If you were just in a crash somewhere in Austin, the next few days matter. This page pulls together the local numbers, the roads where wrecks actually happen, and the Texas rules that decide what you can recover. All of it comes from government records and official reports, so you are working from facts instead of guesswork.
What Austin's crash numbers actually say
In 2024, the Texas Department of Transportation recorded 10,791 reportable crashes inside Austin city limits, including 91 fatal crashes that killed 98 people.1 The city's own Vision Zero program, run by Austin Transportation and Public Works, counted 99 traffic deaths and 301 serious injuries the following year, in 2025.2
There is some genuinely good news in those figures. Deaths and serious injuries combined dropped 22% from 2024 to 2025, and the rate fell to 37.9 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents, down from 64.7 in 2022.2 Pedestrian deaths fell from 39 in 2024 to 30 in 2025.2 The progress starts from a bad baseline, though. In 2022, 117 people died and 540 were seriously hurt on Austin streets.2
One number is worth sitting with. Men account for 70.5% of everyone killed or seriously injured on Austin roads.2
Where the crashes cluster
Austin's crashes are not spread evenly across the map. The city tracks a High-Injury Network, and it is small: 8% of the street network carries nearly 60% of all serious injury and fatal crashes for every mode of travel.3 Roughly 65% to 75% of the city's traffic deaths happen on roads the state owns, which tend to be the high-speed corridors that never fully slow down.2
You can see the pattern in where people died in 2025. Vision Zero's fatal-crash log names locations like South First Street at West Slaughter Lane, South US Highway 183, West Cesar Chavez Street at Walter Seaholm Drive, North MoPac Expressway, and Guadalupe Street at Denson Drive.4 West Slaughter Lane shows up more than once. These are ordinary intersections and arterials that thousands of people use every day, not obscure back roads.
The I-35 construction problem
No corridor in Austin carries more of this weight than Interstate 35. On the North Austin stretch between Wells Branch Parkway and Tech Ridge Boulevard alone, Austin Police Department data shows 10 fatal crashes since 2022, with 14 people killed.5
Five of those deaths came in a single wreck. Just after 11 p.m. on March 13, 2025, an intoxicated commercial truck driver hauling an Amazon load hit stopped traffic on I-35 north of Parmer Lane, where three main lanes had been squeezed down to one for repaving.6 A baby and a child were among the dead. The National Transportation Safety Board opened a federal investigation into work-zone safety and the driver's qualifications.6
That construction is part of the I-35 Capital Express program, the largest highway rebuild in Austin history. The central segment alone is a $5.6 billion project running from US 290 East to SH 71 (Ben White Boulevard). It adds non-tolled managed lanes and lowers the main lanes between Airport Boulevard and Lady Bird Lake, with the old upper decks coming down.7 TxDOT broke ground on October 31, 2024, and work along the corridor is scheduled to run into 2033.7 For most of a decade, Austin drivers will be sharing I-35 with shifting lanes and narrowed shoulders.
The statewide backdrop explains why this keeps happening. The last day without a single traffic death anywhere in Texas was November 7, 2000. More than 87,000 people have died on Texas roads since, and in 2024 the state averaged about 10 deaths a day.8
What to do after a crash in Austin
Texas law treats a serious wreck as a reportable event. A police officer who investigates a crash involving injury, death, or at least $1,000 in property damage has to file a Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report, known as the CR-3, with TxDOT.9 That report feeds the Crash Records Information System, or CRIS, the state's central crash database.9
Get your own copy. Once the report is processed, anyone involved can buy it through TxDOT's online purchase system for $6, or $8 for a certified copy if you need one for a claim or a lawsuit.9 The CR-3 holds the officer's diagram, the road and weather conditions, and the fault findings, and it is often the single most useful document you will have.
Before you leave the scene, exchange information with the other driver, photograph the vehicles and the roadway, and see a doctor even if you feel fine. Adrenaline hides injuries for hours.
Texas rules that shape your claim
Texas is an at-fault state, so the driver responsible for a crash and their insurer pay for the harm. Every driver is supposed to carry at least what the state calls 30/60/25 coverage: $30,000 for injuries to one person, $60,000 total per crash, and $25,000 for property damage.10 That floor is set under the Transportation Code, and it is often far less than a single hospital stay costs.11
Watch the clock. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003, you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit.12 Miss that window and a court will almost always dismiss the case, no matter how strong it is. Insurance notice deadlines can be much shorter, so it pays to act early.
If the other driver was uninsured, or if a state road defect or an I-35 work zone played a part, a claim can get complicated quickly. That is where local knowledge helps. You can find an attorney through the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Texas Department of Transportation, "Crashes and Injuries, Cities and Towns, 2024" (Austin row). https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/division/trf/crash-records/2024/14.pdf
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Austin Transportation and Public Works, "Severe crashes show downward trend in 2025," Mobility Matters blog (Feb. 18, 2026). https://www.austintexas.gov/blog/severe-crashes-show-downward-trend-2025
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City of Austin, Vision Zero program page (High-Injury Network and partner agencies). https://www.austintexas.gov/department/vision-zero
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Vision Zero ATX, 2025 fatal crash log. https://www.visionzeroatx.org/2025-fatalities/
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KXAN, "Stretch of I-35 in Thursday night's crash has seen 14 traffic fatalities since 2022" (Austin Police Department data). https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/stretch-of-i-35-in-thursday-nights-crash-has-seen-14-traffic-fatalities-since-2022/
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KUT, "NTSB investigating I-35 construction zone safety after crash" (March 18, 2025). https://www.kut.org/transportation/2025-03-18/austin-tx-i-35-deadly-crash-construction-zone-federal-investigation-safety
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Texas Department of Transportation, "TxDOT breaks ground on transformational I-35 Capital Express Central project." https://www.txdot.gov/about/newsroom/local/austin/txdot-breaks-ground-on-transformational-i35-capital-express-central-project.html
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Texas Department of Transportation, "TxDOT partners with DPS to help end the streak of daily deaths on Texas roadways." https://www.txdot.gov/about/newsroom/statewide/2024/txdot-partners-with-dps-to-help-end-the-streak-of-daily-deaths-on-texas-roadways.html
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Texas Department of Transportation, "Crash reports and records" (CR-3 form, CRIS, report fees). https://www.txdot.gov/data-maps/crash-reports-records.html
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Texas Department of Insurance, "Auto insurance guide" (30/60/25 minimum liability limits). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html
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Texas Transportation Code Section 601.072 (minimum financial responsibility amounts). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm
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Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003 (two-year limitations period). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.16.htm