Not always. Texas law requires you to report a crash to the police only if someone is hurt or killed, or if a vehicle is damaged and cannot be safely driven from the crash (Texas Transportation Code § 550.026). A fender-bender with no injuries and drivable cars doesn’t have to be reported to police. However, you still have to stop and you should exchange information with the other person.
But “minor” is often the insurance company’s word, not yours. Adrenaline hides pain, and injuries from low-speed crashes often show up days later. For more than 50 years, Jim Adler & Associates, has fought for injured Texans whose “minor” crashes turned out to be anything but minor.
If you were hurt in a Houston crash, our Houston car accident lawyers will talk to you for free and let you know if you have a case, even if the police never came to the scene.
Texas law doesn’t define a “minor accident.” A crash is usually called minor when no one says they are injured, the vehicles can be driven away, and the damage is mostly cosmetic, like dents, scratches or a cracked bumper.
Common examples include:
Minor damage is not the same as a minor injury. Even low-speed collisions can cause whiplash, soft tissue injuries and concussions. These often don’t cause pain until hours or days later, once the adrenaline wears off.
Insurance adjusters know this, and they use it to their advantage. A common tactic is to point to low property damage and argue the crash couldn’t have hurt you. Be careful, because how you handle a “minor” crash in the first few days matters as much as what happened at the scene.
You must immediately notify police, by the quickest means available, if the crash injured or killed anyone, or if any vehicle can’t be normally and safely driven. That duty comes from Texas Transportation Code § 550.026, and it applies no matter whose fault the crash was.
Who you call depends on where the crash happened:
In practice, calling 911 or the non-emergency line from the scene covers this.
Here’s how the rule applies in common situations:
Every crash has some legal duties, even minor ones. You must stop, and you must give the other driver your name, address, vehicle registration number and insurance information (§§ 550.022–550.023). Leaving the scene without doing so can lead to criminal charges, even if the damage is small.
You may also have heard of a $1,000 reporting threshold. That rule applies to police officers, not drivers. Under § 550.062, an officer who investigates a crash must file a written report if it caused injury, death or at least $1,000 in property damage.
Even when the law doesn’t require it, we recommend calling police after any crash. A police report gives you an independent record of what happened, and that makes it harder for an insurance company to dispute your claim later.
Often, no. When no one is hurt and the cars can be driven, many Texas police departments treat the crash as a low priority and may not send an officer, especially when they’re busy with emergencies. Policies vary from city to city.
If you call and police don’t come:
A missing police report doesn’t end your case. You can still file an insurance claim without a police report, but you’ll need to build the record yourself, using the steps below.
There are three separate deadlines, and they run on very different clocks:
The insurance deadline is the one people miss. Some auto policies require that you report a crash promptly. Waiting weeks can give the insurer a reason to deny the claim or to argue your injuries came from something else. For the lawsuit deadline and its exceptions, see our guide to the Texas statute of limitations.
Texas drivers don’t have a 10-day reporting deadline anymore. Much of what you’ll read online about a 10-day rule comes from other states, like California, or from Texas’s old Driver’s Crash Report (Form CR-2).
Texas stopped requiring drivers to submit the CR-2 on September 1, 2017, under Senate Bill 312, and TxDOT no longer keeps those forms (TxDOT). The 10-day rule that remains applies to police officers, who must send their crash reports to TxDOT within 10 days.
That doesn’t mean waiting is safe. If you wait more than 10 days to report a crash to your insurance company, you may risk the insurance company denying the claim. Evidence also disappears: surveillance video gets recorded over, and witnesses become hard to find. And if the crash involved an injury or an undrivable vehicle, the law required you to report it immediately.
If police don’t come, you become the investigator. These steps protect your claim:
If the police did file a report, here’s how to get a copy of your police report.
Before speaking to a corporate insurance adjuster, let our team review your case. What you say on that first call can follow your claim all the way to settlement.
A minor crash becomes a real claim when someone gets hurt or when the insurance company refuses to pay fairly. Watch for these signs:
Any one of these is a reason to talk to a lawyer before you sign anything.
A small dent doesn’t mean a small injury, and it doesn’t give an insurance company the right to shortchange you. If you were hurt in a crash anywhere in Texas, Jim Adler & Associates will review your case for free, whether or not police came to the scene.
With our Risk Free Guarantee, you pay nothing unless we win. Learn how our contingency fee works, or call us now at 1-800-505-1414 for your FREE consultation.
For drivers, the duty to call police depends on injuries and whether the cars can be driven, not on a dollar amount. The $1,000 figure in Texas law sets when an investigating officer must file a written report.
Not completely. Under § 550.065, TxDOT releases full crash reports to people directly involved, such as the drivers, vehicle owners and their insurers. Anyone else gets a redacted copy.
If you leave without stopping and exchanging information, you can face criminal charges for leaving the scene, even if the damage is minor. If you hit an unattended car, you must find the owner or leave a note with your name and address. Your insurer may also deny coverage if you don’t report the crash to them.
Yes. No Texas law requires a police report before you file a claim. Without one, though, expect the adjuster to question fault and your injuries more closely. Here’s how to build a claim without a police report.
Yes, ideally that day or within a day or two. Some injuries take time to show symptoms, and a prompt medical record connects your injuries to the crash. Waiting weeks gives the insurance company an argument that something else caused them.
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