Texas Crash Reporting Rules

Texas puts no dollar figure on what you have to do. Your duty to call law enforcement turns on injury, death, or a vehicle that cannot be driven away normally and safely, and damage alone never triggers that call however expensive the repair. It does not follow that you may drive off. A damage-only collision still requires you to stop at the scene, give your name, address and registration and show your licence on request, and where you have hit a parked car or property with nobody present, to find the owner or leave a written notice. The $1,000 you may have heard belongs to the officer: an officer who investigates must file a written report when someone is hurt or killed, or when any one person's property is damaged to an apparent extent of $1,000 or more. Almost any modern collision clears that figure, which is why the practical rule at the scene stays simple. Call it in and let the officer decide.

Source: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 550.026(a) (immediate notice by the quickest means to the city police, the police or sheriff within 100 feet of a municipality, or otherwise the sheriff or nearest Department of Public Safety office, when the collision injures or kills a person or leaves a vehicle that cannot be normally and safely driven) and Sec. 550.062(a)-(b) (the investigating officer files the written report electronically "not later than the 10th day," triggered by injury, death, or "damage to the property of any one person to the apparent extent of $1,000 or more"). The driver-filed state report is gone: Sec. 550.065(a)(1)(B) refers to "former Section 550.061 ... before September 1, 2017," and TxDOT states that under S.B. 312, 85th Legislature, it no longer retains, hosts, or accepts the Driver's Crash Report (Form CR-2). A city may still impose its own filing duty: Sec. 550.067(a) lets a municipality by ordinance require an operator to file a collision report with a designated municipal department. The Texas Driver Handbook (DL-7), Revised January 2026, Chapter 11, p. 59, still instructs drivers to file a written report with TxDOT within 10 days. Scene duties after a damage-only collision: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 550.022 (stop and remain at the scene), Sec. 550.023 (information and aid) and Sec. 550.024 (striking an unattended vehicle or fixture). · Verified Sep 2026

There is no ten-day clock running against you. Your duty is immediate: notify law enforcement by the quickest means of communication when the crash injures or kills someone, or leaves a vehicle that cannot be driven normally and safely. The ten-day deadline that appears in the handbook belongs to the officer who investigates, who files the report with the department by the tenth day after the crash. A city ordinance can add a filing duty of its own, with its own deadline.

Source: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 550.026(a) (immediate notice by the quickest means to the city police, the police or sheriff within 100 feet of a municipality, or otherwise the sheriff or nearest Department of Public Safety office, when the collision injures or kills a person or leaves a vehicle that cannot be normally and safely driven) and Sec. 550.062(a)-(b) (the investigating officer files the written report electronically "not later than the 10th day," triggered by injury, death, or "damage to the property of any one person to the apparent extent of $1,000 or more"). The driver-filed state report is gone: Sec. 550.065(a)(1)(B) refers to "former Section 550.061 ... before September 1, 2017," and TxDOT states that under S.B. 312, 85th Legislature, it no longer retains, hosts, or accepts the Driver's Crash Report (Form CR-2). A city may still impose its own filing duty: Sec. 550.067(a) lets a municipality by ordinance require an operator to file a collision report with a designated municipal department. The Texas Driver Handbook (DL-7), Revised January 2026, Chapter 11, p. 59, still instructs drivers to file a written report with TxDOT within 10 days. · Verified Sep 2026

You call law enforcement; you do not mail a report to the state. Texas ended the driver-filed crash report in 2017, and TxDOT no longer accepts the old form. What the law asks of you is immediate notice by the quickest means available, and it asks it in a defined set of cases: the crash injured or killed someone, or left a vehicle that cannot be driven normally and safely. Who you notify depends on where it happened, not on how bad it was. Inside a municipality, the city police. Within 100 feet of one, the police or the sheriff. Anywhere else, the sheriff or the nearest Department of Public Safety office. The written report is the investigating officer's job. One local exception survives: a city may pass an ordinance requiring drivers to file a collision report with a designated city department, so check the city if you crash in one. And be aware that the handbook still carries the old instruction to send a form to TxDOT within ten days, so a test question may be written from that page even though the state requirement no longer exists.

Source: Texas Transportation Code Sec. 550.026(a) (immediate notice by the quickest means to the city police, the police or sheriff within 100 feet of a municipality, or otherwise the sheriff or nearest Department of Public Safety office, when the collision injures or kills a person or leaves a vehicle that cannot be normally and safely driven) and Sec. 550.062(a)-(b) (the investigating officer files the written report electronically "not later than the 10th day," triggered by injury, death, or "damage to the property of any one person to the apparent extent of $1,000 or more"). The driver-filed state report is gone: Sec. 550.065(a)(1)(B) refers to "former Section 550.061 ... before September 1, 2017," and TxDOT states that under S.B. 312, 85th Legislature, it no longer retains, hosts, or accepts the Driver's Crash Report (Form CR-2). A city may still impose its own filing duty: Sec. 550.067(a) lets a municipality by ordinance require an operator to file a collision report with a designated municipal department. The Texas Driver Handbook (DL-7), Revised January 2026, Chapter 11, p. 59, still instructs drivers to file a written report with TxDOT within 10 days. · Verified Sep 2026