negligence claim can fail. Our fault rule guide goes through it. Video from shopping-center cameras and traffic signal timing can make a big difference, so ask about footage quickly.
Rush hour and secondary crashes
When a wreck blocks a lane at 5:30 on a weekday, traffic backs up quickly, and the next crash often happens at the tail of that line, where drivers come around a curve and find stopped cars. If you were hit in a secondary crash, the driver who hit you is usually the first person to look at, but the driver who caused the first wreck can sometimes share responsibility too.
Practical steps on a busy highway
US-280 has heavy traffic and limited shoulders in places. If your car is drivable and nobody’s seriously hurt, pull into a parking lot or side street before stopping. Call 911 and tell the dispatcher the nearest cross street or business so the right agency comes. Take photos once you’re out of traffic. Get names, numbers, plates and insurance from every driver, and ask witnesses for their phone numbers.
Medical care and bills
The 280 corridor has urgent care clinics and hospital campuses along the way, and UAB and other Birmingham hospitals are a short drive north. Wherever you go, keep everything. Alabama lets the defense tell a jury when your bills were paid by insurance, under Ala. Code § 12-21-45, so clear documentation of what you paid and what you still owe helps. Our guide to handling medical bills after an Alabama crash explains more.
Shelby County resources
If your crash happened on the Shelby County side, the case is usually filed with the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit in Columbiana. The Shelby County Circuit Clerk is Mary H. Harris. The clerk’s office is in the Shelby County Courthouse, First Floor, Room 1F, 112 North Main Street, Columbiana, AL 35051, mailing address P.O. Box 1810, Columbiana, AL 35051. The phone is (205) 669-3760. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., including the lunch hour. For Jefferson County, see our courthouse page.
A police report is not the only written report Alabama may require after a 280 wreck. Under Ala. Code § 32-7-5, the operator of a vehicle involved in a crash in this state that kills or injures someone, or that causes more than $250 in property damage to any one person, has to report the matter in writing to the director within 30 days. If the operator is physically incapable of making that report, the owner has 10 days after learning of the crash to do it. That duty is separate from getting a copy of the officer’s report, and it applies whether the crash was in Jefferson County or on the Shelby County side of 280.
The clock
Two years from the date of the crash is the general deadline to file an injury lawsuit in Alabama, under Ala. Code § 6-2-38. Settlement talks along the 280 corridor do not pause that period. If a city vehicle or city-maintained road is involved, written notice must reach the city clerk within six months. Check the deadline table.
This is general information about Alabama law, not legal advice for your case. If you want to talk with someone who handles crashes along 280, you can browse attorneys near Birmingham.