A car accident is a traumatic experience, often with long-lasting impacts, including both physical and financial ill-effects. If someone else caused the accident, you can recover compensation through a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance under the fault-based car accident laws in Texas. One of the first steps in the process is obtaining and interpreting your Texas car accident report.
Contact a car accident attorney in Laredo today to pursue financial compensation for damages and injuries.
How Do I Get a Copy of My Car Accident Report In Texas?
If you are involved in a Texas car accident with any injuries, fatalities, or $1,000 or more in property damage, you must report the accident to the police. When the police arrive at the scene of the accident, they prepare an accident report based on their observations of the crash and factual data, such as names, contact information, driver’s license numbers, vehicle identification numbers (VIN), and the names of eyewitnesses. This becomes a key piece of evidence when the insurance company investigates the accident to determine which driver or other party is at fault and liable for damages like property damage, medical expenses, and lost earnings.
You can obtain a copy of your accident report through the Texas Department of Transportation’s online portal. You will need to enter your name, license number, VIN, and the TXDOT crash ID number assigned to your case.
Reading a Texas Car Accident Report
A Texas car accident report is also called Form CR-3. An accident report is typically four pages of largely coded information filled out by the responding Texas Peace Officer. Look for the following information:
- The first page contains a general overview of the accident with details such as the number of involved “units” or vehicles, the crash ID number assigned to the case, the date, time, and location of the accident, and the type of road on which the accident occurred, such as a state highway or city street.
- At the bottom of the first page, you’ll find a list of all involved motorists with codes indicating the severity of the injuries and the details of how they were extracted from their crashed vehicles.
- On the second page of the accident report, you’ll find notes indicating where each accident victim was taken, including hospitals and morgues. Also on the second page are notes about property damage to obstacles, signs, the roadway, and other non-vehicular damage. At the bottom of page two are the responding officer’s noted observations about contributing factors, and whether or not any traffic citations were issued.
- Finally, pages three and four are the code key, indicating the meaning of each numbered code on the previous pages.
When a car accident victim hires a Laredo personal injury attorney, their lawyer helps them to obtain and interpret their car accident report. It’s important to know how the unique details of your accident report affect your case.
Why Is the Accident Report Central to a Car Accident Claim In Texas?
Texas is a fault-based accident state with a modified comparative negligence system. Under this type of insurance law, the party responsible for the accident is liable for the damages; however, the insurance company may assign a percentage of fault to both drivers, depending on their interpretation of the accident report and other evidence in the case. An injury victim may still recover compensation as long as they are less than 51% at fault for the accident. In these cases, the insurance company subtracts the accident victim’s percentage of fault from the amount they pay out on the claim.
A Texas car accident lawyer often counters the insurance adjuster’s narrative with an investigation of their own to prove the at-fault party’s full percentage of liability and protect their client from receiving an unfair percentage of fault for the accident.