Injured by a Sideshow Driver in California: Who Pays

A car doing donuts in an intersection lost control and hit you, or hit your car while you were trying to drive around a street takeover you never asked to be part of. Now you want to know whether anyone's insurance will pay, and whether the fact that the driver was breaking the law helps or hurts you. This post walks through how sideshow injury claims work in California and where they get complicated.

Sideshows are a defined offense in California

California law treats sideshows as their own category of dangerous driving. According to the Assembly Transportation Committee's analysis of AB 2807, Vehicle Code § 23109 defines a "sideshow" as an event where two or more people block or impede traffic on a highway or in an offstreet parking facility to perform stunts, speed contests, exhibitions of speed, or reckless driving for spectators. AB 2807 added that "street takeover" means the same thing.

The same analysis reports the scale of the problem: the CHP received over 31,000 calls involving speed contests or exhibitions of speed in 2022, and 27,265 in 2023. In September 2024, the Governor signed four sideshow bills that, according to his office, expand vehicle impoundment authority, including for spectators. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted the same month on legislation aimed at people who promote, organize, participate in, or attend sideshows, ABC7 reported.

None of that pays your medical bills. But it matters for your claim, because it shapes how fault gets argued.

Who can be responsible

Most sideshow injuries fall into one of three situations:

• You were driving, walking, or biking nearby and a sideshow driver hit you or your car. You are a bystander in the plainest sense.
• You were caught inside a takeover, such as stuck at a blocked intersection, and got hit by a spinning car or by someone fleeing when police arrived.
• You were watching and a car left its circle. KTVU reported one such case on the Peninsula in 2024, where a 20-year-old suffered a broken ankle after being struck by a spinning car.

The driver who hit you is the obvious defendant. Depending on the facts, others may be worth looking at too: the owner of the car if someone else was driving it, and anyone who helped block the road. The § 23109 rules described in the committee analysis make it unlawful to aid or abet an exhibition of speed, including by placing barricades or obstructions. Whether that translates into civil responsibility in a particular case depends on the evidence, but it is a question worth asking rather than assuming the driver is the only one who mattered.

The insurance problem

Here is where sideshow claims differ from an ordinary crash. Even when the driver has a liability policy, the insurer may look for a reason not to pay.

Two arguments come up:

• The willful-act rule. California Insurance Code § 533 says an insurer "is not liable for a loss caused by the wilful act of the insured." As the Ninth Circuit explained in a 2023 decision applying California law, that exclusion is read into every policy, and a willful act includes one done intentionally with knowledge that damage is highly probable or substantially certain. Expect an insurer to argue that sideshow stunts fit that description. Reckless driving and willful injury are not automatically the same thing, and the fight over that line can decide whether a policy pays at all.
• Racing exclusions. Some auto policies exclude crashes caused by races or speed contests. According to a CLM Magazine review of the case law, courts in other states have read these exclusions differently, including whether a "prearranged" race covers a spur-of-the-moment one and when a race is considered over. The exact policy wording controls, which is why you want a copy of it.

On top of that, many sideshow drivers simply leave. A driver who flees, uses a car with no insurance, or cannot be identified leaves you with the same problem as any hit-and-run.

Your own policy may be the real source of recovery

When the at-fault driver's coverage is missing, denied, or too small, your own policy often carries the claim. Pull your declarations page and look for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and medical payments coverage. Our post on being hit by an uninsured driver explains how those coverages work and the separate deadline that applies to a claim against your own insurer.

Be careful when you report it. Your own company becomes an adversary the moment it is paying. If the adjuster asks why you were in the area, what you saw, or whether you knew a sideshow was happening, answer accurately and briefly, and read up on recorded statement traps first.

What this means in California

Being near a sideshow does not erase your claim. California follows pure comparative negligence: if you are found partly at fault, your recovery is reduced by your share of the fault, not eliminated. An insurer may argue that a spectator who stood at the edge of a burnout circle accepted some risk, and that argument can lower a claim's value. It does not automatically end it. A driver stuck in traffic at a blocked intersection is in a much stronger position than someone filming from the curb, and the facts of where you were and why matter.

The usual deadlines apply. Under CCP § 335.1, you generally have two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. If a public entity is involved, for example a city vehicle, a government claim is generally due within six months.

What to do now

Evidence from sideshows disappears fast, and much of it lives on other people's phones.

• Get medical care and keep the records. Adjusters look for gaps in treatment, so follow through on what your doctor orders.
• Report it to police and get the report number. Ask whether any vehicles were impounded or drivers arrested that night, since that can identify the car that hit you.
• Save video now. Spectators often film these events. Screenshot posts and save links before they are deleted, and note the account names.
• Note nearby cameras. Businesses, homes, and parking lots may have footage that gets recorded over if nobody asks for it.
• Notify your own insurer promptly, even if you expect the other driver's insurer to pay.
• Do not post about it yourself. Anything you write about being at or near a sideshow will be read by the adjuster.

Sideshow claims turn on identifying the driver, finding coverage, and pushing back on the argument that you were part of the problem. If you would like help sorting that out, a consultation with our firm is free and there is no fee unless there is a recovery.