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What to Do After a Car Accident in Texas
The hours and days after a Texas car crash shape the case more than any later decision. Document the scene, get medical care fast even if you feel fine, report to the right authority, and avoid recorded statements with the at-fault insurer before you have counsel; these four moves protect both your health and any future claim under Texas's two-year statute of limitations (the deadline for most injury claims).
At the scene
Move to a safe shoulder or median if vehicles are operable. Turn on hazards. Call 911. Texas Transportation Code § 550.062 requires a police report for crashes involving injury, death, or apparent damage above $1,000, and the report becomes critical liability evidence. While you wait, photograph everything: vehicle positions, damage on every panel, debris, skid marks, road conditions, traffic signals, and the other driver's license plate and insurance card. Take wide shots and close-ups. Get names and phone numbers from any witness; bystanders disperse within minutes and are nearly impossible to track down later.
Medical care, even if you feel fine
Adrenaline masks pain for hours and sometimes days. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions, and disc damage often present 24-72 hours after impact. If EMS offers transport, take it. If you decline at the scene, go to an ER or urgent care the same day; the medical record that gets created in those first hours is the anchor for every future medical claim. Insurers treat gaps in early treatment as evidence the injury isn't serious; they cannot do that when an ER visit exists in the timeline.
Report and document: the right way
Texas law requires you to notify your own insurance company promptly, even if the crash wasn't your fault. Keep that report to facts: when, where, what cars, who was driving. Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver's insurer. They are allowed to ask; you are not required to answer. Save every medical bill, prescription receipt, mileage log, and lost-wage record. Start a simple notebook noting how the injury affects daily life — sleep, work, driving, lifting, mood — entries dated the same day they happen are credible later in a way reconstructed lists are not.
Watch the clock
Texas allows two years from the date of injury to file most personal-injury lawsuits (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003). Two years feels long; it is not. Evidence degrades fast: traffic-camera footage overwrites in 14-30 days at most agencies, witness memory blurs within weeks, vehicles get sold or destroyed. If your injuries are anything beyond minor, talk to a lawyer in the first month, not the second year. The conversation is free and the calendar runs whether you make the call or not.
Frequently asked
Questions Texas accident victims ask us
- If anyone is injured, anyone is killed, or visible damage looks more than $1,000, yes. Texas Transportation Code § 550.062 requires a police report. Even when not strictly required, call. The CR-3 report creates an official timeline and an investigating-officer statement that materially shape later insurance and liability analysis.
- You can confirm the basic facts of the crash, but you are not required to give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver's insurer, and you generally should not. Adjusters are trained to extract statements that minimize claim value. Decline the recorded statement politely, refer them to your own insurer or attorney, and document who called and when.
- Get checked anyway, same day if possible. Adrenaline suppresses pain. Whiplash, mild traumatic brain injuries, and disc herniations regularly present 24-72 hours after impact, and the absence of a same-day medical visit becomes ammunition for the insurer's argument that the injury isn't real. A quick urgent-care visit costs little and protects everything that comes after it.
- Two years from the date of the crash under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. Specific exceptions apply for minors, governmental defendants (six-month notice requirement under the Texas Tort Claims Act), and certain delayed-discovery scenarios. Treat the two-year window as the default and consult counsel well before it runs.
- No. You can choose any qualified shop. Insurer-preferred shops often work to insurer-friendly estimates. If your vehicle has unrepaired structural damage or diminished value after repair, those are recoverable in Texas and are worth getting an independent estimate for.
- Yes, as long as you were 50% or less at fault. Texas applies modified comparative fault with a 51% bar (Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001): your recovery is reduced by your share of fault, but only eliminated if you exceed 50%. Police-officer fault opinions are not binding on a jury; they are one piece of evidence among many.
- Every medical bill, prescription receipt, mileage log to and from medical appointments, lost-wage record, and out-of-pocket expense. Photographs of visible injuries as they heal. A short dated journal of how the injury affects daily activities. Records made contemporaneously carry far more weight than reconstructed lists assembled months later.
- Sooner than you think. Early counsel preserves evidence — surveillance footage, vehicle data, witness statements — that disappears in days or weeks. The conversation costs nothing and you keep your full set of options either way. If your injuries are anything beyond clearly minor, calling within the first week or two is the right move.
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