The short version
- At the scene: get to a safe place and call 911 if anyone is hurt. Stay there, trade names, plates and insurance details with the other driver, take photos and write down the names of witnesses. Texas law requires a driver in a crash to stop, stay at the scene, exchange a name, address, vehicle registration and insurance information, show a license if asked, and give reasonable help to anyone who is hurt.
- Texas requires notice to the police after some crashes, and the word in the statute is immediately. The operator must give notice to the police or the sheriff immediately when a crash injures or kills a person, or leaves a vehicle that cannot be normally and safely driven.
- The same day and the first days: see a doctor, even if you feel mostly fine, and write down what you remember. Texas repealed its state report for drivers in 2017, and the state no longer keeps the old form, the CR-2. A city may require a report of its own by ordinance. Be careful what you say on a recorded call with an insurance company.
- The first weeks: keep up with your medical care, keep every bill and record in one place, ask for the crash report, and read your own auto policy for coverage you may not know you have.
- Texas’s general deadline to sue for an injury is two years. Some deadlines are much shorter. For a claim against a government agency, a city, county, school district or state agency must receive notice of the claim within six months of the incident, and a city’s charter can set its own notice period, which may be shorter.
At the scene
Safety comes first. Everything else on this page can wait until people are safe.
The numbered steps on this page are practical. They are not statements of law. Where Texas law sets a duty or a deadline, the rule is set apart under the steps, with its source. The rules were checked against their sources on October 3 and October 4, 2026.
Get to a safe place
Move out of traffic if you can. Call 911 if anyone is hurt, and tell the dispatcher where you are.
Stay at the scene
Do not drive off. The rules under these steps say what Texas law asks of a driver at the scene.
Trade information with the other driver
Write down the name, phone number, license number, plate number, insurance company and policy number. Give your own.
Photograph the scene
Take the whole scene and the details: each vehicle and its plate, the damage, skid marks, signals and signs, and any injury you can see.
Write down the names of witnesses
A name and a phone number is enough. People leave quickly and are hard to find later.
If an officer comes, ask for the report number
Ask which agency the officer works for and how to get a copy of the report.
Say what you saw and did
Leave guesses about who was at fault, and about how badly anyone is hurt, for later.
Texas law sets duties for a driver in a crash. The Texas statutes say “operator” for the driver and “collision” for a crash, and the rules below keep those words.
Duties at the scene. Stop, stay at the scene, exchange your name, address, vehicle registration and insurance information, show your license if asked, and give reasonable help to anyone who is hurt.
Tex. Transp. Code §§ 550.021 to 550.023When a collision only damages a vehicle that is driven or attended by a person, the operator must stop at once at the scene, or as close as possible without blocking traffic more than necessary. The operator must return if the vehicle was not stopped there, and stay until the duty to give information is met. A separate rule covers freeways in metropolitan areas.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.022(a), (b)The operator of a vehicle that hits and damages an unattended vehicle must stop at once. The operator must find the operator or owner of that vehicle and give the name and address of the operator and the owner of the vehicle that hit it. Or the operator must leave a written notice with that information and a statement of what happened, in a place where it will be seen.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.024(a)Texas also requires notice to the police or the sheriff after some crashes. The statute says immediately, and it puts the duty on the operator.
The operator of a vehicle must give notice of a collision immediately, by the quickest means of communication, when the collision injures or kills a person or damages a vehicle to the extent that it cannot be normally and safely driven.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.026(a)If the collision was in a city, the notice goes to the local police department. Within 100 feet outside the city limits, it goes to the local police department or the sheriff’s office. Anywhere else, it goes to the sheriff’s office or the nearest office of the Department of Public Safety.
Tex. Transp. Code §§ 550.026(a), 541.002(1)This page has no verified rule that requires a report to the police after every crash in Texas. It has no verified rule that lets another person give the notice for the operator, and none on who gives it when the operator is physically unable.
These rules are written for drivers. This page has no verified rule on what a passenger, a pedestrian or a person on a bicycle must do at the scene.
If the other driver left, see “The same day” below. This site’s checklist “The first 72 hours after an injury” has steps like these as a list you can tick off and print.
The same day
Once people are safe, the rest of the day is about your health and the record of what happened.
See a doctor, even if you feel mostly fine
Some injuries take hours or days to show. Tell the provider about every part of your body that hurts and how the crash happened, so it is in the record.
Write down what you remember
The time, the place, the weather, what you saw and heard, and what anyone said. Do it today, while it is fresh.
Start one folder for everything
Photos, the report number, claim numbers, the names of adjusters, medical bills and receipts. Paper or on your phone, as long as it is in one place.
Keep the evidence as it is
Do not repair or get rid of the vehicle until it has been photographed. If a store or building camera may have caught the crash, ask in writing that the video be kept.
This page has no verified rule that requires a Texas driver to make a written report to the police within a set number of hours. The notice in the part above is the rule this page has, and the statute says immediately.
If the other driver left and was never identified, Texas’s statute on uninsured motorist coverage sets a condition.
Hit and run and unidentified drivers. To use uninsured motorist coverage for a driver who was never identified, Texas requires actual physical contact between that driver’s vehicle and you or your property, such as your vehicle.
Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.104(3)This page has no verified Texas rule on how soon a hit and run must be reported for this coverage. A policy can carry its own conditions, and no policy was read for this page.
For who must give notice and to whom, see this site’s page “Do I have to report a car accident, and to whom?”. For a driver who was never found, see this site’s page “The driver who hit me left and was never found. What now?”.
The first days
In the first days the paperwork starts and insurance companies begin to call.
Find out whether a report is asked of you
The rules under these steps say what Texas did with its state form for drivers, and what a city may require.
Tell your own insurance company
Give the basic facts: when, where and who was involved.
Find out which company is calling
Two companies may call: your own insurer and the other driver’s insurer. Ask which one is on the line and whether the call is being recorded.
Be careful what you say on a recorded call
Say what you saw and did. Leave out guesses about fault and about how badly you are hurt.
Keep track of missed work and what you spend
The dates you missed, the hours you lost, prescriptions, rides and parking. Keep the receipts in your folder.
Texas no longer has a state form for drivers, though people still ask about the old one, the CR-2, often called the blue form.
Texas had two sections that made drivers file a written report with the state. Both were repealed, effective September 1, 2017.
S.B. 312, 85th Leg., R.S. (2017), §§ 74(2), 81; Tex. Transp. Code § 550.065(a)(1)(B)The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) says that since September 1, 2017 it no longer keeps the Driver’s Crash Report, Form CR-2. It says it no longer hosts or provides copies of the form, and that any CR-2 or similar local form sent to TxDOT will be destroyed. It also says drivers who were given a CR-2 or a similar local form, after a crash that no police officer investigated, should keep it for their records.
TxDOT, “Crash reports and records”An officer who investigates a collision that caused an injury, a death, or apparent damage of $1,000 or more to any one person’s property must write a report and file it with TxDOT no later than the 10th day after the collision.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.062(a), (b)A city may, by ordinance, require the operator of a vehicle in a collision to file a report with a city department. The statute allows this when the collision injures or kills a person, or when the apparent total property damage is $25 or more.
Tex. Transp. Code § 550.067(a)This page did not research which Texas cities require a report of their own. This site’s page “Do I have to report a car accident, and to whom?” has more on these rules.
Then the calls. An adjuster may ask to record your account of what happened. We found no Texas statute or insurance regulation that requires a person to give a recorded statement to another driver’s insurer. That is not a rule that a statement is never required. This site has no verified rule either way. Two Texas rules bear on a recorded call.
It is an offense to intentionally intercept a call. It is an affirmative defense that the person is a party to the call, or that one of the parties gave prior consent, unless the call is intercepted for the purpose of committing an unlawful act. In plain terms, a person who is part of the call may record it without the other person’s consent.
Tex. Penal Code § 16.02(b)(1), (c)(4)A statement is not hearsay when it is offered against an opposing party and was made by that party.
Tex. R. Evid. 801(e)(2)(A)In plain terms, what you say to an insurance adjuster can later be offered as evidence against you. That does not mean a statement will be used or admitted in any given case.
Your own insurer is a different matter. Your duties to your own insurer normally come from your policy, and no policy was read for this page. One Texas statute speaks to what your own insurer asks for.
Texas’s prompt payment law covers first party claims, meaning claims under your own policy. It has the insurer request from the claimant all items, statements and forms that it reasonably believes will be required. The insurer’s deadline to accept or reject the claim runs from the date it receives them.
Tex. Ins. Code §§ 542.051(2), 542.055(a)(3), 542.056(a)This page has no verified Texas rule on how soon notice of a crash must be given to your own insurer. For more on these calls, see this site’s page “The insurance company wants a recorded statement. What should I know first?”.
The first weeks
By now the urgent steps are done. The weeks after are about your treatment, your records and finding out what insurance applies.
Keep up with your medical care
Go to your follow up appointments, and keep the paperwork from each visit.
Keep every bill and record
Medical bills, receipts, repair estimates, letters from insurance companies and the dates you missed work. Put them in your one folder.
Ask for the crash report
The rules under these steps say where to ask.
Read your own auto policy
Look at the declarations page for uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage and for personal injury protection (PIP). Ask your insurer what your policy has, and whether a signed rejection exists.
Check whether a government agency was involved
A city, a county, a school district or a state agency, for example. The time to give notice of those claims is much shorter, and it is in the last part of this page.
In Texas the officer’s crash report is filed with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and a copy is bought through TxDOT.
TxDOT keeps the crash records for the whole state. A copy of the officer’s report is bought through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System, called CRIS Purchase.
TxDOT, “Crash reports and records”TxDOT says a person who cannot use the online system can mail form CR-91, Request for Peace Officer’s Crash Report, with the payment, to the address shown on the form. It says a mail request may take up to 30 days to process.
TxDOT, CRIS Purchase Help Center, “Am I still able to purchase a crash report via mail service?”For the fee, the wait and how to read the report, see this site’s page “How do I get the crash report, and what does it tell me?”. For a report written by city police, see this site’s page “How do I get a crash report from city police?”.
Next, your own policy. Two kinds of coverage on a person’s own auto policy come up after a crash.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. An auto policy in Texas must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless a named insured rejected it in writing. If you never signed a rejection, you may have this coverage without knowing it.
Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101An insurer may not deliver or issue an automobile liability insurance policy in Texas unless it provides personal injury protection (PIP) coverage in the policy or supplemental to it. That does not apply if any insured named in the policy rejects the coverage in writing. After a rejection, the insurer need not provide PIP in a reinstated or renewal policy unless the named insured asks for it in writing.
Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152(a), (b)PIP benefits are payable without regard to the fault or nonfault of the named insured or of the person receiving them in causing or contributing to the collision. The insurer must pay benefits periodically as claims arise, and not later than the 30th day after it receives satisfactory proof of a claim. The statute lists exclusions.
Tex. Ins. Code §§ 1952.155(a), 1952.156(a), 1952.158This page has no verified rule on which coverage pays first. What it has is how the Texas Department of Insurance describes medical bills after a crash. These are general descriptions. They use words like “should” and “might”, and they are not rules of law.
The Texas Department of Insurance tells a person who thinks the other driver caused the wreck that the other driver’s insurance should pay for car repair, medical bills and a rental car.
Texas Department of Insurance, “Were you in a wreck? Tips for auto insurance claims” (last updated 9/24/2025)The Department also says there is no guarantee that the other driver’s insurance company will pay. It says that if you have medical bills, your personal injury protection coverage, medical payments coverage, or uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage might pay.
Texas Department of Insurance, “Accident not your fault? Here’s how to deal with the other driver’s insurance.” (last updated 4/24/2025)These are descriptions, not promises. This page has no verified rule on when the other driver’s insurance company must pay. None of this says what is on your own policy. PIP can be rejected in writing in Texas.
This site’s Texas page, “Texas injury law: the rules that matter”, has the state’s other rules, including the rule on shared fault and what drivers must carry. This site’s page “Is California, Texas or Washington a no fault state?” has more on PIP.
The deadlines for a claim
The notice at the scene is immediate. The deadlines for a claim are longer. These are Texas’s general rules. This page does not say what your own deadline is, and some deadlines are much shorter than the general rule.
Deadline to sue for an injury. Two years from the day the claim arises. For most crashes and falls that is the day of the injury.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a)Deadline for vehicle and property damage. Two years for damage to a vehicle or other property.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a)Claims against a government agency. A city, county, school district or state agency must receive notice of the claim within six months of the incident. The notice describes the injury or damage, the time and place, and what happened. A city’s charter can set its own notice period, which may be shorter, so do not assume you have the full six months.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101Deadline for a claim under your own policy. A claim against your own insurer for uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits is a contract claim, generally subject to a four year limit. The deadline to sue the driver who caused the crash is still two years.
Franco v. Allstate Ins. Co., 505 S.W.2d 789 (Tex. 1974); Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.051This page has no verified rule on when the Texas four years begin. This site’s page “How long do I have to sue after an injury in Texas?” goes through every Texas deadline one at a time.
These are general rules. Exceptions exist, and some deadlines are much shorter. If a child was hurt, see this site’s page “My child was hurt. Who brings the claim, and how long is there?”.
This page gives the rules as they are written. It does not say how they apply to your crash. If you were hurt in a crash someone else caused, the intake team can tell you whether the firm can help: 800-411-9049.
Questions and answers
Do I have to call the police after a car accident in Texas?
Texas law requires immediate notice to the police or the sheriff, by the quickest means of communication, when a collision injures or kills a person or leaves a vehicle that cannot be normally and safely driven. This page has no verified rule that requires a report to the police after every crash. As a practical step, call 911 if anyone is hurt.
Does a driver have to file a crash report with the state in Texas?
Texas repealed the sections that had drivers file a written report with the state, effective September 1, 2017. TxDOT says it no longer keeps the Driver’s Crash Report, Form CR-2, no longer provides the form, and destroys any that are sent to it. An officer who investigates a collision that caused an injury, a death, or apparent damage of $1,000 or more to any one person’s property must write a report and file it with TxDOT. A Texas city may still require a report of its own by ordinance.
After a crash in Texas, do I have to give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement?
This site has no verified rule either way. We found no Texas statute or insurance regulation that requires a person to give a recorded statement to another driver’s insurer. That is not a rule that a statement is never required. What you say can later be offered as evidence against you. A lawyer can advise on your facts.
Who pays my medical bills after a crash in Texas that was not my fault?
This page has no verified rule on which coverage pays first. What it has is how the Texas Department of Insurance describes it. The Department says the other driver’s insurance should pay for your medical bills, that there is no guarantee it will, and that your own personal injury protection, medical payments or uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage might pay. Those are general descriptions, not rules of law. The Texas statute says personal injury protection benefits are payable without regard to the fault or nonfault of the named insured or of the person receiving them. That coverage is in a Texas auto liability policy unless a named insured rejected it in writing. This page does not say what is on your own policy.
What is the deadline to sue after a car accident in Texas?
Texas’s general deadline to sue for an injury is two years from the day the claim arises. The deadline for damage to a vehicle or other property is also two years. Some deadlines are much shorter. For a claim against a government agency, a city, county, school district or state agency must receive notice of the claim within six months of the incident, and a city’s charter can set its own notice period, which may be shorter. These are general rules. This page does not say what your own deadline is.
What if the other driver left and was never identified?
To use uninsured motorist coverage for a driver who was never identified, Texas requires actual physical contact between that driver’s vehicle and you or your property, such as your vehicle. This page has no verified Texas rule on how soon a hit and run must be reported for this coverage. This site’s page on a driver who left and was never found covers the rest.
Sources
Primary sources for the rules on this page. Checked on October 3, 2026.
Also cited
- Tex. Transp. Code §§ 550.021 to 550.023
- Tex. Transp. Code § 550.022(a), (b)
- Tex. Transp. Code § 550.024(a)
- Tex. Transp. Code § 550.026(a)
- Tex. Transp. Code §§ 550.026(a), 541.002(1)
- Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.104(3)
- S.B. 312, 85th Leg., R.S. (2017), §§ 74(2), 81; Tex. Transp. Code § 550.065(a)(1)(B)
- TxDOT, “Crash reports and records”
- Tex. Transp. Code § 550.062(a), (b)
- Tex. Transp. Code § 550.067(a)
- Tex. Penal Code § 16.02(b)(1), (c)(4)
- Tex. R. Evid. 801(e)(2)(A)
- Tex. Ins. Code §§ 542.051(2), 542.055(a)(3), 542.056(a)
- TxDOT, CRIS Purchase Help Center, “Am I still able to purchase a crash report via mail service?”
- Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101
- Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152(a), (b)
- Tex. Ins. Code §§ 1952.155(a), 1952.156(a), 1952.158
- Texas Department of Insurance, “Were you in a wreck? Tips for auto insurance claims” (last updated 9/24/2025)
- Texas Department of Insurance, “Accident not your fault? Here’s how to deal with the other driver’s insurance.” (last updated 4/24/2025)
- Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a)
- Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101
- Franco v. Allstate Ins. Co., 505 S.W.2d 789 (Tex. 1974); Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.051
This site gives general legal information. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Deadlines depend on the facts. Some are much shorter than the general rule. Do not rely on this page to decide how long you can wait.
