After a Car Wreck in San Antonio: What a Car Wreck Lawyer Tells You to Do First

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Most of what decides a car wreck claim happens in the first month, long before anybody talks about a settlement. Photos are taken or not, a doctor sees you or does not, and you either give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement or you do not. This page is LAWBOSS’s guide to that first month, written for drivers and passengers hurt in a wreck in San Antonio and the cities around it. It follows the order things happen in: the scene, the first day, the first week and the weeks after.

At the scene: what Texas law requires

Chapter 550 of the Texas Transportation Code sets out what every driver must do after a collision. These duties bind the other driver too, and when that driver ignores them, the failure becomes evidence in your claim.

• Stop and stay. If anyone is or may be hurt, a driver must stop at once, go back if the car rolled on, find out whether anyone needs aid and stay until the information exchange is done (section 550.021). Leaving is a crime, and a felony when someone is seriously hurt or killed.
• Exchange information. Each driver gives name, address, plate number and the name of the liability insurer, and shows a driver’s license if asked (550.023).
• Help the injured. The same section requires reasonable help to anyone injured, including arranging a ride to a doctor or hospital when treatment is plainly needed or the person asks for it.
• Call the police. When someone is hurt or killed, or a car cannot be driven normally and safely, the driver must tell the police at once: the city police inside a city, the sheriff or the nearest Department of Public Safety office outside one (550.026).
• Clear the freeway. On a freeway main lane, ramp or shoulder in a metropolitan area, cars that can be driven normally and safely must be moved to the frontage road, the nearest cross street or another safe place to finish the exchange (550.022). On I-35, I-10, I-37, Loop 410, Loop 1604 and US 281 that is the rule, not a courtesy.

If the car you hit was parked and empty, section 550.024 requires you to find the owner or leave a note with your name and address and what happened. If someone hit your parked car and drove off, report it and keep any note left for you.

Photographs worth taking

Use your phone before the cars are moved, unless they block a freeway lane, and again after. An adjuster who never saw the scene will build a picture of the wreck from what you can show.

• Both cars from every side, with the plates readable, and close-ups of the damage
• The road: lane lines, skid marks, debris, the traffic signal or stop sign and the speed limit sign
• The other driver’s license, insurance card and registration, if the driver allows it
• Your injuries, that day and over the following days as bruising develops
• Businesses with cameras that face the road, and the names and numbers of witnesses

Who comes to the scene

Inside the City of San Antonio, the San Antonio Police Department handles the wreck. Outside the city limits in Bexar County, it is usually the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, and on some state highways a trooper from the Department of Public Safety. Schertz, Live Oak, Universal City, Converse, Leon Valley, Helotes, New Braunfels, Boerne and Seguin each have their own police department for wrecks inside their limits. Whichever agency comes, ask the officer for a name and badge number and the report or case number, because that is how you find the report later.

The first day: medical care

Adrenaline hides pain. Neck and back injuries, concussions and internal injuries often show themselves the next morning, not at the scene. If an ambulance takes you from the scene, the most serious injuries in the region go to Level I trauma centers: University Hospital at 4502 Medical Drive, verified by the American College of Surgeons as a Level I trauma center for adults and for children, and Brooke Army Medical Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, which treats civilian trauma patients from the region. If you went home from the scene, see your own doctor, an urgent care clinic or an emergency room within a day.

Tell the doctor you were in a car wreck and describe every place that hurts, even the ones that seem minor. A complaint that first appears in the records weeks later is easy for an insurer to blame on something else. Keep the discharge papers, prescriptions and receipts in one folder from the first day.

The first week: insurers and the claim

Report the wreck to your own insurer promptly, as your policy requires. Your policy probably includes personal injury protection, which pays medical bills and lost income whoever was at fault, unless a named insured rejected it in writing (Insurance Code 1952.152). Ask your insurer to open a PIP claim and send you the application.

The other driver’s insurer will usually call you within days. Its adjuster may be friendly, and may ask to record a short statement. You have no duty to give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement, and the answers are used to measure your share of the fault and the size of your injuries. Give your name and contact details, say that you are getting medical care, and say that your lawyer will be in touch. Do not sign a medical authorization or a release that the other insurer sends you.

Who calls	What they want	What to do
Your own insurer	Notice of the wreck, and details for PIP and your own coverages	Report it, ask for the PIP application, keep a note of the claim number
The other driver’s insurer	A recorded statement and a medical authorization	Give contact details only and refer them to your lawyer
The body shop or tow yard	Authorization to repair or to keep storing the car	Ask about storage fees, which grow by the day, and get your belongings out
A medical provider	Your health insurance or PIP details	Give them both. Tell them it was a car wreck

Your car

The other driver’s insurer cannot require you to take your car to a particular shop or to use a particular kind of part when it settles your property damage claim (Insurance Code 1952.301). You can choose your own shop. If the car is a total loss, the claim is for its value before the wreck, so gather the purchase papers, recent service records and photographs of the car before the wreck.

The first month: the report, the records and the deadline

The CR-3 crash report

When an officer investigates a wreck that caused an injury, a death or apparent property damage of $1,000 or more to one person, the officer must write a report and file it electronically with TxDOT within 10 days (Transportation Code 550.062). That is the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, form CR-3. Buy it through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System at cris.txdot.gov: the fee is $6, or $8 for a certified copy (550.065), plus a small surcharge for the online system, and the report arrives by email. People involved in the wreck, owners, insurers and their representatives get the full report; anyone else gets a copy with personal details removed.

Read the report when it arrives. Check the names, the insurers, the direction each car was going and the contributing factors the officer marked. A wrong insurer or a wrong lane in the report causes delay. If you think the officer got it wrong, tell us: a report can be challenged with photographs, witnesses and other evidence, and it is not the last word on fault. Our CR-3 crash report guide explains each step and what to check.

Keep a simple file

• The CR-3 report and the other driver’s insurance details
• Every medical bill, record, receipt and prescription, and a list of visits with dates
• Pay stubs or a letter from your employer showing the time you missed
• Repair estimates, the rental receipt and the total loss valuation if there is one
• A short diary: pain, sleep, what you could not do that week

Social media

Insurers look. A photo of you smiling at a family barbecue says nothing about your back, but it will be used as if it did. Post nothing about the wreck or your injuries, and ask friends not to tag you until the claim is over.

The deadline

The deadline to file a lawsuit for injuries or property damage after a Texas car wreck is two years from the day of the wreck (Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003). For a child, the clock does not start until the child turns 18 (16.001). If a government vehicle was involved, such as a city truck or a county car, a written notice of the claim is due much sooner: within six months under section 101.101, and possibly less under a city’s charter.

When to call a car wreck lawyer

Not every fender bender needs a lawyer. If nobody was hurt and the other insurer is paying for your car, you can handle that yourself. Call a car wreck lawyer in San Antonio when:

• you or a passenger needed medical care
• the other driver blames you, or the report blames you and you disagree
• the other driver had no insurance, too little insurance, or drove away
• a company vehicle, a rideshare driver or a government vehicle was involved
• the adjuster wants a recorded statement, a medical authorization or a quick release

A free case review tells you where you stand. 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.

From here, our car accident lawyer San Antonio page explains how fault is decided and proved, and our car accident attorney San Antonio page explains every insurance coverage that can pay you. You can also read about the firm on our main website, lawboss.com.

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