What to Do After a Car Accident in Lewisville, TX

1. Check for injuries and call 911

Anyone hurt, any doubt at all, or lanes blocked: call 911 first. Adrenaline masks injury, and neck and back pain often arrive hours later, so if there is any question the answer is to have someone look.

Texas requires a crash to be reported where there is injury, death, or damage that leaves a vehicle unable to be driven away safely. An officer attending files the Texas Peace Officer Crash Report, known as the CR-3.

2. Get out of the traffic if you can

Where nobody is seriously hurt and the cars still move, Texas law lets you move them out of the travel lanes, and on the roads through this city you generally should.

Interstate 35E is the reason to take this seriously. It carries the whole north Metroplex, sits on the state list of most congested roadways, and is being rebuilt under live traffic through the 35Express project. Between Business 121 and FM 407 the shoulders narrow or disappear behind concrete barrier, and overnight lane closures make it worse. A stationary car in a live lane there is exactly where a second, harder collision happens.

If the car will not move, hazards on, everyone out on the side away from traffic where there is room to stand safely, and behind a barrier if one exists. Where there is no shoulder, staying belted inside is safer than standing on the pavement.

3. Photograph everything before it changes

Scenes get cleared fast and memories are worse than people think. Two minutes of photographs is worth more than an hour of recollection later.

• Both vehicles, all four corners of each, wide enough to show the damage in context.
• The position on the road before anything is moved, if it is safe to take it.
• Signals, signs, lane markings and any skid marks or debris.
• The other driver's license, insurance card and plate.
• Anything relevant about conditions: rain, glare, a closed lane, a signal out.

4. Exchange details, and be careful what you say

Names, phone numbers, addresses, insurers and policy numbers, plate and license numbers. Get the responding officer's name and the incident number too.

Describe what happened factually and leave fault to the insurers and the officer. Shaken people apologize by reflex and it gets written down as an admission. Stating that you were in the right-hand lane traveling south is a fact. Saying you did not see them is a conclusion about yourself.

5. Get the crash report

Texas law enforcement must submit the CR-3 to the Texas Department of Transportation no later than the tenth day after the crash, and it usually becomes available online shortly after that.

• TxDOT crash reports and records is the official source. Expect a small fee, currently about six dollars for a regular copy and eight for a certified copy.
• If you cannot use the online system, form CR-91 lets you request a copy by mail from TxDOT Crash Data and Analysis in Austin.
• Only people with a direct interest in the crash, meaning drivers, passengers, owners and their representatives, can obtain an unredacted copy.

6. Tell your insurer early

Report it promptly even if you think you were not at fault and even if you are unsure whether you will claim. Policies carry notification requirements and late reporting causes problems that the crash itself did not.

Have ready: the incident number, the other driver's details, your photographs, and the itemized towing invoice with the destination written on it. If the other driver was uninsured, ask about uninsured motorist coverage, which many Texas drivers hold without knowing it.

7. Decide where the car goes

This is the decision people put off, and it is the one that quietly costs the most.

After a real impact the car will not roll. Wheels seize, tires shred and steering bends, so it comes onto a flatbed on a winch line. Our accident towing page covers how the scene work is done, including clearing the glass and fluids before the lane reopens.

Name a destination at the roadside: a body shop you trust, the franchise dealer for your make, a facility your insurer specifies, or your own driveway if the car is clearly finished. Any of those beats the default. A car with no destination goes to a storage yard where daily fees start immediately, and those fees are the reason a lot of people end up paying more than the tow itself.

Take your belongings out before it leaves. Getting back into a vehicle at a storage facility is slower and sometimes costs money. Our cost guide explains which charges are capped by Texas rules and which are not.

Where crashes happen in this city

Knowing the pattern is worth something, both for avoiding one and for understanding what happens after.

I-35E generates the volume, and the mechanism is congestion plus reduced escape room: rear-end impacts stacking up at the merges through the construction corridor. The Sam Rayburn Tollway through Vista Ridge produces fewer but harder ones, because seventy mile per hour impacts leave cars that will not roll. Main Street and the Old Town grid produce a steady run of low-speed knocks at signals and pulling out of angled parking bays.

That last group is where people most often drive away when they should not. A fender folded onto a tire, fluid on the ground, or anything touching a wheel means the car goes on a truck, whatever it feels like from the driver seat.