By Sami Sedghani, Pharm.D., J.D. · Synergist Law, P.C. · San Rafael, California · Updated October 25, 2026
This page provides general information about California law and local procedures as they apply to injuries in San Anselmo. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case depends on its own facts. For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed California attorney.
San Anselmo is the most densely populated town in Marin County, and almost everyone driving between the Ross Valley and Highway 101 passes through it. The Hub, where Sir Francis Drake Boulevard meets Center Boulevard and Red Hill Avenue, is the Town’s busiest intersection, and the downtown stretch of San Anselmo Avenue has the Town’s highest collision rate, most of it involving bicyclists. Both show up in the County’s collision data.
I’m Sami Sedghani, a personal injury lawyer. My office is in downtown San Rafael on 4th Street, a short drive east of San Anselmo via Red Hill Avenue and 4th Street. This page covers what is specific to injury claims in San Anselmo. For the general California rules, see our car accident page.
Who takes the report: Central Marin Police Authority, or the CHP
San Anselmo is policed by the Central Marin Police Authority, a joint agency formed in 2013 by San Anselmo, Corte Madera, and Larkspur. A crash on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, San Anselmo Avenue, Red Hill Avenue, or another Town street is generally a Central Marin Police Authority report.
Not every San Anselmo address is inside the Town. Much of Sleepy Hollow, along upper Butterfield Road, is unincorporated Marin County, and collisions in unincorporated areas are generally handled by the California Highway Patrol’s Marin Area office in Corte Madera. When an officer responds, note the agency and the report number.
Getting the report
- Central Marin Police Authority: fill out the department’s request form and submit it to the Records Office at the Larkspur station, 250 Doherty Drive, in person or by mail, fax, or email. The public records page lists a $10 fee for reports, cash or check only, and says the office will contact you within 10 business days of a written request.
- CHP Marin Area: reports are requested through the CHP crash report request process, online, by mail, or in person.
- Who can get it: collision reports are released only to people with a proper interest under Vehicle Code § 20012, such as the drivers and injured people involved, a parent of an involved minor, their attorneys, and their insurers.
The Hub
The Town describes the Hub, where Sir Francis Drake Boulevard meets Center Boulevard and Red Hill Avenue, as the most congested intersection in Marin County, carrying more than 65,000 vehicles a day. After a Transportation Authority of Marin funded study, the Town installed a signal system that uses artificial intelligence to track the speed and position of vehicles and adjust the signal timing in real time. The Town’s project page reports that the system reduced peak-hour wait times by more than 30 percent, and the Town has been expanding it to the nearby Bank Street intersection.
The County’s safety plan found that rear-end collisions made up about a third of San Anselmo’s injury collisions from 2012 through 2021, compared with a quarter countywide, and that they were most prominent at the Hub and on Sir Francis Drake near the Town’s northern border. The Hub was also a hotspot for collisions in dark conditions.
A computerized signal can create evidence that a conventional one does not: timing logs, detection records, and possibly vehicle position data for the moments before a crash. These systems are not the same as video cameras, and the data kept may be limited to timing and detection logs. Whether any data exists for a particular collision, how long it is kept, and how to obtain it are questions to raise early, through a written preservation request to the Town, before routine overwriting can occur.
San Anselmo’s high-collision streets
The 2024 Marin County Local Road Safety Plan counts 126 injury collisions on San Anselmo’s arterial and collector streets from 2017 through 2021. Eight caused severe injuries and two were fatal. Unsafe speed was the primary factor in almost 32 percent, compared with 26 percent countywide. Freeway and state highway crashes are not included.
| Street segment | Injury collisions, 2017 to 2021 | Pedestrian or bicycle |
|---|---|---|
| San Anselmo Avenue, Hazel Avenue to Bolinas Avenue | 20, the most in the Town | 15 bicycle, 3 pedestrian |
| Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, San Francisco Boulevard to Cordone Drive | 14 | 1 bicycle, 1 pedestrian |
| Red Hill Avenue, Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to Forbes Avenue | 9 | 1 pedestrian |
| Butterfield Road, Woodside Drive to Fairview Court | 5 | 1 bicycle |
| Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Center Boulevard to Tunstead Avenue | 4 | 2 bicycle, 1 pedestrian |
The San Anselmo Avenue segment downtown had the Town’s highest collision rate and ranked twelfth among the 70 high-collision segments countywide. The plan’s three San Anselmo intersections are San Anselmo Avenue and Madrone Avenue, Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Saunders Avenue, and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and San Anselmo Avenue. Of the three, San Anselmo Avenue and Madrone Avenue had the highest collision rate and ranked 49th of the County’s 92 high-collision intersections. Motorcycle collisions, which tended to involve unsafe speed, occurred along Sir Francis Drake north of the Hub and along Red Hill Avenue.
Bicycle and pedestrian injuries in San Anselmo
About 25 percent of San Anselmo’s injury collisions from 2017 through 2021 involved a bicyclist, compared with 19 percent countywide. Of the 32 collisions involving bicyclists, 23 also involved a motor vehicle, and those tended to result from hazardous violations, drivers failing to yield the right of way, and improper turns. Bicycle collisions clustered downtown, especially on San Anselmo Avenue between San Rafael Avenue and Mariposa Avenue.
Pedestrians were involved in 19 percent of the Town’s fatal and severe-injury collisions from 2012 through 2021, compared with 12 percent countywide, and one of the two fatal collisions from 2017 through 2021 involved a pedestrian. The plan notes that the bus stop on Sir Francis Drake at Sunny Hills Drive, which serves the Red Hill Shopping Center, was near two pedestrian collisions.
The Town has since studied downtown safety in its Downtown Active Transportation and Circulation Study, covering San Anselmo Avenue from San Rafael Avenue to Bolinas Avenue and the surrounding blocks. For an injured rider or pedestrian, the practical points are the usual ones in California: a driver must give a bicyclist at least three feet when passing (Vehicle Code § 21760), may not open a door into traffic unless it is reasonably safe (Vehicle Code § 22517), and must yield to a pedestrian in a marked or unmarked crosswalk (Vehicle Code § 21950). California’s comparative fault rule means a person who was partly at fault can still recover, reduced by his or her share.
Source: 2024 Marin County Local Road Safety Plan, Transportation Authority of Marin and County of Marin, Chapter 15 (San Anselmo), Tables 15.2 and 15.3.
Older adults and serious injuries in San Anselmo
The County’s plan found that about 20 percent of San Anselmo’s fatal and severe-injury collisions from 2017 through 2021 involved older adults, almost double the countywide rate of 11 percent. Older adults are more likely to suffer fractures, head injuries, and complications from a crash, and their claims raise a few specific issues:
- Pre-existing conditions do not bar recovery. California law allows recovery for the worsening of an existing condition, and insurers often overstate the role of age-related changes on imaging.
- Medicare and Medi-Cal have reimbursement rights when they paid crash-related medical bills, and those claims must be resolved as part of any settlement.
- Lost earnings may be smaller for a retired person, but the loss of independence, mobility, and the ability to care for a home or a spouse are real damages.
Motorcycle crashes on Sir Francis Drake and Red Hill Avenue
The plan recorded nine motorcycle collisions in San Anselmo from 2017 through 2021, five of them involving another vehicle. They tended to involve unsafe speed and occurred along Sir Francis Drake north of the Hub and along Red Hill Avenue, which feeds traffic to and from the Miracle Mile toward San Rafael.
Motorcycle claims often start with a bias against the rider. Two points help. Lane splitting is legal in California, and Vehicle Code § 21658.1 defines it and allows the CHP to publish safety guidelines. And left-turning drivers who fail to see an oncoming motorcycle are a common cause of these crashes; the plan found that right-of-way violations and improper turns were among the most common factors in San Anselmo collisions overall.
Pedestrian fault and dark conditions
Pedestrian violations caused 25 percent of the Town’s eight severe-injury collisions from 2017 through 2021. From 2012 through 2021, 38 percent of fatal and severe-injury collisions happened in dark conditions, compared with 30 percent countywide, most of them where streetlights were working. A finding that a pedestrian was partly at fault does not end the claim. California applies comparative fault, and drivers keep a duty to use due care for pedestrians in the roadway even when the pedestrian crossed outside a crosswalk (Vehicle Code § 21955).
Claims against the Town of San Anselmo
Claims for damages against the Town are made on the Town’s claim form, available on its forms and applications page. Town Hall is at 525 San Anselmo Avenue. For personal injury, a government claim is generally due within six months (Government Code § 911.2). If the injury happened in an unincorporated area such as much of Sleepy Hollow, the claim generally goes to the County of Marin, through the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors (County claims page). A claim based on a road condition also requires proof of a dangerous condition that the public entity created, or knew or should have known about in time to fix (Government Code § 835), and public entities have defenses.
E-bikes and riders under 16
San Anselmo’s ordinance limiting Class 2 (throttle) e-bikes to riders 16 and older took effect July 1, 2025, according to the County of Marin’s youth e-bike safety page. The County’s safety plan also notes that the Town adopted a policy on e-bikes and other electric mobility devices in Memorial Park and stepped up enforcement there and around town. When a minor is hurt, the two-year lawsuit deadline is generally paused until age 18 under Code of Civil Procedure § 352, but the six-month deadline for a claim against the Town or a school district is not paused the same way.
How we prepare an injury case
Unsafe speed and rear-end crashes, the two patterns that stand out in San Anselmo’s data, tend to produce disputes about the injury more than about fault. I am a former clinical pharmacist, and I review the medical record asking the questions a defense expert will ask: what the medication history shows before and after the crash, when treatment started, and whether the treating notes connect the collision to the diagnosis.
Before founding Synergist Law, I spent nine years at large law firms representing companies in complex and product liability litigation, so I know how insurers and defense teams evaluate a claim. Neither background predicts how any case will turn out. It shapes how I prepare one.
Atención en español
Sami Sedghani habla español con fluidez. Si usted resultó lesionado en San Anselmo, puede llamar al (415) 835-4448 para una consulta gratuita. En las calles del municipio, el informe lo hace la Central Marin Police Authority. En áreas no incorporadas del condado, como gran parte de Sleepy Hollow, lo hace la CHP. El plazo para presentar un reclamo contra el municipio o el condado generalmente es de seis meses. Como el plazo depende de los hechos, es mejor que un abogado con licencia en California determine el plazo que aplica en su caso, en lugar de calcularlo por su cuenta. Esta información es general y no constituye asesoría legal.
Other Marin communities: San Rafael injury claims, Novato injury claims, Corte Madera injury claims, and Kentfield injury claims.
Frequently asked questions about San Anselmo injury claims
Who responds to a car accident in San Anselmo?
On Town streets, the Central Marin Police Authority, which serves San Anselmo, Corte Madera, and Larkspur. In unincorporated areas with San Anselmo addresses, such as much of Sleepy Hollow, collisions are generally handled by the California Highway Patrol’s Marin Area office.
How do I get a Central Marin Police Authority accident report for a San Anselmo crash?
Submit the department’s report request form to the Records Office at the Larkspur station, 250 Doherty Drive, in person or by mail, fax, or email. The department lists a $10 fee, cash or check only, and contacts requesters within 10 business days. Reports are released only to people with a proper interest under Vehicle Code section 20012.
Is the Hub in San Anselmo dangerous?
The Town describes the Hub as the most congested intersection in Marin County, with more than 65,000 vehicles a day. The 2024 Marin County Local Road Safety Plan found rear-end collisions were most prominent at the Hub and on Sir Francis Drake near the Town’s northern border, and that the Hub was a hotspot for collisions in dark conditions.
Which San Anselmo street has the most crashes?
According to the 2024 Marin County Local Road Safety Plan, San Anselmo Avenue between Hazel Avenue and Bolinas Avenue had 20 injury collisions from 2017 through 2021, the most in the Town, and 15 of them involved bicyclists.
Does the AI traffic signal at the Hub record data that could help my case?
It may. The Town reports that the Hub signal system tracks the speed and position of vehicles in real time. Whether data from a particular crash exists, how long it is kept, and how to obtain it should be raised early, through a written preservation request to the Town, before routine overwriting.
Does Medicare have to be repaid from a San Anselmo injury settlement?
Generally, yes, if Medicare paid for crash-related treatment. Medicare and Medi-Cal have reimbursement rights that must be resolved as part of a settlement, and the amount can sometimes be reduced. Older adults were involved in about 20 percent of San Anselmo’s fatal and severe-injury collisions from 2017 through 2021, according to the County’s road safety plan.
What happens if the pedestrian was partly at fault?
The pedestrian can usually still recover. California applies comparative fault, so the recovery is reduced by the pedestrian’s share of responsibility, and drivers keep a duty of due care toward pedestrians in the roadway. The County found that pedestrian violations caused a quarter of San Anselmo’s eight severe-injury collisions from 2017 through 2021.
Is lane splitting legal for motorcyclists in San Anselmo?
Yes. Lane splitting is legal in California. Vehicle Code section 21658.1 defines it and allows the California Highway Patrol to publish safety guidelines. Whether a rider was splitting lanes safely can still be argued as comparative fault.
Talk to a lawyer about a San Anselmo injury
If you were seriously injured in San Anselmo, I can review the report, the insurance, and your medical records with you and identify the deadlines that apply. Call (415) 835-4448 or request a free consultation. Se habla español. Office: 1299 4th Street, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94901.
Contingency fee: no attorney’s fee unless we obtain a recovery for you. Depending on the terms of your written fee agreement, you may be responsible for case costs we advance even if there is no recovery. Your fee agreement explains this before representation begins.
Local procedures, projects, and data described here may change after the date shown above. Every case turns on its own facts, and nothing on this page predicts any outcome, timeline, or value in your matter.