PHOENIX — The crumpled cars are towed away, the glass swept up, and traffic begins moving again. But when a crash is cleared from the road, the story doesn’t end there. The true aftermath of a crash, both for vehicles and the people involved, lasts far longer.
For the cars, many end up in one of the dozens of wrecking yards across the Valley, stripped for parts and sold as scrap. For the people inside those cars, the consequences can mean life-changing injuries or even death.
At AAA Broadway Auto Parts in Phoenix, owner Tony Forti sees the reality every day.
“If you crash it or it catches on fire, more than likely it will wind up here,” Forti said, standing among rows of smashed hoods and shattered windshields.
What looks like a car graveyard is actually a business. Every bumper, alternator, or sheet of metal has value once a car can no longer drive.
“I see dollar signs,” Forti replied. “If you see money laying on the ground, you’d pick it up.”
In Arizona, there is no shortage of supply. According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, an average of 650 cars crash in the state every day. Forti says the cars serve as a reminder to him to be safe on the road.
“If your phone pings, don’t look at it until you get home or somewhere safe,” Forti said. "I know everyone is busy, but just stay focused on the road while you're driving."
The wrecking yards may find profit, but the costs to Arizona are staggering. ADOT estimates crashes cost the state more than $20 billion every year.
That total includes property damage, emergency response, medical bills, lost wages, and the ripple effects on families and communities.
“In 2024 the number of traffic fatalities decreased for the second year in a row, but those numbers are still too high,” Kelsey Mo with ADOT said.
Attorney Marc Lamber agrees. He’s a personal injury lawyer who often represents crash victims, and he says no dollar figure captures the impact crashes have on Arizonans. Last year, more than 1,000 people in Arizona left home and never came back because of fatal crashes.
Lamber says the hardest part of his job is knowing many of those deaths didn’t have to happen.
“Most of the reasons for these accidents are entirely preventable,” he said. “These accidents are caused, 90% and up, by human error.”
The leading causes of crashes in Arizona are drivers speeding, not paying attention, running red lights, and driving distracted.
“A typical text is like if you were to blindside someone, and you would have a vehicle drive across a football field, that would be the same,” Lamber said.
Seven out of ten crashes in Arizona happen in Maricopa County, and in case after case, Lamber hears the same line from clients: They never thought it could happen to them.
Lamber calls these wrecking yards a reminder that all drivers are one bad decision away from something they can’t take back.
“If people made better choices, were more thoughtful about driving before they get in the car, you’d have far less of me, the personal injury lawyer around,” he said. “And that would be a really good thing.”
More than half of Arizona’s fatal crashes involve speeding or impaired driving.