Texas Auto Accident Law
A Texas collision rearranges your life in about four seconds. What follows takes far longer. An adjuster who works for the other driver calls within a day or two, medical bills arrive before anyone has admitted fault, and a filing deadline starts running that most people never hear about until it has passed.
This page covers how Texas law handles motor vehicle collisions. It explains who pays, how fault gets divided, which insurance policies come into play, and how the major collision claim types differ from one another.
The Texas Department of Transportation recorded 538,860 reportable crashes in 2025, roughly one every 59 seconds. Those crashes killed 3,769 people and injured 244,534 more. Texas went the entire year without a single day free of a traffic death.
This website provides general information about Texas auto accident law and does not substitute for advice from a lawyer about your own case.
CALL 866-474-1477 or CLICK HERE for a free case review by Texas auto accident lawyer Jason S. Coomer.
How Texas Law Decides Who Pays
Texas puts the cost of a collision on the driver who caused it. Every other question follows from that one. Before an insurance company pays a dollar, someone has to establish who was responsible and by what percentage, and that number changes what you recover.
- Texas is an at-fault state, so the negligent driver's liability coverage pays first and your own coverage fills the gaps.
- A claimant found more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing at all.
- Most collision suits have to be on file within two years, and claims against a city or county come with far shorter notice deadlines.
- The peace officer's crash report and the physical evidence usually set the opening argument over those fault percentages.
- Since 2015, the defense can tell a Texas jury whether you were wearing your seat belt.
Fault also determines which of the collision claim types below applies to you, because a trucking company, a bar that overserved a driver, and a manufacturer that built a defective vehicle each answer under a different set of rules.
Texas Is an At-Fault State
Texas does not use a no-fault system. In the dozen or so no-fault states, your own insurer pays your medical bills regardless of who caused the crash, and your right to sue the other driver is limited. Texas works the opposite way. The driver who caused the collision owes the damages, and their liability insurer pays on their behalf.
Texas Transportation Code Chapter 601 requires every driver to prove financial responsibility, which nearly everyone satisfies by buying liability insurance. The Texas Department of Insurance sets the floor at $30,000 for injuries to one person, $60,000 total per crash, and $25,000 for property damage. Those three numbers get written as 30/60/25.
Confusion on this point usually comes from Personal Injury Protection. Every Texas auto policy includes PIP unless the policyholder rejects it in writing, and PIP pays your own medical bills and part of your lost wages without regard to fault. That single no-fault feature sits inside an otherwise at-fault system, and it does not limit your right to pursue the driver who hit you.
The 51 Percent Bar on Recovery
Texas divides responsibility by percentage under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33. A jury assigns a share of the blame to every party, and Section 33.001 states the rule plainly. A claimant "may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent."
Below that line, your recovery drops by your own share. A jury that values your case at $200,000 and puts 20 percent of the blame on you returns $160,000. The same jury that puts 51 percent on you returns nothing, which is why the defense in a Texas collision case spends so much energy moving your number from 40 to 51.
This matters most in the crashes where blame looks split. Both drivers claim a green light. One driver sped while the other turned across traffic. A lane change and a following distance combine into a single wreck. Texas juries in those cases are not choosing a villain, they are dividing a hundred points, and a few of those points can be worth six figures.
Two Years to File, and When the Clock Starts
Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003(a) gives you two years from the day the cause of action accrues to file a personal injury suit. For most collisions, that means two years from the date of the crash. Section 16.003(b) sets the same two years for a death claim, but starts the clock on the date the injured person died rather than the date of the wreck.
Three situations shorten or shift that deadline, and each one has cost Texans valid claims.
- A claim against a city, county, transit authority, or state agency falls under the Texas Tort Claims Act, which requires formal notice within six months. Many Texas cities cut that further by charter, some to as little as 45 days. A collision with a city truck or a transit bus can expire long before the two-year mark.
- A child's claim is generally tolled until the child turns 18, so a minor injured in a crash usually has until age 20 to file.
- Settling with one driver does not extend your time against anyone else. The deadline runs against the trucking company, the bar, and the manufacturer on its own schedule.
Adjusters know these dates better than claimants do. Friendly, unhurried negotiation that stretches across twenty-three months is not always a coincidence.
Reporting the Crash and the CR-3
Texas Transportation Code Section 550.026 requires a driver to report a crash immediately, by the quickest means of communication, when it injures or kills someone or damages a vehicle badly enough that no one can drive it away safely. In a city you call the local police, and outside one you call the sheriff or the nearest Department of Public Safety office. Section 550.022 makes failure to report a Class C misdemeanor below $200 in damage and a Class B misdemeanor at $200 or more.
The investigating officer files a Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report, the CR-3. That form drives the state's crash database and it is usually the first document an adjuster reads. It records the diagram, the vehicle positions, the statements taken at the scene, and the officer's opinion on contributing factors.
That opinion is not a verdict. The officer arrived after the collision, took statements from people who had just been through one, and reached a conclusion in minutes. Texas courts have long treated an officer's fault conclusion as inadmissible hearsay in many settings. A CR-3 that names you as a contributing factor hurts your negotiating position without deciding your case.
What a Seat Belt Has to Do With Your Recovery
For nearly forty years, Texas law kept seat belt evidence away from juries under Carnation Co. v. Wong. The Texas Supreme Court ended that in 2015 in Nabors Well Services, Ltd. v. Romero, holding that relevant evidence of seat belt use or nonuse is admissible to apportion responsibility.
So a defense lawyer can now argue that an unbelted plaintiff caused part of their own injuries, and the jury can put a percentage on it. Given the 51 percent bar, that argument has real teeth. TxDOT reported that among people killed in vehicles during 2025 where restraint use was known, 45.94 percent were not wearing a belt.
The defense still has to prove the connection with expert testimony rather than assertion. A biomechanical expert has to link the nonuse to the specific injuries, and that proof often fails in crashes severe enough that a belt would have changed little.
Contact the Law Offices of Jason S. Coomer
Jason Coomer, a Texas auto accident attorney, and his team represent drivers, passengers, and families in collision claims against insurance companies, trucking companies, and vehicle manufacturers.
Get In TouchTypes of Texas Vehicle Collision Claims
Two crashes that look identical from the roadside can be entirely different lawsuits. What separates them is who else you can hold responsible beyond the driver, and which set of records proves it. A rear-end collision between two commuters involves one policy. The same impact from an 18-wheeler brings in a motor carrier, a federal safety regime, and an insurer with a rapid response team already on the way.
Car and Passenger Vehicle Collisions
Most Texas claims start here. Two passenger vehicles, one negligent driver, and a liability policy that may or may not cover the harm done. The fight is usually about the fault percentages and about whether the injuries justify the treatment, and both of those get decided on records rather than sympathy.
These cases turn on scene evidence gathered early. Read more about how a Texas car wreck lawyer builds a passenger vehicle collision claim.
Commercial Truck and 18-Wheeler Crashes
A loaded tractor-trailer runs twenty to thirty times the weight of a car, and the injuries reflect it. Beyond the driver, you may be able to reach the motor carrier for negligent hiring, training, or supervision, the broker who arranged the load, and the company that loaded the trailer.
Federal rules give these cases evidence that ordinary collisions lack. Hours of service logs, electronic logging device data, drug and alcohol testing records, and maintenance files all exist, and carriers are only required to retain some of them for a limited period. A preservation letter sent in the first weeks matters more here than anywhere else. See Texas truck wreck lawsuits and Texas truck accident claims.
Drunk and Impaired Driver Crashes
Alcohol was involved in the deaths of 906 people on Texas roads in 2025, about a quarter of all traffic fatalities. Beyond the driver, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code Section 2.02 can reach the bar or restaurant that served someone who was already, in the statute's words, "obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others."
Those dram shop claims depend on receipts, register data, and video that businesses overwrite within days. Read more about representing people hurt by impaired drivers and about DWI crash claims in Austin.
Motorcycle Crashes
Texas lost 559 motorcyclists in 2025, and 31 percent of them were not wearing helmets. Riders face a bias that shows up in adjuster files and jury rooms alike, so these claims often need reconstruction work to prove what a driver failed to see and when.
Texas allows riders 21 and over to go without a helmet under conditions set by state law, and helmet nonuse invites the same apportionment argument that seat belt evidence now does. See Austin motorcycle accident claims and fatal Texas motorcycle crash lawsuits.
Bus, Van, and Shuttle Crashes
One bus or van crash can injure fifteen people at once, and a single policy then has to stretch across every claim. Who the defendant is changes the rules completely. A school district or transit authority brings the Tort Claims Act and its six-month notice window, while a charter operator or church van answers under ordinary negligence.
Fifteen-passenger vans carry a documented rollover history that the manufacturer has known about for decades. See Texas bus accident claims, 15-passenger van crash lawsuits, and ambulance collision claims.
Rideshare and Taxi Collisions
Coverage in an Uber or Lyft crash depends on what the app was doing at the moment of impact. A driver logged off carries only personal insurance. A driver waiting for a request sits under limited contingent coverage. A driver en route to a passenger or carrying one falls under the company's commercial policy, which runs far higher than the Texas minimum.
Establishing app status takes trip records that the platform holds. See Texas Uber crash lawsuits, Austin rideshare claims, and taxi collision claims.
Rollover, Ejection, and Roof Crush
Rollovers kill out of proportion to how often they happen. Single-vehicle run-off-road crashes alone accounted for 1,201 deaths in Texas during 2025, 31.87 percent of all traffic deaths that year.
These cases frequently involve two defendants. The driver whose negligence started the sequence, and the manufacturer whose roof crushed, whose door latch failed, or whose vehicle rolled when it should not have. See Texas fatal rollover crash lawsuits and rollover ejection claims.
Defective Vehicles, Tires, and Seat Belts
Crashworthiness asks a different question than negligence does. Not who caused the collision, but whether the vehicle made the injuries worse than they should have been. A seat belt that unlatched, an airbag that failed to deploy, a seat back that collapsed, or a tire that shed its tread at highway speed can support a claim against the manufacturer even where another driver caused the wreck.
These claims run on engineering and testing history rather than eyewitness accounts. See crashworthiness lawsuits, defective automobile claims, defective seat belt cases, and tire tread separation lawsuits.
Post-Collision Fires
A survivable crash becomes a fatal one when the vehicle burns. Fuel system placement, fuel line routing, and battery pack design all determine whether an impact turns into a fire, and manufacturers have faced verdicts over each.
Fire cases live and die on the wreckage. Insurers salvage and crush vehicles within weeks, and once the vehicle is gone the origin question cannot be answered. See Texas car fire lawsuits and defective vehicle design fire claims.
Self-Driving Vehicle Collisions
Texas roads now carry autonomous test fleets and driver-assistance systems that many owners trust further than the manual asks them to. When one of those vehicles causes a crash, the question moves from driver error toward software, sensors, and what the company knew about how its system performs.
These vehicles record far more data than a conventional car does, which cuts both ways and makes early preservation essential. See self-driving car accident claims and self-driving truck wreck lawsuits.
Fatal Crashes and Wrongful Death
When a collision kills someone, Texas splits the case in two. A wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents for their own losses. A survival claim belongs to the estate for what the person suffered before dying, and it covers their medical bills and funeral expenses.
The two-year clock on a death claim runs from the date of death, not the date of the crash. See Texas wrongful death and accidental death claims, fatal crash lawsuits, and fatal automobile accident claims.
How a Texas Auto Accident Claim Works
A collision claim is a sequence of proof problems. You have to show the other driver was negligent, that the negligence caused your injuries, what those injuries cost, and that someone has money available to pay. Most cases resolve without a trial, but they resolve on the strength of that proof.
- Find every policy that could pay, including your own.
- Preserve the evidence before it disappears.
- Document the injuries through treatment rather than description.
- Settle when the number reflects the proof, and file suit when it does not.
The Insurance Layers That Pay a Texas Claim
People assume one policy pays. In a serious Texas collision, four or five often contribute.
- The at-fault driver's liability coverage. The first source, with a statutory floor of $30,000 per injured person. A hospital stay of any length exhausts that in days.
- Your Personal Injury Protection. Included in every Texas policy unless you rejected it in writing. PIP pays medical bills and a portion of lost income no matter who caused the crash, and it pays early, while everything else is still being argued.
- Your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Carriers have to offer it, and you can only decline it in writing. It covers the gap when the at-fault driver has nothing or not enough.
- Health insurance. It pays treatment costs and then asserts a right to be repaid from your settlement.
- Commercial and umbrella policies. A driver on the job, a rideshare driver with the app on, or a company vehicle can bring in coverage many times larger than a personal policy.
Reading a declarations page early changes strategy. A $30,000 policy and a $1,000,000 policy call for different approaches to the same injuries.
Why an Underinsured Motorist Claim Takes Longer
Your own underinsured motorist coverage does not behave like other first-party insurance. In Brainard v. Trinity Universal Insurance Co., 216 S.W.3d 809 (Tex. 2006), the Texas Supreme Court held that a UIM carrier owes nothing until the insured obtains a judgment establishing both the other motorist's liability and their underinsured status.
So your own insurer can decline to pay a claim it privately agrees with, and it commits no bad faith by doing so. You often have to try the case against the at-fault driver, or reach an agreed judgment, before your UIM benefits become payable at all.
This surprises Texans who have paid UIM premiums for years and expect the coverage to work the way collision coverage does. It also explains why a case with clear liability and a defendant whose limits fall far short can still take eighteen months.
The Evidence That Decides Cases
Most of what wins a collision case has a shelf life measured in weeks.
- Business and traffic camera video, often overwritten in 30 days or less.
- Event data recorder downloads showing speed, braking, and throttle in the seconds before impact.
- The vehicles themselves, which insurers salvage and crush while liability is still open.
- Skid marks, gouges, and debris fields that the next rain removes.
- Commercial driver logs, dispatch records, and telematics data subject to limited retention rules.
- Cell phone records establishing distraction, which take a subpoena and time.
Medical records work on a different timeline but follow the same logic. Gaps in treatment become the defense argument that you recovered and later changed your mind, so consistent care documents the injury in a way that testimony cannot.
Damages Texas Law Allows
Texas separates what you can recover into categories, and a jury answers them one at a time.
- Medical expenses, past and reasonably probable future care.
- Lost earnings and lost earning capacity where an injury changes what you can do for a living.
- Physical pain and mental anguish, past and future.
- Physical impairment, covering the activities an injury takes away from you beyond the pain itself.
- Disfigurement, including scarring and visible injury.
- Property damage, repair or actual cash value, plus loss of use.
- Exemplary damages, available where the conduct rose to gross negligence and subject to the statutory caps in Chapter 41.
Texas also limits medical damages to amounts actually paid or incurred rather than the amount originally billed, so the sticker price on a hospital statement rarely matches what a jury sees.
Medical Bills, Liens, and What Reaches You
A settlement figure is not what lands in your account. Texas hospitals can file a lien against your recovery under the Property Code when they treat you for injuries from a collision. Health insurers, ERISA plans, Medicare, and Medicaid all assert reimbursement rights of their own.
Those claims are negotiable more often than people expect. Reducing a hospital lien or a Medicare conditional payment demand can move more money to a client than adding the same amount to the gross settlement would, because the reduction is not shared with anyone.
Anyone evaluating a settlement offer should ask what the net looks like after fees, case expenses, and every lien. That number, not the headline, is the one to compare against what trying the case might produce.
Settlement, Suit, and the Contingency Fee
Most Texas collision claims settle. An adjuster evaluates liability, treatment, and the venue where a suit would be filed, then makes an offer that reflects what a jury in that county might do. Filing suit does not end negotiation, it changes the leverage, because discovery forces the other side to produce what it has been describing.
Texas injury lawyers work on contingency. The firm advances case expenses and takes a percentage of the recovery, and clients owe no fee if the case produces nothing. Texas Disciplinary Rule 1.04 requires that arrangement in writing, stating the percentage and how expenses get handled.
The right time to settle arrives when the medical picture has stabilized enough to value the future. Settling before you know whether a surgery is coming trades certainty for a discount you cannot undo.
Why Texans Bring Collision Cases to Jason Coomer
A collision case pits an injured person against an insurance company that handles thousands of these files a year and knows exactly what an unrepresented claimant will accept. Jason Coomer has spent his career on the other side of that imbalance, representing people hurt in car wrecks, truck collisions, motorcycle crashes, and defective vehicle cases, along with the families of Texans killed on the road.
The firm handles collision claims across Texas from its Austin office, working with the accident reconstruction engineers, treating physicians, and life care planners these cases require.
In beginning a review of any collision matter, we need the names of all drivers, passengers, and companies involved so we can complete a conflict check. After that check clears, we will send the questions we need answered to review your case. Please do not send AI generated reports prior to the conflict check and initial questions being answered and completed.
CALL 866-474-1477 or CLICK HERE for a free case review by Texas auto accident lawyer Jason S. Coomer.
Frequently Asked Questions About Texas Auto Accident Law
Is Texas a no-fault state for car accidents?
No. Texas is an at-fault state, which means the driver who caused the collision is responsible for the damages and their liability insurance pays first. The confusion usually comes from Personal Injury Protection, which every Texas auto policy includes unless the policyholder rejected it in writing. PIP pays your medical bills and part of your lost wages regardless of fault, but it does not limit your right to pursue the driver who hit you.
How long after a car accident can you sue in Texas?
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003 gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury suit, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. Shorter deadlines apply against government defendants, where the Texas Tort Claims Act requires notice within six months and some city charters cut that to as little as 45 days. A child's claim is generally tolled until the child turns 18.
Can you still recover if you were partly at fault for the crash?
Yes, as long as your share of the responsibility is 50 percent or less. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 33.001 bars recovery for a claimant whose percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. Below that line, your award drops by your own percentage, so a jury that values your case at $200,000 and assigns you 20 percent of the blame returns $160,000.
How long do you have to report a car accident to police in Texas?
Texas Transportation Code Section 550.026 requires an immediate report by the quickest means of communication when a crash injures or kills someone or damages a vehicle so that no one can drive it away safely. You call local police inside a city, or the sheriff or nearest Department of Public Safety office outside one. Failing to report is a Class C misdemeanor when damage falls under $200 and a Class B misdemeanor at $200 or more.
What is the typical settlement for a car accident in Texas?
There is no typical figure, and any specific number quoted without reviewing a file is marketing rather than analysis. Texas settlements track the available insurance limits, the severity and permanence of the injuries, the medical expenses actually paid or incurred, lost earning capacity, the strength of the liability evidence, and the county where a suit would be tried. A claim capped by a $30,000 minimum liability policy and the same injuries covered by a $1,000,000 commercial policy do not resolve anywhere near the same number.
How much does a lawyer take from a car accident settlement in Texas?
Texas injury lawyers work on contingency, taking an agreed percentage of the recovery and charging no fee if the case recovers nothing. The percentage is negotiated at the outset and often increases if the case has to be filed or tried rather than settled. Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 1.04 requires the agreement in writing, stating the percentage and how case expenses are handled and deducted.
Who is at fault in a rear-end collision in Texas?
The following driver usually carries most of the blame, because Texas law requires drivers to keep a safe distance and control their speed for conditions. That presumption is not absolute. A lead driver who stopped without cause, reversed, changed lanes without signaling, or drove with non-functioning brake lights can be assigned a share of the responsibility, and in a chain reaction the fault often gets divided among several drivers under Texas proportionate responsibility rules.
Do I have to pay my medical bills out of my settlement in Texas?
Usually yes. Texas hospitals can file a lien against a personal injury recovery for treatment related to the collision, and health insurers, ERISA plans, Medicare, and Medicaid assert their own reimbursement rights. Those amounts come out of the settlement before you receive your share. Many of these claims can be negotiated down, and a reduction goes entirely to the client rather than being shared, so the net figure after fees, expenses, and liens is the number worth comparing offers against.
What happens if the driver who hit me had no insurance?
Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage steps in. Texas carriers must offer UM and UIM coverage, and you can only decline it in writing, so many drivers carry it without realizing. Under Brainard v. Trinity Universal Insurance Co., a UIM carrier owes nothing until you obtain a judgment establishing the other driver's liability and underinsured status, which means these claims often take longer than a straightforward liability claim.
Is it worth hiring a lawyer after a Texas car accident?
It depends on the injuries. A minor collision with no injuries and quick property damage repairs often resolves without a lawyer. Serious injuries change the calculation, because the questions that decide those claims involve locating every available policy, preserving evidence before it is destroyed, handling the 51 percent responsibility fight, and negotiating liens. Consultations are free and contingency fees mean no cost unless the case recovers, so a conversation before signing a release costs nothing.
CALL 866-474-1477 or CLICK HERE for a free case review by Texas auto accident lawyer Jason S. Coomer.
