Texas hit-and-run laws and what to do after a crash

Getting hit by a driver who then speeds off is its own kind of awful. You are hurt or your car is wrecked, and the one person responsible is gone. Texas treats leaving the scene as a serious crime, and the state also gives you specific ways to recover money even when the other driver is never found. Here is what the law actually says and the order to do things in.

For context on how often this happens, TxDOT recorded 4,150 traffic deaths in Texas in 2024 and 251,977 people injured, and there was not a single day all year without a death on a Texas road.¹ A share of those crashes are hit-and-runs, and the rules below are what separate a clean claim from a denied one.

What Texas law requires after a crash

Under Texas Transportation Code Section 550.021, a driver involved in a crash that injures or kills someone has to stop immediately at the scene, or as close to it as they can safely get, and stay there.² Staying put is not the end of it. Section 550.023 lists what you owe the other people involved: your name and address, your vehicle's registration number, and the name of your liability insurer, plus your driver's license if someone asks to see it. If anyone is hurt, you also have to give reasonable assistance, which can mean calling for help or arranging a ride to a doctor or hospital when it is clearly needed or the injured person asks.³

Two more duties catch people off guard. If the crash injured or killed someone, or left a vehicle too damaged to drive normally and safely, you have to report it right away to the nearest police, sheriff, or Department of Public Safety office by the quickest means you can.⁴ And if you clip a parked car with nobody in it, Texas still requires you to track down the owner or leave a written note on the vehicle with your name, address, and a short account of what happened.⁵ Driving away from a dented parked car is a hit-and-run too.

The penalties for leaving the scene

Texas grades the crime by how badly someone got hurt. What you intended does not change the charge.

If the crash killed someone and the driver left, that is a second-degree felony, which carries 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.²⁶ If someone suffered serious bodily injury, leaving is a third-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 10 years and a fine up to $10,000.²⁷ For a crash that caused an injury short of serious bodily injury, the driver faces up to five years in prison (or up to a year in county jail) and a fine up to $5,000.²

When only vehicles are damaged and nobody is hurt, the offense drops to a misdemeanor. Section 550.022 draws the line at $200. If the damage to all the vehicles totals $200 or more, it is a Class B misdemeanor; below $200, it is a Class C misdemeanor.⁸ Either way, the duty to stop and swap information is the same.

If you are the one who was hit

Call 911 first. There is a medical reason and a money reason. The money reason: your own insurer can refuse a hit-and-run claim if you never reported it to police, which the Texas Department of Insurance states plainly in its auto insurance guide.⁹ While you wait, gather what you can. Photos of the damage, the location, and any debris left behind. Whatever you remember about the other car, its plate, its color, or the direction it went. Ask nearby drivers or businesses whether a camera might have caught it. Paint transfer and a partial plate are often what let police trace a fleeing car, and that evidence fades fast.

A responding officer files a Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report (form CR-3), and that report becomes your record of what happened. You can buy a copy through TxDOT's Crash Records Information System, the statewide crash database, for $6, or $8 for a certified copy.¹⁰¹¹ People connected to the crash, including drivers, owners, and their insurers, are the ones allowed to request it under Section 550.065.¹² One change worth knowing: since September 1, 2017, drivers no longer file their own written CR-2 report with TxDOT, so do not go hunting for that form.¹⁰ You can pull your official report through our Texas crash reports page.

Getting paid when the driver is gone

This is where Texas actually helps hit-and-run victims. When the at-fault driver is never identified, your uninsured motorist (UM) coverage steps into their place, and the Department of Insurance confirms UM pays in a hit-and-run as long as you reported it to police.⁹ Texas insurers must include UM and underinsured motorist coverage in every auto policy unless you rejected it in writing on the state's form, so a lot of drivers carry it without realizing.¹³ Texas policies also come with personal injury protection (PIP) by default unless you opted out in writing, and PIP pays your medical bills and part of your lost wages regardless of who was at fault.⁹

If the driver is caught but carries only the state minimum of 30/60/25 ($30,000 per injured person, $60,000 per crash, $25,000 for property damage), those limits can run out fast on a real injury, and your underinsured motorist coverage is what fills the gap.⁹¹⁴ For the drop in your car's resale value after the repairs are done, see our Texas diminished value guide.

There is also a program many people miss. Because a hit-and-run that injures someone is a crime and not just an accident, the Texas Crime Victims' Compensation Program run by the Attorney General can reimburse medical bills, counseling, and lost wages for the victim.¹⁵ You generally have to report the crime to law enforcement and file the application within three years.¹⁵

If a fleeing driver turns out to have been drunk, they face separate charges such as intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter, and Texas's usual cap on punitive damages does not apply when the conduct is a felony.¹⁶

Deadlines you cannot miss

For a civil injury or property-damage claim, Texas gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003(a).¹⁷ Miss it and the court will almost certainly throw the case out, no matter how strong it was.

Texas also uses a modified comparative fault rule. You can recover damages as long as you were not more than 50 percent responsible, and your recovery is cut by your own share of the blame.¹⁸ In a hit-and-run that usually cuts toward the victim, since a driver who fled is hard to paint as the careful one. If you are weighing whether to bring a claim, our legal directory can connect you with a Texas attorney.

The order that protects you is simple: stop or call police, get medical care, report the crash, document everything, and tell your own insurer about UM and PIP before the fine print bites. Do those things and you keep every option Texas gives you.

This is general information about Texas law, not legal advice for your specific situation.

Sources

Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts, Calendar Year 2024. https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/division/trf/crash-records/2024/01.pdf
Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 550.021 (Collision Involving Personal Injury or Death). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm
Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 550.023 (Duty to Give Information and Render Aid). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm
Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 550.026 (Immediate Report of Accident). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm
Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 550.024 (Duty on Striking Unattended Vehicle). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm
Tex. Penal Code Sec. 12.33 (Second Degree Felony Punishment). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm
Tex. Penal Code Sec. 12.34 (Third Degree Felony Punishment). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm
Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 550.022 (Collision Involving Damage to Vehicle). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm
Texas Department of Insurance, Auto Insurance Guide (Consumer Bulletin CB-020). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html
Texas Department of Transportation, Crash Reports and Records (CR-3, CRIS, and the repeal of the CR-2 driver report). https://www.txdot.gov/data-maps/crash-reports-records.html
TxDOT Crash Records Information System (CRIS) public purchase portal. https://cris.dot.state.tx.us/public/Purchase/
Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 550.065 (Release of Accident Report Information). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm
Tex. Ins. Code Sec. 1952.101, 1952.104 (Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm
Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 601.072 (Minimum Financial Responsibility Amounts). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm
Office of the Texas Attorney General, Crime Victims' Compensation Program. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/crime-victims/crime-victims-compensation-program
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Sec. 41.008 (Limitation on Exemplary Damages). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.41.htm
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Sec. 16.003(a) (Two-Year Limitations Period). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.16.htm
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Sec. 33.001 (Proportionate Responsibility). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.33.htm

Hit-and-run laws and what to do in Texas