Auto Accident Lawyer in San Antonio: Each Kind of Collision and Whose Insurance Pays

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Every auto accident raises the same two questions: who caused it, and whose insurance answers for it. The second question changes a great deal with the kind of collision. A rear-end wreck on Loop 410 between two insured drivers is a different claim from a hit-and-run on Culebra Road, a crash with a drunk driver leaving a bar, or a collision with a city truck. This page is LAWBOSS’s guide to the kinds of auto accidents we see in San Antonio and Bexar County, and to the rules and insurance that apply to each.

Rear-end collisions

The most common wreck in stop-and-go traffic. Texas law requires a driver following another vehicle to keep an assured clear distance, so that the driver can stop safely without hitting the car ahead (Transportation Code 545.062). The following driver’s liability insurer is usually the one that pays.

Rear-end wrecks often look minor and cause neck and back injuries that show up the next day. Insurers argue that a small dent means a small injury. The answer is prompt medical care, records that describe every symptom from the start, and photographs that show the force of the impact, including damage under the bumper cover that a quick look misses.

Intersection, left-turn and T-bone collisions

A driver turning left must yield to oncoming traffic that is in the intersection or close enough to be an immediate hazard (Transportation Code 545.152). Side impacts at intersections, sometimes called T-bone wrecks, are among the most dangerous because the side of a car has little room to absorb a crash. TxDOT counted 955 deaths in Texas in 2025 in crashes at or related to an intersection.

Fault in these wrecks often turns on the signal: who had the green light, who had the left-turn arrow, who ran the yellow. Witnesses disagree, and drivers remember the light the way they wanted it. Traffic camera video, nearby business cameras and the signal timing records kept by the city or TxDOT can settle it, but only if they are requested before they are recorded over.

Hit-and-run accidents

A driver who leaves the scene of a collision that injures someone commits an offense under Transportation Code 550.021, a felony when the injury is serious. If the police find the driver, the claim goes against that driver’s insurance. If not, your own uninsured motorist coverage takes the place of the missing driver’s insurance, unless a named insured rejected it in writing (Insurance Code 1952.101).

There is a condition that catches people out. When the driver is unknown, Texas UM coverage pays only if there was actual physical contact between the unknown car and you or your car (Insurance Code 1952.104). A driver who forces you off the road without touching your car is harder to claim for. Report a hit-and-run to the police at once, write down everything you remember about the car, and look for cameras before the video is gone.

Drunk driver accidents

TxDOT counted 906 people killed in Texas in 2025 in crashes where a driver was under the influence of alcohol, 24.04 percent of all traffic deaths that year. A drunk driver’s crash raises claims beyond the ordinary one.

• Exemplary damages. Texas allows exemplary damages only on clear and convincing evidence of fraud, malice or gross negligence, and only by a unanimous jury (Civil Practice and Remedies Code 41.003). Driving drunk is often argued as gross negligence. The usual cap on exemplary damages in section 41.008 does not apply when the conduct is intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter under the Penal Code.
• The bar or restaurant that served the driver. Under Alcoholic Beverage Code 2.02(b), a provider can be liable if it was apparent when it served the driver that the driver was obviously intoxicated to the point of presenting a clear danger, and the intoxication was a cause of the damages. These claims depend on receipts, staff testimony and video from the place that served the driver.
• Adults who serve minors. Section 2.02(c) makes an adult 21 or older liable, in some cases, for damage caused by the intoxication of a minor under 18 to whom the adult knowingly served or provided alcohol.

The criminal case against a drunk driver runs separately from your civil claim. A conviction helps, but your claim does not wait for it, and the two-year deadline under Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003 keeps running.

Uninsured and underinsured drivers

Texas requires every driver to carry liability insurance of at least 30/60/25 (Transportation Code 601.072), but not every driver does, and many carry only the minimum. When the driver who caused the wreck has no insurance, your UM coverage pays what you could have recovered from that driver. When the driver’s limits are lower than your UIM limits, your UIM coverage pays the rest of what you are owed up to its limit, after the other insurer’s payment (Insurance Code 1952.103 and 1952.106). If the other driver’s insurer has become insolvent, the car is treated as uninsured (1952.102).

We look for every policy that can apply: the at-fault driver’s, the owner’s if someone else owns the car, your own, the policy on the car you were riding in and, depending on its terms, a household member’s policy.

Company vehicles and drivers on the job

When the other driver was working at the time, for example in a delivery van, a contractor’s pickup or a service truck, the employer and its commercial insurer may be responsible as well as the driver. Commercial policies usually carry higher limits than personal ones. These claims need early evidence of the driver’s employment and the job the driver was doing, and the company’s own records: dispatch logs, telematics and the vehicle’s maintenance file. Large trucks and 18-wheelers are covered by federal safety rules as well, and we handle those cases too.

Rideshare vehicles

We handle accidents involving rideshare drivers, whether you were the passenger, another driver or a pedestrian. Texas has its own insurance rules for these drivers in Chapter 1954 of the Insurance Code. While a driver is logged on to the app and waiting for a ride request, the required coverage is at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident for bodily injury and $25,000 for property damage (1954.052). During a prearranged ride it is a total of at least $1 million per incident (1954.053). Which policy applies depends on what the app shows the driver was doing at the moment of the crash, so the app records matter.

City, county and other government vehicles

A crash with a city truck, a county vehicle, a transit bus or another government vehicle falls under the Texas Tort Claims Act in Chapter 101 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. A governmental unit is liable for injuries caused by an employee’s negligent use of a motor vehicle within the scope of employment, when the employee would be personally liable under Texas law (101.021).

Rule	What it says	Section
Notice	The governmental unit is entitled to written notice of the claim within six months of the incident, describing the injury, the time and place and the incident. A city’s charter may set a shorter period	101.101
Actual notice	The written notice rule does not apply if the unit already has actual notice of the injury, death or property damage	101.101(c)
Limits on damages	Recovery against the state and against cities is limited to $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence for bodily injury; against other local units, $100,000 and $300,000	101.023

Because of the notice rule, a wreck with a public vehicle is one to bring to a lawyer early. Do not rely on the agency’s own investigation as your notice.

Passengers

A passenger is almost never at fault, which makes the claim simpler on fault and harder on insurance, because the passenger may claim against both drivers. A passenger can also use the PIP coverage of the car he or she was riding in (Insurance Code 1952.151). One rule to know: if you claim against the driver of your own car, that driver’s insurer can deduct the PIP it already paid you (1952.159).

Pedestrians and cyclists

We also take cases for pedestrians and cyclists hit by cars. TxDOT counted 695 pedestrian deaths and 91 cyclist deaths in Texas in 2025. A pedestrian or cyclist with an auto policy at home may be able to use that policy’s PIP and UM coverage as well as the driver’s liability insurance.

One rule for every kind of accident

Whatever the collision, fault is split in percentages under Chapter 33 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and you recover only if your share is 50 percent or less. Our car accident lawyer San Antonio page explains how that is argued and proved, and our car accident attorney San Antonio page explains each insurance coverage in detail. The firm’s main website is lawboss.com.

We work on a contingency fee: you pay no attorney’s fee unless we recover money for you. We advance the case expenses, and if there is no recovery you owe no fee and no case expenses. If there is a recovery, the fee and the expenses are paid from it as your written fee agreement sets out before we start.

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