Hit While Parked by a Driver Who Left the Scene

Attorney Answer

Yes. Not carrying insurance does not stop you from making a claim against the driver who backed into your car and drove off. Your own coverage decides what your own policy would have paid you. It does not cancel the other driver's responsibility for damage she caused.

Texas law required her to stay. Under Tex. Transp. Code § 550.022(a), a driver involved in a collision resulting only in damage to a vehicle that is driven or attended by a person must immediately stop at or as close as possible to the scene and remain there until the driver has done what Section 550.023 requires. You were sitting in your car, so the car was attended. Section 550.023 then requires that driver to give her name and address, the registration number of the vehicle she was driving, and the name of her liability insurer to the operator or occupant of the other vehicle, and to show her driver's license if it is requested and available. Getting out, looking at the damage, and driving away does none of that. Leaving is an offense on its own: a Class C misdemeanor if the damage to all vehicles is under $200, and a Class B misdemeanor at $200 or more.

Your side of it is a separate matter. Texas requires financial responsibility to operate a vehicle (Tex. Transp. Code § 601.051), and driving without it carries a fine of $175 to $350 for a first offense and $350 to $1,000 after that (§ 601.191). Nothing in that chapter ties your right to recover for damage to whether you carried a policy, but expect an adjuster or an officer to ask about your coverage, so get advice before you give any statement about your own driving. Being uninsured does mean you have no collision coverage and no uninsured motorist coverage of your own to fall back on if this driver is never identified. Going forward, a Texas insurer must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage in an auto policy unless the named insured rejects it in writing (Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101(b), (c)).

What you can do

1. Photograph the damage and where the cars were, and write down anything you noticed about her car, her plate, or the direction she left.

2. Ask the property manager or store, in writing and soon, to save the security video covering that part of the lot. Recordings are often overwritten within days.

3. Ask a Texas lawyer before you report the collision to police. Reporting a hit-and-run is ordinarily the right move, but the officer taking the report will ask about your own coverage, and operating without it is itself an offense under Tex. Transp. Code § 601.191. A short call first costs nothing and decides how that step is handled.

4. Keep everything you already have: any witness's phone number, any message from her, any note made at the time. Do not prepare a written account of the incident for an insurer before you have spoken with a lawyer.

5. If she is identified, make the property damage claim against her liability insurer and ask the insurer to confirm the policy limits in writing.

6. Ask a Texas lawyer about the least expensive way to pursue a modest property damage claim, and about what your own lack of coverage does and does not affect.

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

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) gives two years from the day the cause of action accrues to sue for property damage or personal injury. Where that period ends in your situation depends on your own facts, so have a Texas attorney review the dates now rather than later.