How to Read Your Texas Crash Report (CR-3)

The Texas crash report — known formally as the CR-3 form, filed by the investigating officer with the Texas Department of Transportation — is the single document most insurance adjusters read before deciding what to offer you. It is also one of the most misread documents in Texas personal injury practice. The contributing-factor codes are the officer's opinion, not findings of fact. The unit numbering does not determine fault. And the report is generally inadmissible at trial as direct evidence. Reading the CR-3 correctly — and knowing which sections actually matter — changes how you respond to the adjuster's first call. This page walks through where to get your report, the six sections that drive the negotiation, what the contributing-factor codes mean, and what to do when the report is wrong.

What the CR-3 is and isn't

The CR-3 is a standardized state form completed by Texas peace officers who investigate motor-vehicle crashes meeting the §550.062 threshold: any crash that caused injury, death, or apparent property damage of at least $1,000. The officer files it electronically with TxDOT within 10 days of the crash, and TxDOT loads it into the Crash Records Information System (CRIS) database where it becomes accessible to drivers, insurance carriers, and attorneys.

What the CR-3 is: a contemporaneous record of what the officer saw, who the officer interviewed, and what codes the officer chose for each unit. It captures vehicle positions at impact, ostensible direction of travel, weather and road conditions, witnesses identified at the scene, and a narrative diagram. It is the most efficient summary of the crash for anyone who wasn't there.

What the CR-3 isn't: a finding of fault. Texas law treats fault apportionment as a jury question under §33.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and the officer's contributing-factor codes carry no legal weight on that determination. The CR-3 is also not generally admissible as direct evidence at trial — Texas treats it as hearsay, with limited exceptions for impeachment, refreshed memory, and the public-records exception under Tex. R. Evid. 803(8). The officer can be subpoenaed and testify directly; the form itself usually cannot.

That distinction matters because adjusters routinely treat the CR-3 as the final word. If your report has a contributing-factor code you disagree with, the adjuster will likely use it to push your fault percentage above 50% (triggering the §33.001 modified-comparative-fault bar) and offer you nothing. Knowing the CR-3's actual evidentiary weight changes that conversation.

How to request your report

Two paths, both produce the same content.

TxDOT CRIS at cris.dot.state.tx.us is the centralized state database. Search by date plus driver's license, or by Crash ID if you have it from the scene officer's information card. Per §550.065(d), the fee is $6 for a regular (non-certified) copy and $8 for a certified copy (the $6 base fee plus a $2 certification fee). A certified copy is required if you'll ever file the report into evidence or use it for an out-of-state insurance claim. The interface is functional, not friendly — keep your driver's license number and crash date handy before you start.

The investigating agency directly. For an Austin crash, that's the City of Austin Police Department Records Customer Service unit. For a crash in unincorporated Travis or Williamson County, the respective Sheriff's office. Larger Williamson cities (Round Rock, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Georgetown) all maintain their own records units. Agency-direct requests sometimes get the report a day or two faster than CRIS does, particularly for crashes in the most-recent 72 hours.

For crashes involving fatality or serious bodily injury, the report may be delayed because supplemental investigation is required (toxicology results, reconstruction findings). In those cases, the preliminary CR-3 may have sections marked "PENDING" — those sections will be updated when the supplemental data lands.

The six sections that matter most

The CR-3 has dozens of fields. Six sections drive how an adjuster reads the report.

Section 1 — Crash identifiers. Crash ID, county, date, time, location. Confirm these before relying on anything else; transposed addresses and wrong dates do happen, and they can affect statute-of-limitations calculations later.

Section 2 — Persons involved. Each driver, each passenger, each pedestrian or cyclist. Each gets a "Person ID" within the report. The injuries column uses a 5-letter code (K = killed, A = incapacitating injury, B = non- incapacitating, C = possible injury, N = no injury). Insurance adjusters focus on the injury code your unit shows. A "C" code on a claimant who later develops chronic pain is a common adjuster talking point; treat it as a contemporaneous observation, not a medical diagnosis.

Section 3 — Unit-level data per vehicle. Vehicle make, model, year, license plate, registered owner, insurance information, and driver information. Each unit also gets its own contributing-factor codes (covered below). Confirm the insurance information for the at-fault unit here — adjusters sometimes drop coverage limits in initial conversations that don't match what's actually on the report.

Section 4 — Contributing factors and conditions. The officer's opinion codes for each unit, plus weather, lighting, road surface, and traffic control conditions at the time. This is where the fault narrative lives.

Section 5 — Vehicle damage assessment. Damage rating from 0 (none) to 7 (total) plus impact direction (using a 12-point clock face). The damage geometry often disproves adjuster narratives — a rear-end claim where damage shows side-impact contact tells a different story than the adjuster will tell you.

Section 6 — Officer's narrative. Free-text description of what the officer believes happened, plus a hand-drawn diagram. The narrative carries more weight in negotiation than any single code, because it tells the human story the codes can only hint at. Read it word-for-word; argue with the adjuster over what the words actually say.

Contributing-factor codes

The CR-3 contributing-factor list runs codes 1 through 44 plus narrative-only entries. The codes most commonly assigned in Travis and Williamson County crashes:

• Code 4 — Failed to Yield Right of Way. Often paired with intersection crashes. The officer's interpretation of right-of-way can be challenged with witness statements or signal-timing data.
• Code 16 — Speeding (Over Limit). Requires officer-observable speed evidence (radar, skid marks, witness). If neither was present, this code is harder to support at trial.
• Code 18 — Distracted in Vehicle. Cell-phone-use interpretation; the officer typically asks the driver and notes the response. This is a catch-all that can be challenged.
• Code 26 — Followed Too Closely. Standard rear-end code. Texas follows the "same lane, last to act" presumption but it is rebuttable (sudden stop without cause, brake-light failure on lead vehicle).
• Code 39 — Driver Inattention. A general "not paying attention" code that's almost impossible to disprove because it's an officer-opinion catch-all. Often paired with other factors.

Multiple factors per unit are normal — a single crash routinely has 2-4 contributing factors per vehicle. Adjusters will read the cumulative count as evidence of fault; jurors do not.

When the report is wrong

The CR-3 is a contemporaneous record but not infallible. Three categories of error are common:

Factual errors. Wrong direction of travel, wrong driver named at fault, wrong vehicle linked to wrong driver, transposed addresses. Fix path: file a supplemental written statement with the investigating agency. APD accepts supplements via the Records Customer Service unit. The supplement does not overwrite the original report; it creates a parallel record that travels with the CR-3 in CRIS.

Coding errors. A contributing-factor code that doesn't match the officer's narrative, or a contributing-factor code that has no factual basis in the narrative. Fix path: in deposition, the officer can be asked to reconcile the code with the narrative — the inconsistency is impeachment material.

Omissions. Witnesses not interviewed, dashcam footage not captured, nearby business cameras not contacted. Fix path: identify the gap fast and preserve the third-party evidence yourself before it's overwritten. Most business camera systems retain footage for 30 days.

If the report has any of these problems, the adjuster's "the report says you were 70% at fault" line is no longer the closing argument. Apportionment is the jury's call, the report is impeachable hearsay, and the contributing- factor codes are the officer's opinion. Knowing all three changes the negotiation.

The CR-3 is a starting point, not a verdict. Your contemporaneous evidence (your photos, your witness statements, your medical records) usually matters more in negotiation than what the officer wrote in 20 minutes at the scene. Get your report, read it word-for-word, mark the disagreements, and then talk to a lawyer before talking to the adjuster.

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