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Car Accidents Involving Passenger Vehicles in Texas: Legal Duties, Insurance Rules, and Filing Deadlines

By Accident Atlas Editorial Team · Reviewed by Phil Ayres · Updated July 23, 2026 · 9 min read

What Texas Law Requires Immediately After a Passenger Vehicle Collision

Texas splits a driver's post-crash duties into two separate statutes depending on whether the collision involves injury or death, or only property damage. Under Tex. Transp. Code § 550.021, the operator of a vehicle involved in a collision that results or is reasonably likely to result in injury or death must immediately stop at or as close to the scene as possible, return to the scene if the vehicle didn't stop there, determine whether anyone involved needs aid, and remain until statutory duties (such as exchanging information) are satisfied. This is a serious obligation: leaving the scene of a collision involving death or serious bodily injury can be prosecuted as a second- or third-degree felony.

A separate statute, § 550.022, governs collisions resulting only in vehicle damage. The operator must still immediately stop at or near the scene and return if not stopped there, remaining until the informational duties under § 550.023 are met. The law distinguishes these two scenarios because the stakes differ: when injury or death is possible, the driver's first duty is to check on people and render aid, not just exchange paperwork. Failing to comply with the damage-only statute is a Class C or Class B misdemeanor depending on the dollar amount of damage, while failing to comply when injury or death results carries far harsher felony penalties.

When a Police Collision Report Is Required — and How to Get One

Not every fender-bender generates an official police report. Under § 550.062, a law enforcement officer investigating a collision must prepare a written report only if the crash caused injury or death, or property damage to any one person's property of $1,000 or more. Once that threshold is met, the officer must file the report electronically with the Texas Department of Transportation no later than the 10th day after the collision — regardless of whether the officer investigated at the scene or later by interviewing witnesses and participants.

Crash reports are not automatically public. § 550.065 makes this information privileged and confidential, reserved for the department, law enforcement, and specified requesters. Those permitted to obtain a copy on written request and payment of any fee include anyone directly involved in the collision, an authorized representative, a driver, an employer or parent/guardian of an involved driver, the vehicle or property owner, a person who has established financial responsibility for a vehicle in the crash (including a policyholder), an insurance company that issued a relevant policy, and courts handling related litigation. Whether a threshold-triggering report exists can matter significantly for a later injury claim — it creates an official, timestamped account of the collision that insurers and courts may rely on, and its absence can leave a claimant with only private accounts of what happened.

Texas Traffic Safety Laws That Shape Fault in a Passenger Vehicle Crash

Several specific traffic-safety statutes commonly come into play when fault is being sorted out after a passenger vehicle crash. § 545.413 requires anyone at least 15 years old riding in a passenger vehicle in a belt-equipped seat to be secured by a safety belt, and separately requires a school bus operator with a safety belt at the operator's seat to wear it. § 545.412 requires a child younger than 8 — unless taller than 4'9" — to be secured in a child passenger safety seat system installed and used according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Following distance is governed by § 545.062, which requires every operator to maintain an assured clear distance so the driver can safely stop given speed, traffic, and road conditions. Trucks and vehicles towing another vehicle face an added rule outside business or residential districts: they must leave enough space, conditions permitting, for a passing vehicle to safely enter and occupy that gap.

Commercial motor vehicle safety violations carry their own criminal exposure under § 644.151, which makes it an offense to violate an adopted safety rule, refuse a lawful inspection, or knowingly operate — or assign a driver to operate — a commercial vehicle under an active federal out-of-service order. That last offense escalates from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony if the vehicle was involved in a collision causing bodily injury, and to a second-degree felony if the collision caused death.

In a personal injury claim, proof that another driver violated one of these specific statutes — failing to buckle a required passenger, ignoring the child-seat mandate, tailgating in violation of § 545.062, or operating a commercial vehicle under an out-of-service order — can serve as evidence supporting a finding of fault or negligence.

How Texas Auto Insurance Actually Covers a Passenger Vehicle Collision

Texas recognizes eight basic auto insurance coverages, some mandatory and others optional. Liability coverage, which pays for the other driver's vehicle repairs and medical bills when you're at fault, is mandatory at Texas's minimum limits: 30/60/25 — $30,000 per person for injuries, up to $60,000 total per accident, and $25,000 for property damage. Because these minimums may fall short in a multi-vehicle crash or a total-loss scenario, many drivers choose higher limits. Personal injury protection (PIP) is included automatically in every Texas auto policy unless the policyholder rejects it in writing, and insurers must offer uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, which the policyholder must likewise decline in writing if unwanted. Collision coverage, medical payments coverage, towing and labor coverage, and rental reimbursement round out the remaining optional coverages.

Comprehensive coverage pays for damage to a car from causes other than a collision — fire, hail, theft, flood, vandalism, or hitting an animal. It does not extend, however, to accidents that happen while driving for a ride-hailing service or delivering food or goods for a fee, nor to accidents in a car that isn't yours but that you could use regularly, such as a company car — gaps drivers should understand before assuming a claim will be covered.

Driving someone else's car raises its own coverage questions. Rental agencies typically offer both a damage waiver and a separate liability policy — the damage waiver is not insurance at all, but an agreement that the agency won't charge the renter for damage to the rental car. A personal auto policy's own liability or comprehensive coverage may extend to a rental car used for personal purposes, though exclusions can limit or reduce that coverage, particularly for business use. For borrowed cars, the vehicle owner's insurance generally pays first if the borrower causes an accident; if that coverage is insufficient, the borrower's own policy may fill the gap. Frequent borrowers without their own vehicle can buy a nonowner liability policy, which pays for damage and injuries caused to others but not for the borrower's own injuries or damage to the car being driven.

The Texas Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act: When It Applies to Your Crash

The Texas Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act, found at § 601.151, applies only to a collision in Texas that results in bodily injury or death, or in at least $1,000 of property damage to one person. Meeting that threshold, however, doesn't automatically trigger financial responsibility proceedings — the statute lists several exemptions. Most notably, the Act does not apply to an owner or operator who had an effective motor vehicle liability insurance policy covering the vehicle at the time of the collision, nor to a non-owner operator covered by an applicable liability policy or bond. Other exemptions cover situations such as a vehicle legally parked or stopped at a signal, a vehicle operated without the owner's permission, and self-insurers.

Understanding this exemption matters because it determines whether a driver involved in a qualifying crash could face state financial-responsibility proceedings — such as license suspension — on top of any civil injury claim.

Texas Deadlines for Pursuing a Passenger Vehicle Collision Claim

Texas law imposes firm deadlines for pursuing a claim after a passenger vehicle collision, and missing them can permanently bar recovery. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a), a personal injury lawsuit generally must be filed within two years of the date of the crash. A wrongful-death lawsuit has its own two-year window under § 16.003(b), but that clock runs from the date of death rather than the date of the collision — a distinction that matters when death occurs some time after the crash.

Claims involving a governmental unit — for example, a collision with a city or county vehicle — carry a much shorter deadline for formal written notice: six months from the crash under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101. Missing this notice deadline can bar the claim entirely, regardless of how much time remains under the two-year lawsuit deadline. That means a claim against a governmental unit requires satisfying both obligations together: formal written notice within six months of the crash, and, if the claim proceeds, a lawsuit filed within two years.

These three deadlines — the two-year injury deadline, the two-year wrongful-death deadline measured from death, and the six-month governmental notice deadline — work together, not independently, and tracking all three accurately from the outset is essential to preserving a claim.