Mendota Personal Injury Attorney

Mendota at a glance

• Derrick at Lozano: severity 99.0
• Oller and Seventh: 24 crashes
• Crashes after dark: 32%

A short stretch of Derrick Avenue in Mendota, the part of Highway 33 at Lozano Street, earned a severity score of 99.0 in the Fresno Council of Governments’ 2021 Multi-jurisdictional Local Road Safety Plan, the highest score for any location in the small cities that plan studied (Fresno COG LRSP). If you were hurt on Derrick, Oller or a nearby highway, the first 72 hours decide much of what a Mendota personal injury attorney can later prove, and this page lays those hours out in order.

Mendota’s 12,778 residents, as the Census Bureau estimated them in July 2025 (Census), are served by a city police department on local streets. Two state routes, 33 and 180, cross the town (Wikipedia); crashes on them outside the city line, and on the county roads around Mendota, go to the Highway Patrol’s Area 435, which names Mendota in its service area (CHP).

A timeline for Derrick and Oller crashes

Hour zero to day three

Week one through year two

Community Regional Medical Center is the only Level I trauma center in Fresno County on the state’s August 2025 list (EMSA), so a serious Mendota injury usually means a long transfer east, with records and bills in more than one place.

Derrick Avenue, which is Highway 33

The plan treats Derrick Avenue as State Route 33, and it holds several of Mendota’s most serious locations from 2015 to 2019:

• Derrick at Lozano Street, rank 1, severity 99.0: 4 crashes, 1 fatal and 2 severe
• Derrick at Naples Street, rank 3, the one Mendota corner with a regional concept design (Fresno COG RSP)
• Derrick at Seventh Street, rank 4
• Oller, Derrick and McCabe, rank 5: 12 crashes, 1 fatal
• Derrick at Tule Street, rank 7

Because Derrick is a state route, a crash in which a signal, the lane layout or the condition of the pavement played a part points to a claim against the State, filed in writing within six months. That deadline arrives quickly while someone is still in treatment, which is why it appears in the timeline above rather than at the bottom of a list.

Oller Street after dark

Crash counts on Oller

Oller Street carries Mendota’s heaviest crash traffic. Seventh and Oller logged 24 crashes in the five-year window, and the signal at Ninth and Oller 22; Fifth and Oller ranked 2nd on the severity list after a fatal crash. One of the fatal crashes at Oller and Seventh happened at night, and across the whole city, 32% of reported crashes occurred in darkness on streets with lights (Fresno COG LRSP).

Pedestrian deaths and injuries

People on foot fare worst in that setting. Of 13 pedestrian crashes in Mendota during the plan’s window, two were fatal and one severe, and pedestrians turn up in the most serious crashes far more often than their share of all crashes would suggest. State figures for 2023 list 2 pedestrian victims, one of them under 15, which ranked 19th among 103 California cities of similar size for child pedestrians (OTS).

Watch out: In a night crash on Oller, the driver’s insurer will argue that the pedestrian could not be seen. Daylight and nighttime photos of the same spot, taken from the driver’s line of approach, are the most direct answer.

Our pedestrian accident page explains how fault is shared when a walker and a driver both bear some responsibility; in California, a share of blame reduces an award by that percentage rather than eliminating it (CACI 405).

The 2022 head-on at Bass Avenue

Around 3 a.m. on October 3, 2022, a suspected drunk driver drifted across Highway 33 near Bass Avenue and hit an oncoming car head-on, killing the other driver, a Mendota resident, and CHP officers took the suspect into custody on a DUI charge (ABC30).

A Bass Avenue family in that position can open the wrongful death claim right away; nothing in it depends on how the DUI prosecution ends. It is pursued against the impaired driver’s liability coverage first, and when that policy is too small, against the underinsured motorist coverage on the family’s own cars. On the enforcement side, 43 Mendota DUI bookings in 2023 earned the department 72nd place on an OTS list that starts with the city making the fewest arrests (OTS), so a high place there signals busy officers rather than more crashes.

Bass Avenue appears in the safety plan too. The Helm Canal Avenue stretch of Bass ranked 8th with one severe and two other injury crashes, and Dos Palos Road at Belmont and Bass logged 14 to 15 crashes at each of two ranked locations.

Produce trucks and the federal prison

Known as the Cantaloupe Center of the World, Mendota depends on produce: Stamoules Produce, Oro Loma Ranch, Ruby Fresh and Cardella Ranch are among its major employers (Wikipedia). Produce hauling is part of everyday traffic here, and a collision with a produce truck brings a commercial policy and company records into the claim, as our truck accident page explains. FCI Mendota, a federal prison with a 1,152-bed medium-security facility and a 128-bed camp, opened in 2012 about a mile south of downtown.

Representing Mendota’s fields, packing sheds and highways

Call Jacob represents people from every part of Mendota’s working life: cantaloupe and packing-house crews, FCI Mendota staff, families along Oller Street and drivers passing through on Highways 33 and 180. We handle a Mendota case by first confirming whether Mendota police or Area 435 wrote the report, then checking the crash site against the plan’s Derrick and Oller rankings and preserving any video before it is recorded over.

Car and auto accident claims from the Oller and Derrick intersections, pedestrian and bicycle injuries, produce-truck crashes, DUI head-ons and wrongful death claims make up most of that work. Not every Mendota case begins on the road; we also take dog bites and slip-and-fall injuries in local stores.

No retainer is asked of Mendota clients: our fee is a share of what we recover, so if we do not win, you pay nothing, and the first meeting can be at your kitchen table off Derrick Avenue.

Three ways to reach us:

• by phone at (888) 952-2952
• through the online case evaluator
• in Spanish at calljacob.com/es

Lozano, Bass and packing-shed questions

Does the Derrick Avenue ranking prove the State was at fault?

No. It shows the location had a serious crash history from 2015 to 2019. Whether the Lozano block’s design actually caused your crash has to be shown with evidence from your own collision: skid marks, signal timing and witness accounts.

My brother works at a packing shed and was hit on the way home. Is this a workers’ comp case?

Most often it is an ordinary injury claim, because the trip home from a packing shed is a commute; the picture changes if the employer supplied the vehicle or the drive was part of the work. The line between comp and a regular claim is drawn on our workers’ compensation page.

Which agency covers Highway 180 near the wildlife area entrance?

Generally the CHP Fresno Area. The Mendota Wildlife Area entrance sits on the south side of Highway 180, about a mile southeast of downtown (Wikipedia).

Would a Mendota lawsuit be tried in Fresno?

Yes, if it goes that far. It would be heard at the Fresno County Superior Court’s civil courthouse, 1130 O Street in downtown Fresno (Fresno Superior Court), the B.F. Sisk Courthouse; many claims settle before anyone sets foot there.

The Derrick Avenue scores, Oller Street counts, Bass Avenue facts and deadlines above are general information for Mendota readers, not legal advice.

Sources

1. LRSP Part 2 — Fresno COG
2. RSP 2021 — Fresno COG
3. City estimates — Census
4. Fresno Area 435 — CHP
5. Mendota, California — Wikipedia
6. Mendota 2023 rankings — OTS
7. Highway 33 head-on — ABC30
8. Trauma centers — EMSA
9. Court locations — Fresno Superior Court
10. Government Code §911.2 — Legislature
11. CCP §335.1 — Legislature
12. CACI 405 — Justia