The trauma and distress of a car accident doesn’t end with the crash, or even the emergency medical treatment and painful recovery. Unfortunately, the process of recovering compensation after a car accident often continues the stress and anxiety—especially when the at-fault party’s insurance company disputes the claim or tries to shift liability to the injury victim.
If you or a loved one experienced a car accident in El Cenizo, you need a strong ally on your side throughout the process of your car accident claim. Call the El Cenizo personal injury attorneys from Wawi Tijerina Law at (956) 489-1300 to learn your rights and legal options.
Why Select Wawi Tijerina as Your Car Accident Attorney In El Cenizo?
Wawi Tijerina is renowned throughout Texas for her years of public service, legal advocacy for injury victims, and years as an elected judge. As a Laredo native, she has deep insight into the state’s insurance system and civil court. With Wawi Tijerina, you’ll have the following advantages in your car accident case:
- A law office with a reputation as a premier Texas law firm behind your case so defendants and insurance companies know you have strong protection for your rights
- Open communication and availability throughout the progress of your claim, including bilingual legal service without regard to our client’s legal status
- Strong resources, diligent investigators, and access to the best medical experts and accident reconstruction specialists to help strengthen your case by proving your damages and the at-fault driver’s liability
At Wawi Tijerina Law, we take on all financial risks by providing your legal service at no upfront cost to you. Instead, you only pay us after we recover compensation in your case.
Car Accident Statistics In Texas
We rarely think twice about stepping into a car, yet there were 14,905 car accidents with injuries in Texas in 2024 alone. According to Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts, statistics from 2024 show the following:
- 251,977 motorists suffered injuries in Texas car accidents
- 50.12% of Texas traffic accidents occurred in rural areas
- 2,080 car accident deaths occurred in rural regions of Texas
- 1,050 Texas traffic accidents occurred in intersections
- 617 fatalities occurred in head-on collisions
- 1,053 car accident deaths occurred in crashes involving a drunk driver, making up more than 25% of total traffic accident deaths
- 380 people died in accidents caused by distracted driving
- One reportable Texas car accident occurred every 57 seconds in 2024
- Every 2 minutes and 5 seconds, a person was injured in a car accident in 2024
- Every 2 hours and 7 minutes, a car accident death occurred that year
Tragically, there were zero days in Texas without a car accident death in 2024.
What Causes Car Accidents In El Cenizo?
Even the most careful driver cannot control the actions of other drivers on the road. Unfortunately, it only takes one careless or reckless moment behind the wheel for a drive to end in tragedy—sometimes to other vulnerable motorists sharing the roadway with the negligent driver. The most common causes of car accidents in Texas include the following:
- Speeding
- Distracted driving
- Tailgating
- Failing to yield the right of way
- Making unsafe lane changes
- Improper merging
- Impaired driving
- Fatigued driving
- Aggressive driving
- Unsafe passing
Some car accidents in El Cenizo are not caused by driver error but by other factors, such as a negligent road construction agency that left debris behind, a negligent road-maintenance agency that failed to repair a dangerous pothole, or a road-planning agency that designed a confusing intersection or one with obstructed views.
An experienced Texas car accident lawyer thoroughly investigates the accident to identify the cause of the crash and pinpoint the liable party or all parties who contributed fault to the accident. Then, they pursue full compensation from all available avenues of liability.
What Types of Car Accidents Happen In El Cenizo
El Cenizo residents are active and productive, leading to congested roadways where car accidents on highways and intersections are all too common. The types of car accidents frequently seen in El Cenizo car accident cases include the following:
- Rear-end collisions
- T-bone accidents (angle collisions or broadside accidents)
- Sideswipes
- Head-on collisions
- Roadway departures
- Rollover accidents
- Car vs. commercial truck accidents
- Multi-car pileups
Injuries in car accidents disrupt the injury victim’s life, either temporarily or permanently (from a broken arm to brain damage), with pain and often immobility making it difficult to earn a living at the same time that medical bills pile up. These unfortunate consequences of a car accident are the “damages” in a car accident claim.
Injuries From El Cenizo Car Accidents
The crash force of an accident is far more powerful than most motorists realize, transforming a 135-pound person into a 7,425-pound force in an accident at 55 miles per hour. A collision propels a motorist forward at high force until the seatbelt snaps them back against the seat, placing the body’s musculoskeletal system and organs under tremendous stress. Often, the car’s structure collapses inward at the point of collision during the crash, causing blunt force trauma. Car accident injuries range from mild, fully recoverable injuries with a single emergency room bill to life-altering injuries, leaving the injury victim facing an uncertain future.
Common car accident injuries in El Cenizo include the following:
- Single and multiple fractures
- Back injuries
- Neck injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Internal organ injuries
- Soft-tissue injuries like sprains, torn ligaments, and tendon injuries
- Lacerations, abrasions, and contusions
- Burns
- External head, facial, and dental injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Traumatic amputations
Car accidents are a leading cause of death in Texas and throughout the United States.
What Damages Are Recoverable In an El Cenizo Car Accident Claim?
Under the modified comparative negligence insurance laws in Texas, an injury victim may still recover a portion of their damages minus their percentage of fault as long as they are less than 51% responsible for the accident. Common damages recovered in Texas car accident claims include:
- Reimbursement for medical expenses
- Anticipated future medical costs
- Lost wages
- Future earning loss or diminished future earning capacity due to disability
- Compensation for pain and suffering
- Any other non-economic damages that apply in individual claims such as compensation for disfigurement, loss of limb, loss of hearing, vision loss, or diminished quality of life
If a loved one died in a car accident in El Cenizo or the surrounding area, the wrongful death lawyers at Wawi Tijerina can help close family members recover compensation through a wrongful death claim.
What to Do After a Car Accident In Texas?
Because Texas has a fault-based insurance system for car accident claims, many car accident injury victims take steps to protect themselves physically and financially from the outset, starting at the scene of the accident. After an accident, your phone becomes an essential tool. You or an uninjured person should do the following:
- First, call 911 to report the accident and apply any necessary first aid
- Then, use the phone’s camera to snap photos of the accident scene, the damaged vehicles, and anything relevant, such as a traffic signal, intersection, or a road hazard
- Photograph any visible injuries
- Add the contact information of the involved driver or drivers
- Add the contact information of any eyewitnesses
- Record what you recall about the accident while it’s fresh in your memory
A car accident victim should always go straight to the hospital after the crash, either by ambulance or by arranging transportation directly from the accident scene. This not only ensures that you receive critical emergency care but also provides evidence that your injuries occurred in the accident.
At the hospital, ask for a full medical evaluation as well as treatment for your emergency injuries. This helps your doctor diagnose and treat injuries with delayed symptom presentation, such as whiplash, some types of traumatic brain injuries, and internal bleeding.
During the days and weeks after the accident, it’s essential to follow your doctor’s orders thoroughly, report the accident to your insurance company within the time limit outlined in your policy, and hire an experienced car accident lawyer. Then, direct all communication with the insurance company to your attorney.
How Long Do I Have to File a Car Accident Claim In Cenizo?
Like all states, Texas places a limit on the amount of time an accident victim has to file a claim after their accident. The statute of limitations for Texas car accident claims is two years from the date of the accident. Because a court will not consider a case after the statute of limitations has expired, an insurance company will not pay compensation on a car accident claim in Texas if it’s filed after the two-year statute of limitations.
The state will only exceed the two-year time limit for specific circumstances such as the following:
- If a minor suffers car accident injuries in Texas, they have up to two years from their 18th birthday to file a claim
- If an injury victim is unconscious or incapacitated for some time after the injury, they have up to two years from the date they recover their cognitive function
- When a car accident victim discovers an injury days, weeks, or months later, and a doctor diagnoses the injury as occurring in the car accident, the time limit begins on the date of discovery
A Texas car accident lawyer can address any specific questions about how the state’s statute of limitations impacts your case. For instance, waiting too long to file a car accident claim allows the insurance company to offer a lowball settlement because the insurance adjuster knows there is little time for you and your attorney to negotiate before the statute of limitations expires. Conversely, accepting an early settlement offer too soon after the accident could mean the injury victim doesn’t yet know the full extent of the damages they are facing.
Contact the El Cenizo Car Accident Lawyers at Wawi Tijerina
The insurance adjuster assigned to your car accident claim is working on finding ways to dispute, delay, or deny your claim to protect company profits. You also deserve experienced representation on your side, protecting your right to the maximum available compensation.
Call (956) 489-1300 or contact us online for Wawi Tijerina, the El Cenizo car accident lawyers who are ready to investigate your case, prove liability, and demand the maximum compensation available to you.