Car Accident Laws in Arkansas (2026)

Arkansas's highway accident landscape is shaped by the state's position as a major freight corridor state: Interstate 40 traverses the state east-to-west for approximately 284 miles from the Tennessee border at West Memphis to the Oklahoma border near Fort Smith, carrying a relentless volume of long-haul commercial traffic between the Midwest and the Southeast that makes Arkansas one of the top states in the nation for truck-involved fatal accidents per vehicle mile traveled. The Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers/Bentonville corridor in northwest Arkansas — home to Walmart's global headquarters, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt Transport, and dozens of suppliers and logistics companies drawn to the region by the Walmart supply chain effect — has experienced dramatic population growth that has strained the road infrastructure of a region that 30 years ago was largely rural. I-49 (US 71 through the Ozarks) carries NW Arkansas commuter and commercial traffic in steep terrain that generates accident patterns distinct from the flat Delta terrain of the eastern Arkansas Delta counties where I-55 runs along the Mississippi River corridor.

Arkansas tort law imposes a modified comparative fault rule under Arkansas Code Annotated § 16-64-122, which bars recovery when the plaintiff's fault is of a degree "equal to or greater than" the defendant's fault — interpreted by Arkansas courts as a 50% threshold (sometimes called the "49% bar"). A plaintiff who is found 50% or more at fault for the accident cannot recover any damages; a plaintiff found 49% or less at fault recovers reduced by their own percentage. The Arkansas comparative fault statute also allows allocation of fault to nonparties — a defendant can assert that a nonparty who is not a defendant (a phantom driver, a road contractor, a municipality) shares fault, which reduces the defendant's proportionate liability. Arkansas's statute of limitations for personal injury automobile accident claims is 3 years under ACA § 16-56-105 — longer than Nevada's 2-year period or Iowa's 2-year period, and comparable to Connecticut and Washington state.