Texas car accident claims: deadlines, fault rules and insurance, explained
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Texas Accident Resource
What Texas law actually requires you to do at the scene, what to collect while it still exists, and the decisions in the first month that shape everything afterwards.
The short answer
Notify law enforcement immediately if anyone is hurt or a vehicle cannot be driven safely — Texas law requires notice by the quickest means available. Photograph the vehicles before anything is moved, get independent witness numbers, and be examined the same day even if you feel fine.
In this guide
At the scene
The first of these is a statutory duty. The rest are the evidence that disappears fastest, in roughly the order it disappears.
Required immediately, by the quickest means of communication, where the crash caused injury, death, or damage making a vehicle unable to be driven normally and safely. There is no dollar threshold on that duty.
Before anything is moved. This is the single most useful thing a non-expert can capture and it is gone the moment the vehicles are shifted.
Every vehicle, several angles each, wide and close. Include the undamaged sides — absence of damage is evidence too.
Skid marks, debris field, traffic controls, sightlines, road surface, weather and light. These establish how the crash was possible.
Name, address, registration and insurer for every driver involved.
Note the responding agency and the crash report number. You will need it to buy the CR-3 later.
Names and mobile numbers. The most persuasive evidence in a disputed-fault claim, and the fastest to become unreachable.
Not to the other driver, not to the officer, not in a recorded statement. Describe what you saw, not what you think it means.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.026.
The first 72 hours
Soft tissue, concussion and disc injuries commonly present 24 to 72 hours later. A gap between the crash and the first medical visit is the most common argument used to discount a claim.
Usually a policy condition, and separate from any claim against the other driver. Doing it does not mean you are admitting anything.
Dashcam files somewhere they cannot be overwritten. Request nearby business CCTV in writing immediately — much of it is gone within days.
Pain, limitations, missed work, sleep. Contemporaneous notes carry far more weight than a recollection months later.
The first month
The officer files the CR-3 within ten days. Once it exists, the rest of the file is assembled around it.
| When | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Day 10 onward | Buy the CR-3 crash report | $6 regular, $8 certified. The officer’s diagram, narrative and contributing-factor codes. |
| Ongoing | Medical records and bills | Establishes causation and severity. Collect as you go rather than at the end. |
| Ongoing | Repair estimate and out-of-pocket receipts | Property damage and incidental costs are a separate head of loss. |
| Before repair | Preserve the vehicle | Event data recorders can hold pre-crash speed and braking, but only while the vehicle exists. |
| Early | Check your declarations page | PIP and UM/UIM apply unless you rejected them in writing. Many people who assume they have neither simply never rejected them. |
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.062(b), § 550.065(d); Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101, § 1952.152.
What not to do
A release almost always ends the claim permanently, including for symptoms that worsen later. Treatment reaching a stable point is the earliest sensible moment to value anything.
You are not obliged to speculate. “I don’t know” is a complete and accurate answer where it is true.
Two years sounds long. Evidence degrades in days, and serious claims often have to be filed before negotiation finishes.
Photographs and posts are routinely used to argue that an injury is less limiting than claimed.
Common questions
You must notify law enforcement immediately if the crash caused injury, death, or damage that made a vehicle unable to be driven normally and safely. There is no dollar threshold on that duty. Separately, an officer must file a CR-3 report where there is injury or death, or apparent damage of $1,000 or more to any one person’s property.
No. Driver self-reporting to the state was eliminated effective 1 September 2017 and TxDOT no longer accepts or keeps CR-2 forms. Any guide still telling Texas drivers to file one is out of date.
TxDOT sells crash reports through its online purchase system. A regular copy is $6 and a certified copy is $8. The officer has ten days from the crash to file it.
Reporting to your own insurer is usually a policy condition regardless of fault, and your own PIP or UM/UIM coverage may be the only coverage that responds if the other driver is uninsured or underinsured.
Generally two years from the day the cause of action accrues, for both personal injury and wrongful death, with wrongful death running from the date of death. Claims against governmental units are governed separately and carry much shorter notice requirements.
Sources
Every Texas rule stated here is taken from the primary source named below. The Texas statutes are published free by the Texas Legislative Council.
Keep reading
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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