Motorcycle Wreck Lawyer in San Antonio: What to Do After a Wreck, the CR-3 Report and Your Bike

What Texas law requires at the scene

The Transportation Code puts duties on every driver involved in a collision that injures someone. Under Section 550.021, the driver must stop at the scene or as close to it as possible, check whether anyone needs aid, and stay until the information duties are met. Under Section 550.023, each driver must give their name and address, the vehicle’s registration number and the name of their liability insurer to the people involved, show a driver’s license if asked, and give reasonable help to anyone injured, including arranging a trip to a doctor or hospital when treatment is clearly needed.

Section 550.026 requires the drivers in a collision that causes injury, or damage that leaves a vehicle unable to be driven safely, to notify the police by the quickest means: the city police inside a city, and the sheriff or the Department of Public Safety outside one. In San Antonio that is usually the San Antonio Police Department. On the county roads it may be the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, and on a highway it may be DPS. A driver who leaves the scene of a crash that injured someone commits an offense under Section 550.021.

What to photograph and write down

• The vehicles where they stopped, before they are moved if that is safe, from several angles.
• The other driver’s license, insurance card and plate.
• The road: skid marks, gouges, debris, gravel, the lane lines and any signal or sign the other driver faced.
• Your injuries, the day of the wreck and in the days after, as bruising and road rash develop.
• Your helmet, jacket, gloves, boots and the bike, before anything is cleaned or thrown away.
• Witnesses’ names and phone numbers. People who stop to help often leave before the police arrive.
• Cameras nearby: a gas station, a store front, a bus, a home doorbell. Many record over themselves within days.

If you ride with a helmet camera or a phone app that logs your rides, save the file and the ride data the same day and do not edit it. Speed and position data from your own ride can answer an insurer who claims you were speeding.

Get medical care, and keep a record of it

Adrenaline hides injuries. Riders walk away from wrecks with fractures, internal injuries and concussions they do not feel until hours later. San Antonio has two Level I trauma centres for serious injuries: University Hospital, on Medical Drive, which University Health describes as the region’s only Level I trauma centre for both adults and children, and Brooke Army Medical Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, where the Army says about 85 percent of trauma admissions are community members without military affiliation.

For anything less serious, see a doctor within a day or two, tell them it was a motorcycle wreck, and describe every part of you that hurts. The medical record made in the first days is the record an insurer reads first. Our page on rider injuries and their value explains the common injuries and their treatment.

The Texas crash report, the CR-3

Under Transportation Code Section 550.062, an officer who investigates a collision that injured or killed someone, or caused apparent property damage of $1,000 or more to any one person, must make a written report and file it electronically with TxDOT no later than the 10th day after the collision. That report is the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report, form CR-3.

TxDOT sells copies through its Crash Report Online Purchase System, and sends the report by email after purchase. Its published costs are $6 for a regular copy and $8 for a certified copy, which is the one used as an official document in a legal proceeding, plus a small surcharge for the online system. Under Section 550.065, the report is released to people directly concerned in the crash, including anyone involved in it, their authorized representative, the owners of damaged vehicles and the insurers involved. Others get a redacted copy. TxDOT keeps crash records for the previous 10 full calendar years plus the current year.

1. Wait about ten days. The officer has until the 10th day after the crash to file it.
2. Gather the details: the date and place of the crash and the names of the people involved, plus any case or crash number the officer gave you.
3. Search and buy the report in TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System.
4. Read it closely. Check names, insurance details, the diagram, the narrative and the contributing factors listed for each driver.
5. Do not argue with the officer about it. If the report is wrong, it is answered with evidence in the claim. When we take a case, we order the report ourselves.

TxDOT is the keeper of the report only. Dash camera video, the officer’s field notes and scene photographs stay with the agency that investigated, and they are requested from that agency.

Your motorcycle and your gear

After a wreck the bike is usually towed to a storage yard, and storage fees add up daily. Before it is moved again, repaired or sold for salvage, it should be photographed and, in a serious crash, inspected. Bent forks, the crush pattern on the tank and the marks on the other vehicle often show how the impact happened.

• The other driver’s liability insurance. Property damage liability pays for the bike and your property. Texas requires at least $25,000 for property damage in one collision under Section 601.072.
• Your own collision coverage. If you carry it, it pays regardless of fault, subject to your deductible, and your insurer can then pursue the other driver’s insurer.
• Uninsured motorist property damage coverage. Insurance Code Section 1952.107 lets an insured who has both collision and uninsured or underinsured property damage coverage recover under the one they choose, or under both when neither alone is enough.
• Gear. The helmet, jacket, gloves, boots and any camera damaged in the wreck are part of the property claim. Keep them; do not throw them out.
• Accessories and custom work. Aftermarket parts, paint and custom work add value that an adjuster may leave out. Receipts and photos of the bike before the wreck help.
• Loss of use. A rider who depends on the bike may have a claim for the time without it.

A helmet that took an impact should be replaced, not ridden again, and it is evidence. Keep it as it is, unwashed, in a bag.

Talking to the insurers

Within a day or two the other driver’s insurer will call. The adjuster will be friendly and will ask to record your account. You are not required to give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement, and you should not give one before you understand your injuries. What you say in that call, before you have seen a doctor or the crash report, will be used to set your share of fault and to say your injuries were minor.

Your own insurer is different: your policy probably requires you to report the crash and to cooperate. Report it, but keep to the facts, and call us before any recorded interview. Our page on dealing with the insurance companies explains each coverage and the calls you will get.

Mistakes to avoid in the first week

• Signing a release or a medical authorization the other driver’s insurer sends you.
• Accepting a quick property settlement that says it settles all claims.
• Letting the bike be scrapped before it is documented.
• Waiting to see a doctor until the pain is worse.
• Posting about the wreck, or about your rides since, on social media.

When you are ready to see how the whole claim runs, read how a motorcycle accident lawyer San Antonio riders hire handles the claim, or call us. More about the firm is at lawboss.com.

Questions people ask