Texas car accident claims: deadlines, fault rules and insurance, explained
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Texas Data
How Texas crash data is collected, what it can and cannot tell you about an individual crash, and how to look up the primary source yourself instead of trusting a marketing page.
The short answer
Texas crash data comes from the CR-3 reports officers file with TxDOT, aggregated in the department’s public crash records system. Fatal crashes also appear in the federal FARS dataset. Any statistic worth citing traces back to one of those two — not to a law firm’s marketing page.
In this guide
Where the data comes from
Every crash investigated by a Texas peace officer generates a CR-3, filed electronically within ten days. Those reports are the raw material for essentially all Texas crash statistics.
The federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System records fatal crashes nationally, which allows Texas figures to be compared with other states on a consistent basis.
Injury or death, or apparent damage of $1,000 or more to any one person’s property. Crashes below that threshold with no injury may never enter the data at all.
Minor collisions are systematically under-represented. Any statistic about crash frequency is really a statistic about reported crash frequency.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.062(a), (b).
What it can tell you
| The data can | The data cannot |
|---|---|
| Show where and when crashes concentrate | Establish fault in an individual crash |
| Show which contributing factors officers record most often | Bind an insurer, a court or anyone else |
| Show how counts move year to year | Tell you what a claim is worth |
| Support a road safety argument | Substitute for the evidence in your own file |
A contributing-factor code on a CR-3 is the investigating officer’s assessment, not a legal finding.
Looking it up
TxDOT sells CR-3 reports through its online purchase system. $6 for a regular copy, $8 certified. Records are retained roughly ten years plus the current year.
TxDOT publishes crash statistics and data extracts through the same crash records area of its site.
NHTSA publishes FARS, which allows Texas fatal-crash figures to be compared with other states on a consistent definition.
The Texas Department of Insurance publishes consumer information on coverage requirements and the insurance market.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.065(d).
Statistics in advertising
Crash statistics are repeated across legal marketing sites without sources, and the figures drift as they are copied. A number that started as a state figure for one year reappears as a national figure for another, and nobody can trace it.
We publish figures on this site only where we can name the underlying source. If a number matters to a decision you are making, trace it to TxDOT or FARS before relying on it — including any number you find here.
Common questions
From TxDOT, through its crash report online purchase system. A regular copy is $6 and a certified copy is $8. The investigating officer has ten days from the crash to file it.
TxDOT’s retention schedule keeps crash records for roughly ten years plus the current year, after which they are destroyed. There is no statutory deadline for requesting one within that window.
No. It records the investigating officer’s assessment. It is influential evidence and often the starting point for negotiation, but it is not a legal determination and it binds nobody.
Aggregated annual figures are compiled after the year ends and after late-filed reports are processed, so the most recent complete dataset usually lags by at least a year.
Often not. A crash with no injury and less than $1,000 of apparent damage to any one person’s property does not trigger an officer’s report, so it may never enter the dataset.
Sources
Every figure and rule on this page is traceable to the primary source named below. The Texas statutes are published free by the Texas Legislative Council.
Keep reading
The first hour, the first week, and what Texas law requires at the scene.
Which policy responds, and the deadlines your own insurer must meet.
Editorial information
Spotted something wrong or out of date? We correct errors and log the change. See our correction policy and about page.
Next steps
Read the Texas rules that apply, or see how a request for attorney review works. General information only, not legal advice.
Texas-specific information on crash deadlines, fault rules and insurance, with the statute cited on every page. Operated by National Claim Network. Not a law firm, insurer, or government agency.
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