Statewide educational resource
Start here after a collision involving a suspected intoxicated driver. This center organizes the immediate steps, time-sensitive evidence, insurance questions, civil-claim issues, official assistance, and local Texas resources that victims and families may need.
Call 911 for urgent medical or safety needs. This website is not an emergency service, a law firm, or a substitute for medical care or individualized legal advice.
Published September 7, 2026 · Last reviewed September 7, 2026 · Reviewed for legal accuracy by Raymon King, Texas Bar No. 11459500. Dates describe an actual editorial review and should change only after substantive review.
Prioritize emergency care, call law enforcement, identify witnesses, photograph the scene if it is safe, and preserve the names of every responding agency.
Go to this sectionKeep a complete provider list, follow medical instructions, document work restrictions, and avoid guessing about your prognosis before your doctors know it.
Go to this sectionRecord the caller, company, claim number, and requested information. Understand the purpose of a recorded statement or release before agreeing to one.
Go to this sectionPreservation, insurance identification, estate questions, and family claims may require immediate individualized legal review.
Go to this sectionFirst hours and days
Describe symptoms accurately, follow discharge instructions, and return for worsening or new symptoms.
Record the investigating agency, report number, officer names, and any citation or arrest information you are given.
Save photographs, witness contacts, vehicle information, damaged property, messages, and contemporaneous notes.
Keep medical providers, bills, prescriptions, mileage, wage records, insurer correspondence, and claim numbers together.
Social posts can be incomplete or misunderstood. Preserve information without trying the case online.
Business surveillance, dispatch audio, and some recordings may not be retained indefinitely. Specific preservation may be time-sensitive.
TxDOT explains that it is the custodian of Texas crash records and provides the official starting point for obtaining eligible reports. See TxDOT crash reports and records.
Evidence map
| Evidence | Possible holder | Practical next step |
|---|---|---|
| Crash report and investigator materials | TxDOT and the investigating agency | Obtain the report number and confirm which agency investigated. Request supplements and diagrams when available. |
| Body-camera, dash-camera, and roadside video | Police, sheriff, constable, DPS, or nearby businesses | Identify the recordings precisely and make preservation requests promptly; availability and release rules vary. |
| Breath or blood-test records | Investigating agency, laboratory, prosecutor, or medical provider | Preserve the test result, chain-of-custody material, warrants, and related records when legally obtainable. |
| 911 calls, dispatch logs, and witness accounts | Emergency communications agency and witnesses | Save witness contact information and request recordings before ordinary retention periods expire. |
| Venue receipts and surveillance | Bars, restaurants, event venues, payment processors, or patrons | Preserve receipts, tabs, video, photographs, messages, and rideshare history that may establish a service timeline. |
| Medical and income records | Providers, employers, and the victim | Maintain bills, records, work-status slips, wage records, mileage, and out-of-pocket receipts in one file. |
Availability, retention, confidentiality, and release procedures vary by agency and record. This checklist does not promise that a particular item exists or is legally obtainable.
Two separate proceedings
A prosecutor, not the victim, controls a DWI prosecution. Its purpose is criminal accountability. Intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter are defined criminal offenses when statutory requirements are met. Review the current Texas Penal Code Chapter 49.
A civil claim concerns responsibility for legally recoverable losses. It may involve the driver, insurers, and—in a factually supported case—another responsible party. It has separate proof, procedure, defenses, and deadlines.
Evidence developed in a criminal investigation may matter to a civil claim, but a victim should not assume that a prosecutor, police agency, or insurer will preserve every item needed for the civil case.
Insurance and responsibility
Request and verify available liability coverage; do not assume the limits from a verbal statement.
The injured person’s own policy may contain potentially relevant coverage, subject to its language and Texas law.
If the impaired driver was acting in a work role or operating a commercial vehicle, additional facts and policies may matter.
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code §2.02 provides a statutory framework for certain claims. Liability is not automatic and depends on proof of the statutory conditions.
Official statute: Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code §2.02.
Medical and wage documentation
A claim record should explain what happened medically and financially—not merely accumulate bills. Keep the first report of symptoms, diagnostic findings, referrals, treatment response, restrictions, missed work, household limitations, prognosis, and future-care recommendations. Avoid changing providers or ending treatment solely to influence a claim; medical decisions belong with qualified providers.
Catastrophic-injury and death cases may involve life-care needs, future earning capacity, multiple insurance policies, estate representatives, statutory beneficiaries, and preservation demands. A family should obtain individualized advice promptly rather than relying on a generalized calculator.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §41.003 requires clear and convincing evidence of fraud, malice, or gross negligence. Whether the evidence satisfies that standard is case-specific. Read the current Texas statute.
Official assistance
The Texas Attorney General explains eligibility, applications, covered costs, and appeals.
Official programStart with TxDOT’s official crash-report and records information.
Official records pageRead the current statutory text; exceptions and shorter governmental deadlines may require individual analysis.
Texas CPRC §16.003Links to public agencies are provided for convenience and source verification. Texas Settlement Calculator is independent, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the State of Texas, TxDOT, the Texas Attorney General, any prosecutor, police department, court, or victim-services organization.
Use these detailed guides to move laterally through the evidence, coverage, damages, and procedure questions connected to a DWI collision.
A practical sequence for medical care, police documentation, evidence, insurance communications, and follow-up.
Read the guideHow reports, testing records, recordings, witnesses, and the surrounding investigation may fit together.
Read the guideReview liability limits, UM/UIM coverage, and why identifying every potentially applicable policy matters.
Read the guideLearn the statutory framework for claims involving certain alcohol providers and why proof is fact-specific.
Read the guideUnderstand the heightened proof requirements and why intoxication does not automatically establish an award.
Read the guideAn overview of wrongful-death and related family considerations after a fatal collision.
Read the guideLocal pages provide agency, county, court, and evidence starting points while retaining the same statewide legal cautions.
No. The government controls the criminal prosecution, while an injured person’s civil claim addresses losses and potential civil responsibility. Evidence may overlap, but the proceedings, parties, deadlines, and burdens are different.
Not without obtaining advice about the particular facts. Civil deadlines and evidence-retention concerns continue while a criminal case is pending. A victim can begin preserving evidence and investigating insurance without assuming the criminal case will protect every civil issue.
No. Texas exemplary damages require proof of statutory elements under the applicable standard, and any award depends on the evidence and defenses in the individual case.
No. A claim against an alcohol provider is fact-specific and must satisfy Texas law. Receipts, video, witnesses, the service timeline, and the patron’s apparent condition may all matter.
There is no universal timeline. Medical recovery, disputed facts, available insurance, multiple defendants, the criminal investigation, and litigation can all affect how long a claim takes.
It is a separate public program with its own eligibility rules, covered costs, application requirements, and treatment of other payment sources. Victims should review the Texas Attorney General’s current instructions rather than assume eligibility.
The free DWI accident calculator provides a preliminary educational range. It does not predict a settlement, verdict, exemplary-damages award, or actual recovery.
Start my DWI claim estimatePersonal Injury Attorney
Practice areas: Personal Injury
Raymon King is a Texas-licensed personal injury attorney with 35 years of experience representing injured Texans. He founded King Law Firm to advocate for accident victims and has spent decades evaluating and litigating personal injury claims across the state.
This article is for general information only and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Verify this attorney's license with the State Bar of Texas.
Prepared by the Texas Settlement Calculator Editorial Team and reviewed for general legal accuracy byRaymon King. This resource provides general educational information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws, procedures, record availability, deadlines, and outcomes depend on individual facts and can change. Texas Settlement Calculator is a private, independent publication and is not a Texas government website or endorsed by any public agency.