By Joshua A. Estes. Board Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law — Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Questions about the first hours and days after a Texas crash — the scene, the police report, medical care, and what to say — answered from The Estes Law Firm’s published articles. Back to Texas Injury Questions, Answered.
What should I do in the first hour after a crash in Texas?
Get everyone safe and call 911. Texas requires reporting a crash involving injury, death, or apparent damage of $1,000 or more. Asking for police isn’t overreacting — it’s what creates the CR-3 crash report, the single most important document in any claim that follows.
More detail: What to Do After a Car Accident in Texas: The First 72 Hours.
Do I need a lawyer for a minor car accident?
Maybe not. If you were not hurt and the insurance company is paying your property damage, you likely don’t need an attorney. If you were hurt, you likely do. Either way, see a doctor — insurers often make low offers on minor crashes, and documentation that you weren’t injured matters later, so a future injury can’t be blamed on this one.
What should I photograph at the scene of a car accident?
All four corners of every vehicle. The road: skid marks, debris, the signal or stop sign. The other driver’s plate and insurance card. Your visible injuries. And wide shots that show the whole intersection. Photograph the scene like a bored adjuster will be grading you.
More detail: What to Do After a Car Accident in Texas: The First 72 Hours.
What should I avoid saying at the scene?
Be polite, exchange information, answer the officer truthfully. But phrases like “I’m sorry” or “I never saw them” have a habit of showing up later in the claim file. You don’t know yet what happened. You know what you experienced. It’s fine to say only that.
More detail: What to Do After a Car Accident in Texas: The First 72 Hours.
Why should I get witness names and numbers myself?
Witnesses leave, and the officer doesn’t always record all of them. Get names and phone numbers yourself, typed into your own phone, before anyone leaves. In a hit and run, a witness is often the only person who can describe the car that left.
More detail: Hit and Run in Texas: What to Do in the First 24 Hours.
Should I see a doctor if I feel fine after the crash?
Yes — the same day, even if the crash looked minor. Adrenaline is a painkiller. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions, and disc injuries routinely surface 24 to 72 hours later. Going today protects your health and puts in the medical record that your injuries came from this crash.
More detail: Should I See a Doctor After a Minor Car Accident in Texas?
Do I have to report the crash to my own insurance company?
Yes. Your policy requires it. Give the facts: time, place, vehicles. You don’t have to say whose fault it was. Your own policy is a contract and it does require cooperation — the other driver’s insurance company owes you nothing, and you owe it nothing.
More detail: What to Do After a Car Accident in Texas: The First 72 Hours.
Why should I write my own account of the crash the same night?
Write down where you were going, which lane, how fast, what the light was doing, what the other driver said, and how your body feels. Date it. Memory reconstructs itself: what you can write down today is evidence; what you remember in six months is an estimate.
More detail: What to Do After a Car Accident in Texas: The First 72 Hours.
What is a “gap in treatment” and why does it matter?
It covers two things: the distance between the crash and the first time you were seen by anyone, and a stretch in the middle where you stopped going. Both get used to argue that a person who was really hurt would have gone sooner, or would have kept going.
More detail: Should I See a Doctor After a Minor Car Accident in Texas?
What if I already waited a week to see a doctor?
Go anyway. The advice does not become worthless because a week passed. Be accurate about when symptoms started and be accurate about why you waited; an honest, documented explanation is worth far more than a tidy story. A reason that exists only in your memory does nothing.
More detail: Should I See a Doctor After a Minor Car Accident in Texas?
I told the officer I wasn’t injured. Does that end my claim?
No. The officer records what was visible and what he was told at the roadside. Injuries that surface a day or two later are documented by medical records, not by the crash report. The injury code on the CR-3 is a roadside impression, not a diagnosis.
More detail: The Texas Crash Report (CR-3): How to Get It and How to Read It.
What should I do first in a hit and run?
Do not chase the car. Call 911 and say the other driver left — that single sentence changes how the call is dispatched and what goes in the report. Then write down any part of the plate, the color, make or body style, direction, time, and the damage you saw.
More detail: Hit and Run in Texas: What to Do in the First 24 Hours.
How long do I have to bring an injury claim in Texas?
Generally two years from the date of the crash, with exceptions that can shorten or extend it. When the defendant is a governmental entity, notice deadlines are far shorter. Don’t calculate your own deadline. Confirm it.
More detail: What to Do After a Car Accident in Texas: The First 72 Hours.
This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines in injury cases are strict and fact-specific. Talk to a lawyer about your own situation.
The Estes Law Firm, P.C. · 716 S. Union St, Richmond, Texas 77469 · (281) 238-5400 · Responsible attorney: William F. Estes.