Failure to Stop and Render Aid Charge After Being Rear-Ended

Attorney Answer

A charge can be brought even against the driver who was hit. Texas's stop-and-render-aid duty does not depend on who caused the collision, and the other driver refusing to roll down a window does not automatically end it. This is a criminal case now, and the only real answer is a defense attorney, quickly.

Here is the statute you are charged under. Tex. Transp. Code § 550.021(a) applies to the operator of a vehicle involved in a collision that results, or is reasonably likely to result, in injury to or death of a person. It requires that operator to stop immediately at the scene or as close to it as possible, to return immediately to the scene if the vehicle was not stopped there, to immediately determine whether a person is involved in the collision and, if so, whether that person requires aid, and to remain at the scene until the operator complies with § 550.023.

Section 550.023 is what compliance means: giving the operator's name and address, the registration number of the vehicle the operator was driving, and the name of the operator's liability insurer to any person injured or to the operator, occupant or attendant of a vehicle involved; showing the driver's license to that person if it is requested and available; and providing reasonable assistance to any injured person, including transporting or arranging transport for medical treatment if it is apparent that treatment is necessary or if the injured person requests it.

Notice what the duty is built out of. It is a duty to stop, to check whether anyone needs aid, to stay, and to provide listed information. It is not a duty to succeed in getting the other person to talk. Whether what you did satisfied those requirements — and what happens when the other party shuts the window — is precisely the factual argument your defense attorney will make, and it should be made by a lawyer with the police report and any video in hand, not by you in a phone call.

Take the exposure seriously. Under § 550.021(c), an offense involving a collision resulting in death is a second-degree felony and one resulting in serious bodily injury is a third-degree felony; an offense involving a collision resulting in other injury is punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years or county jail confinement for not more than one year, a fine not to exceed $5,000, or both. A collision involving only vehicle damage is handled instead under § 550.022, which is graded as a Class C or Class B misdemeanor depending on whether the damage to all vehicles reaches $200.

What you can do

1. Get a Texas criminal-defense attorney now, before the first court setting. If you cannot afford one, ask the court clerk how to request a court-appointed attorney.

2. Say nothing about the collision to police, prosecutors, the other driver, or any insurance company until that attorney tells you to. Not to be difficult — because a first explanation given without counsel is what these cases usually turn on.

3. Do not write out your own account of what happened, and do not post about it anywhere.

4. Preserve what already exists: the call logs showing the calls you made, any photographs or video taken that day, any dashcam footage, and the vehicle itself in its current condition. Do not create new records.

5. Give the attorney every piece of paper you have received — the charging document, any citation, the bond paperwork and any notice of a court date.

6. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts with a Texas attorney is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. The deadlines that control a criminal case are the court settings in that case, and they are not something to work out from a page like this. Separately, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) sets two years from accrual for civil suits over personal injury and over damage to property, which is the clock on any injury claim arising out of this collision. Which dates actually apply depends on your facts, and a Texas attorney should review them right away.