What to Do After a Car Accident in Austin

If you've been in a crash on I-35, MoPac, or a residential street in Austin, the first hour is the most disorienting and the most consequential. The short version: make sure everyone is safe, call APD if there are injuries or visible damage, document the scene with your phone, exchange information with the other driver, see a doctor even if you feel fine, and contact your own insurance company. Don't admit fault, don't give a recorded statement to the OTHER driver's adjuster, and don't post about the crash on social media. Get a copy of the CR-3 police report once it's filed. Save every receipt and medical record. The decisions you make in the next 72 hours shape every claim that follows.

The first 30 minutes

Move to safety if you can. If anyone's hurt, call 911 immediately and let the 911 operator dispatch APD and EMS. If everyone's walking and the cars are movable, get them out of the travel lane — Texas Transportation Code §550.022 requires drivers in non-injury crashes to move vehicles out of the roadway when possible. Sitting in a live lane on I-35 is how secondary crashes happen.

Don't admit fault. People apologize reflexively after a crash even when the other driver ran a red light. Keep your conversation factual: confirm everyone is OK, exchange information, get out of the way of traffic.

Take photos before anything moves. The phone in your pocket is the closest thing to a forensic record you'll have. Capture:

• The position of both vehicles relative to the lane lines
• The damage to both vehicles, from multiple angles
• Skid marks, debris, and any traffic-control devices nearby
• The other driver's license plate, insurance card, and driver's license
• Any visible injuries on yourself or your passengers
• The intersection or address — a wide shot showing nearby cross-streets

If there are witnesses, get their phone numbers before they leave. Witnesses disappear within minutes of a crash; their statements are far more valuable than yours when liability is contested later.

Police report (CR-3)

Two Transportation Code sections matter here. §550.026 requires immediate notice when a crash causes injury, death, or damage that prevents a vehicle from being safely driven — that's the trigger to call 911 or APD at the scene. §550.062 then requires the investigating peace officer to prepare a written report (the CR-3) when the crash involves injury, death, or apparent property damage of $1,000 or more, and to file it electronically with TxDOT within 10 days. APD assigns a CR-3 number on the scene; you'll need it to pull the report later.

If APD doesn't respond — common in non-injury fender-benders during shift changes — there is no longer a driver-filed crash form (the old CR-2 was retired by TxDOT in 2017). The path is to call APD's non-emergency line at 311 to ask whether an officer can still respond, document the scene yourself, and notify your insurance company directly.

The CR-3 itself is a structured form with discrete fields the officer fills in based on what they observe and what each driver says. It includes a narrative section, a diagram, contributing-factor codes, and the officer's opinion on who was at fault. That officer-of-record opinion isn't binding in court, but it's the first thing every insurance adjuster reads, and it shapes the whole claim. Read your copy carefully when it's available — if there's a factual error, ask APD how to file an addendum. They won't change the officer's opinion, but they will note corrections of fact.

Travis County reports usually appear in TxDOT's Crash Records Information System (CRIS) about 10 days after filing. You can pull a certified copy online from txdot.gov/crashreports for a small fee. APD's in-person desk at 715 East 8th Street provides faster access if you need the report quickly.

Medical care

See a doctor within 72 hours, even if you feel fine. This is not a paranoia prescription — it's the first thing every defense lawyer attacks. If your medical record shows a gap of two weeks between the crash and your first visit, the other side argues your injuries came from something else. If the gap is days instead of weeks, that argument disappears.

Common delayed-onset injuries after a crash:

• Whiplash. Symptoms can take 24-72 hours to appear; the soft-tissue inflammation peaks days later.
• Concussion / mild traumatic brain injury. Headache, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, sleep disruption. Often missed at the scene because adrenaline masks it.
• Internal bruising. Especially across the seatbelt path; can mask serious organ damage.
• Spinal disc injury. Pain may not localize for weeks; MRI is usually the first definitive evidence.

If you go to an ER, ask for copies of your discharge paperwork and follow-up instructions before you leave. Schedule the follow-up they recommend, even if you feel better. Skipping a follow-up is treated as evidence you weren't actually hurt — fair or not, that's how the claim adjuster reads it.

Save every bill, every prescription, every co-pay receipt. Texas operates under a paid-or-incurred rule (§41.0105) — the value of medical damages is constrained to amounts actually paid or owed, not the gross billed amount. The cleaner your records, the cleaner the calculation.

Insurance contact

Call your own insurance company within 24-48 hours. Most policies have a "prompt notice" cooperation clause; waiting weeks gives the insurer grounds to contest coverage. Stick to the basic facts when you call: when, where, who was driving, that you've sought medical care. You don't have to speculate about fault.

What you should NOT do is give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurance company. They will call. They are practiced at making the call sound routine. They will ask you to "just briefly" describe what happened, and the resulting recording becomes the version of events you're locked into. You're not under any obligation to cooperate with their investigation. A polite "I'm not comfortable giving a statement right now — please put any questions in writing" is sufficient.

If you carry PIP coverage on your own policy, file the PIP claim immediately. PIP pays your medical bills (up to your policy limit, commonly $2,500 or $5,000) and a portion of lost wages regardless of who was at fault. Texas Insurance Code §1952.152 requires insurers to provide PIP coverage with every auto liability policy unless you reject it in writing — so if you didn't sign a written rejection, you have it. PIP doesn't reduce what you can recover from the at-fault driver later. It's a separate bucket.

If your medical bills outpace your PIP limit (common with any ER visit + a follow-up appointment), the next layer is your health insurance. Tell your medical provider you're billing health insurance, not auto. The provider may file a hospital lien against any future settlement; that lien gets sorted out when the case resolves.

If the other driver was uninsured or underinsured, your own UM/UIM coverage becomes the source of recovery. Under Texas Insurance Code §1952.101, insurers must provide UM/UIM coverage with every auto liability policy at least at the minimum financial responsibility limits in Chapter 601, unless you reject it in writing. (You can buy higher UM/UIM limits — sometimes matching your bodily-injury liability — but the floor is the state minimum, not your BI cap.) Most drivers don't think about UM/UIM until they need it, at which point their own insurer is on the other side of the table.

Common mistakes

A short list of the things people do in the first weeks after a crash that actively damage their claim:

1. Posting on social media. Even an "I'm fine, just shaken up" post is subpoenable evidence. Photos of yourself at a barbecue two weeks later are used to argue you weren't actually hurt. Lock down your accounts. Stop posting until the case resolves.

2. Giving recorded statements without thinking. The other driver's adjuster isn't your friend. Statements are routinely used out of context months later. If you're going to talk to the other side at all, do it in writing.

3. Accepting the first settlement offer. First offers are almost always below market and almost always made before the full picture of medical costs is known. Once you sign a release, you can't reopen the claim — even if a complication shows up six months later.

4. Skipping medical follow-ups. Every gap in treatment is treated as evidence the injury wasn't real. Go to the appointments. If finances are tight, tell the provider — most will work with you, and many will accept payment from a future settlement under a letter of protection.

5. Throwing away the damaged vehicle. Don't authorize the insurer to total and crush the car until you've documented the damage thoroughly — in serious cases, a crashworthiness analyst may need to inspect the wreckage. Same for the seatbelt and any deployed airbags.

6. Waiting too long to call a lawyer. The two-year statute of limitations under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §16.003 sounds like a long runway. It isn't. Witnesses disappear. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. Phone records age out. Tort Claims Act notice deadlines are much shorter and vary by entity. The Texas Tort Claims Act default is six months (§101.101(a)), but §101.101(b) preserves city-charter notice periods — and the City of Austin charter requires written notice within 45 days of the incident. If a City of Austin vehicle, employee, or property was involved, treat 45 days as your hard deadline. Travis County, Williamson County, and the State of Texas use different deadlines under their own charters/statutes. The firm can sit through a conversation about a case at any point; the earlier in the timeline, the more options you have.

A car crash is the start of a paperwork process that runs for months. The people who do well in that process are the ones who got organized in the first 72 hours. The medical records are clean, the photos are filed, the police report is in hand, the insurance company has been notified. From there, the question is whether to handle the rest yourself or get help. That question is genuinely yours to make. But it's a lot easier to make it from solid ground.