The first hour

Safety before a perfect record

Turn on the hazard lights if you can reach them without walking into traffic. Check yourself and the people who were with you. If a person might have a neck or back injury, do not drag them out for a photo or an argument. Call 911 and follow the dispatcher. This is a safety caution, not a medical instruction tailored to the scene in front of you.

Do not chase another car. A plate, a color, and a direction of travel are useful only if you can note them from a safe place. The legal duty of a driver who hits someone else is described on the hit-and-run page. Chasing is not how you perform that duty.

What the statute says about stopping and moving

Transportation Code § 550.021 covers a collision that results, or is reasonably likely to result, in injury or death. The operator must stop at the scene or as close as possible, return if the stop was not at the scene, determine whether a person is involved and whether that person requires aid, and remain until the operator complies with § 550.023. The stop is to be made without obstructing traffic more than necessary.

Section 550.022 covers a collision that results only in damage to a vehicle that is driven or attended by a person. The operator must stop, return if needed, and remain until complying with § 550.023. Subsection (b) is narrower: on a main lane, ramp, shoulder, median, or adjacent area of a freeway in a metropolitan area, if each vehicle can be normally and safely driven, each operator shall move it as soon as possible to a collision investigation site if there is one, a frontage road, the nearest suitable cross street, or another suitable place. The statute says a vehicle can be normally and safely driven only if it does not require towing and can be operated under its own power in its usual manner, without additional damage or hazard.

The information the statute tells drivers to give

Section 550.023 applies when the collision results in injury or death, or in damage to a vehicle that is driven or attended by a person. The operator shall give the operator’s name and address, the registration number of the vehicle the operator was driving, and the name of the operator’s motor vehicle liability insurer to any person injured, or to the operator, occupant, or person attending a vehicle involved. If requested and available, the operator shall show the driver’s license. The same section requires reasonable assistance to an injured person, including arranging transport to a physician or hospital if treatment is apparently necessary or if the injured person asks to be taken.

That list is not a demand that you speculate about who caused the crash, record a statement, or hand over a phone full of unrelated photos. It is also not permission to withhold the items the statute names. What you later tell an insurer is a separate conversation. This site does not script either one.

If the crash damaged an unattended vehicle, § 550.024 says to stop and either locate the operator or owner and give the striking driver’s and owner’s names and addresses, or leave a written notice in a conspicuous place with those names, addresses, and a statement of the circumstances. Section 550.025 covers a collision that damages only a structure, fixture, or landscaping legally on or next to a highway, and it requires reasonable steps to notify the owner or person in charge.

When immediate notice is required

Section 550.026 requires the operator of a vehicle involved in a collision that causes injury or death, or damage to a vehicle to the extent it cannot be normally and safely driven, to give notice immediately by the quickest means of communication. The recipient depends on the place:

• In a municipality, the local police department.
• Not more than 100 feet outside the limits of a municipality, the local police department or the sheriff’s office.
• Otherwise, the sheriff’s office or the nearest office of “the department.”

In Subtitle C, § 541.002 defines “Department” as the Department of Public Safety, acting directly or through its officers and agents. A different definition in § 550.0601 says “department” means TxDOT, and it applies only in the written-report subchapter. The immediate-notice statute is best read as pointing to DPS, not to TxDOT’s crash-records office. That is a reading of the definitions, not a court opinion in your case. If you do not know who covers the road, call 911.

Inside the City of Houston, HPD’s contact page says to dial 911 for an emergency and (713) 884-3131 for non-emergency police service for locations within the city limits. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office publishes (713) 221-6000 as its non-emergency number and gives its own traffic-crash instructions. Those sheriff’s instructions are not the rule for a crash inside Houston or inside another city. See the Who to call page before using a non-emergency line.