A fatal car crash leaves a family with grief and, at the same time, with police reports, insurance calls and decisions nobody prepared them for. This page explains what happens after a deadly crash in San Antonio and what Texas law allows the family to do. We are LAWBOSS – Harris, Nelsen & Uvalle, PLLC, a Texas personal injury firm with an office in San Antonio, and car crash deaths are among the cases we handle.
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In brief
The investigating officer files a crash report with TxDOT within 10 days, and the family can obtain it. The Bexar County Medical Examiner investigates the death. The family’s claim is against the driver at fault and anyone else responsible, and it is usually paid from liability insurance and, where that is not enough, from the family’s own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. The suit must be filed within two years of the death.
Call us at any hour. We can obtain the reports and deal with the insurers so you do not have to.
Fatal crashes on Bexar County roads
TxDOT’s crash records for 2024 count 215 people killed in 205 fatal crashes in Bexar County. Sixty-four of those deaths were on interstate highways, 90 on city streets and 49 on US and state highways. Across Texas, 4,150 people died in crashes that year. The roads are the ones every San Antonio family uses: I-35 and I-10 through the city, Loop 410 and Loop 1604, US 281 and the busy city streets between them.
After the worst crashes, people are usually taken to one of San Antonio’s two Level I trauma centres, University Hospital in the South Texas Medical Center or Brooke Army Medical Center. When a person dies at the scene or in hospital after a crash, the death is investigated by the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office, as Code of Criminal Procedure article 49.25 requires when a person is killed or dies an unnatural death.
The crash report and what it can and cannot tell you
Transportation Code 550.062 requires an officer who investigates a crash that caused a death to file a written report with TxDOT within 10 days. Depending on where the crash happened, the officer may be from the San Antonio Police Department, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety or a smaller city’s police. The report is the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, often called the CR-3.
Crash reports are not open to everyone. Section 550.065 lists who may obtain the full report, and it includes “any person who may sue because of death resulting from the collision”, so the spouse, children and parents qualify. Reports are bought through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System and sent by email. Anyone else can obtain only a redacted version.
The report records the vehicles, the people, the road, the weather and the officer’s view of what contributed to the crash. That view is an opinion formed in difficult conditions, often before all the evidence is in. It is a starting point, not the answer. In a death case we also look at:
- The vehicles. Many cars record speed, braking and seat belt use in the seconds before a crash. A badly damaged car is often declared a total loss and sold for salvage within weeks, so we ask for it to be kept.
- Video. Businesses, buses, doorbells and traffic cameras record over their footage, sometimes within days.
- Witnesses. People who stopped at the scene, other drivers and first responders.
- Phones. Whether a driver was texting or on a call is a common question, and phone records can usually be obtained only through the legal process.
- The scene. Skid marks, debris, sight lines, signals and road conditions, photographed and measured before they change.
Insurance after a fatal car crash
Most families are surprised by how little insurance stands behind many drivers. Transportation Code 601.072 sets the Texas minimum liability coverage at 30,000 dollars for the death or injury of one person, 60,000 dollars for two or more people in one crash, and 25,000 dollars for property damage. Many drivers carry only that, and some carry none. That is why the family’s own policies matter so much.
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Insurance Code 1952.101 requires every Texas auto policy to include coverage that protects insureds who are legally entitled to recover for “bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death” from an uninsured or underinsured driver, unless a named insured rejected it in writing. If the person who died, or a family member they lived with, had this coverage, it may pay where the other driver’s policy runs out.
- Personal injury protection. Insurance Code 1952.151 describes PIP as paying reasonable expenses from an accident, including medical, ambulance, hospital and “funeral services”, and lost income. It too is included unless rejected in writing (section 1952.152).
- Other policies. An umbrella policy, the policy of the owner of the car if someone else was driving it, and an employer’s policy if the driver was working.
We ask for the policies and the declarations pages early. Insurers have their own rules about notice and cooperation, and a claim under the family’s own policy is still a claim against an insurance company that will look after its own interests.
When the driver was drunk or impaired
Driving while intoxicated and causing a death “by accident or mistake” is intoxication manslaughter, a second-degree felony under Penal Code 49.08. The criminal case and the family’s civil claim are separate. Section 71.006 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code says the family’s claim is not precluded because the death was caused by a felony or because a criminal case is under way. The civil claim does not wait for the criminal case to end.
Two rules matter in these cases. First, exemplary damages: Civil Practice and Remedies Code 41.008 normally limits them, but section 41.008(c) says the limit does not apply where the conduct is described as intoxication manslaughter. Second, the people who served the alcohol: Alcoholic Beverage Code 2.02(b) allows a claim against a provider who served someone when it was apparent that they were “obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others”, if the intoxication caused the harm. An adult who knowingly served alcohol to a minor under 18 can also be liable (section 2.02(c)).
Who can be responsible for a fatal car crash
- The driver at fault, for speeding, distraction, impairment, running a light or failing to yield.
- The driver’s employer, if the driver was working. Section 71.002 makes a person liable for the wrongful act or neglect of their “agent or servant”.
- The owner of the car, in some cases, such as lending it to someone they knew was unsafe to drive.
- A bar or store, under the dram shop rule above.
- A government body, where a city, county or state employee was driving. The Texas Tort Claims Act allows these claims (section 101.021), but notice is usually due within six months (section 101.101) and damages are limited.
Deaths of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and rideshare passengers raise the same questions, with their own evidence. Our wrongful death law firm San Antonio page lists the kinds of deaths we handle.
When the insurer says the person who died was partly to blame
It is common for an insurer to argue that the person who died was speeding, not wearing a seat belt or not paying attention. Texas weighs that under Chapter 33. The family’s damages are reduced by the percentage of fault the jury gives the person who died, and nothing is recovered if it is more than 50 percent (sections 33.012 and 33.001). The answer to that argument is evidence: the vehicle data, the scene measurements, the video and the witnesses. That is why we start gathering it early.
What the family’s claim covers
The surviving spouse, children and parents bring the wrongful death claim for their own losses: lost support and care, loss of companionship, mental anguish and loss of inheritance (section 71.004). The estate brings the survival action for the person’s own losses before death, such as medical bills, pain and suffering, and funeral and burial costs (section 71.021). Our wrongful death lawyer San Antonio page sets out both claims in full. We never put a figure on a claim in advance; what it is worth depends on the evidence and the insurance.
What a family can do now
- Keep any papers from the police, the hospital, the medical examiner and the funeral home.
- Write down the names of anyone who saw the crash or spoke with you at the scene or the hospital.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. You can say you will reply once you have advice.
- Find the family’s own auto policies and declarations pages.
- If the car is at a tow yard or with an insurer, ask that it not be sold or destroyed yet.
- Call us when you are ready. We can request the crash report and the medical examiner’s report for you.
For how we handle a claim from the first call, see wrongful death attorney San Antonio. Our family checklist covers death certificates, the estate and the records in more detail.
When you are ready to talk, call us. The consultation is free and commits you to nothing.
This page is general information about Texas law, not legal advice for any particular crash. Responsible attorney: Michael Uvalle, LAWBOSS – Harris, Nelsen & Uvalle, PLLC.
Questions people ask
How do we get the crash report after a fatal accident in San Antonio?
Through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System. Transportation Code 550.065 allows any person who may sue because of the death to obtain the full report. The officer must file it within 10 days of the crash (section 550.062), so allow time for it to appear.
The other driver had only minimum insurance. Is that the end of it?
Not necessarily. The family’s own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage may apply, as may an employer’s policy, an umbrella policy or the vehicle owner’s policy. We look for every one of them.
Should we wait for the criminal case to finish?
No. The civil claim is separate and section 71.006 says it is not barred by a criminal case. Waiting can cost evidence and time against the two-year deadline.
Can we sue if the person who died was not wearing a seat belt?
Often yes. The defence may argue it under Chapter 33, and a jury could reduce the damages by a percentage of fault, but a claim is barred only if the person who died is found more than 50 percent responsible.
Does PIP pay for a funeral?
PIP coverage, where it was not rejected in writing, pays reasonable accident expenses including funeral services, under Insurance Code 1952.151. The amount depends on the policy.