What to do after a car accident in Texas

A crash on a Texas road is not a rare event. In 2024, 251,977 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes across the state, and someone was killed roughly every two hours.¹ What you do in the hours and days after a wreck often decides whether you can recover for those injuries, and Texas has its own rules that shape the outcome.

This guide sticks to what is true in Texas: the exact rules, the numbers, and the deadlines that can end a claim before it starts. The general playbook for any crash lives on the national hub. The specifics below are Texas.

What the law requires at the scene

Texas law requires you to stop. A driver involved in a crash must stop, return to the scene, give their name, address, vehicle registration, and insurance information to the others involved, and render reasonable aid to anyone hurt.² Leaving the scene of a crash that injured someone is a felony in Texas.²

Call the police. When a crash causes injury, death, or property damage that looks like $1,000 or more, the investigating officer has to file a written crash report (form CR-3) with the Texas Department of Transportation within ten days.² That report is the official record of what happened, and it becomes the backbone of any insurance claim. You can obtain a copy later through TxDOT's Crash Records Information System.³ For how to get yours, see our Texas crash reports page.

Photograph everything before the cars move: final positions, damage, skid marks, the other plates, and the road itself. Collect names and numbers from witnesses. If you feel any pain, get examined the same day. A gap in treatment is the first thing an adjuster uses to argue you were not really hurt.

How fault works in Texas

Texas is an at-fault state, so the driver who caused the crash pays for the harm, usually through their liability insurer.⁴ Fault is rarely all or nothing. Texas uses proportionate responsibility, and the exact percentage matters here: a person who is more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing.⁵ At 50 percent or less you can still recover, but your damages are cut by your share of the blame. If a jury values your losses at $100,000 and finds you 20 percent responsible, you collect $80,000.⁵

That 51 percent bar is why insurers work so hard to shift blame onto you. It is the line between a full claim and no claim at all.

The insurance you are actually dealing with

Every Texas driver is supposed to carry at least 30/60/25 coverage: $30,000 for bodily injury per person, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage.⁶ Those minimums are low, and serious crashes often run past $30,000 in medical bills alone.

Two coverages can fill that gap, and Texas treats both as opt-out rather than optional. Insurers must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM) in every auto liability policy unless you reject it in writing.⁷ UM/UIM pays when the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little. Personal injury protection (PIP) works the same way. It is built into your policy by default, and you have to decline it in writing to take it out.⁸ Texas only requires insurers to offer up to $2,500 per person in PIP benefits, though you can buy more.⁸ PIP covers your medical bills and part of your lost wages no matter who caused the crash, and Texas sets no treatment deadline for using it. Pull out your own declarations page. Many people carry UM/UIM and PIP without realizing it.

The two-year deadline

This is the number that ends the most Texas claims. You have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003.⁹ The same two-year limit covers property damage to your vehicle.⁹ Negotiating with an insurer does not pause that clock. Once two years pass without a filed suit or a signed settlement, a court will almost certainly dismiss the case, and adjusters know it, which is why offers tend to shrink as the deadline gets close.

Distracted and drunk drivers

Texas banned texting behind the wheel statewide in 2017. A driver may not read, write, or send an electronic message while the vehicle is moving, and an officer can stop someone for that alone.¹⁰ Distracted driving killed 380 people on Texas roads in 2024.¹ If the driver who hit you was texting, that violation is strong evidence of negligence.

Drunk driving opens more doors. Crashes involving alcohol killed 1,053 people in Texas in 2024.¹ Beyond the at-fault driver, the Texas Dram Shop Act can hold a bar or store liable when it served alcohol to someone already obviously intoxicated to the point of clear danger and that intoxication caused the crash.¹¹ Texas caps exemplary (punitive) damages at the greater of $200,000, or two times economic damages plus noneconomic damages up to $750,000.¹² That cap disappears when the driver's conduct is a felony such as intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter, so a drunk-driving case can reach further than an ordinary one.¹²

Your vehicle and its lost value

Property damage is a separate claim from your injuries. Even after a quality repair, a car that was wrecked is usually worth less on resale than one that never was, and you can pursue that difference. We cover how it is calculated and claimed on our Texas diminished value page.

When to bring in a lawyer

Minor fender-benders with clear fault and no injuries often settle fine on your own. It is worth talking to an attorney when there are real injuries, disputed fault, a commercial truck, or an offer that feels low. Texas injury lawyers generally work on contingency, so they are paid only if you recover. To compare attorneys who handle Texas crash cases, start with our legal directory.

One Texas number is worth sitting with. The state has not gone a single day without a traffic death since November 7, 2000.¹³ Our own data shows the same pressure locally: Austin alone recorded 11,937 crashes in 2025, and 902 in May 2026.¹⁴¹⁵ The law treats every one of these as serious. So should you.

This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice. For guidance on your own situation, talk to a licensed Texas attorney.

Sources

1. Texas Department of Transportation, 2024 Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts. https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/division/trf/crash-records/2024/01.pdf

2. Tex. Transp. Code ch. 550 (duties following an accident; officer crash report), Sections 550.021, 550.023, and 550.062. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.550.htm

3. TxDOT Crash Records Information System (CRIS). https://cris.dot.state.tx.us/public/Purchase/

4. Texas Department of Insurance, Auto insurance guide (Consumer Bulletin CB-020). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb020.html

5. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 33.001 (proportionate responsibility). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.33.htm

6. Tex. Transp. Code Section 601.072 (minimum coverage amounts). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm

7. Tex. Ins. Code Section 1952.101 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage required). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

8. Tex. Ins. Code Sections 1952.152 and 1952.153 (personal injury protection; $2,500 maximum required). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/IN/htm/IN.1952.htm

9. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 16.003 (two-year limitations period). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.16.htm

10. Tex. Transp. Code Section 545.4251 (use of wireless communication device for electronic messaging). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.545.htm

11. Tex. Alco. Bev. Code Section 2.02 (Dram Shop Act). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/AL/htm/AL.2.htm

12. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Section 41.008 (limitation on exemplary damages). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CP/htm/CP.41.htm

13. TxDOT, 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

14. thatcarhitme.com, Austin, TX Crash Report, 2025. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/texas/austin/2025-annual-report

15. thatcarhitme.com, Austin, TX Crash Report, May 2026. https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/texas/austin/may-2026-report