Recovering After a Crash With an Uninsured Drunk Driver in Texas

Attorney Answer

Your own auto policy is usually the realistic source of recovery here, not the drunk driver. Texas requires insurers to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and personal injury protection unless you turned them down in writing — so check your own policy first, before anything else.

Take the driver first, briefly. Tex. Penal Code § 49.04(a) makes it an offense for a person to be intoxicated while operating a motor vehicle in a public place, and § 49.01(2) defines intoxicated as not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties by reason of alcohol, a controlled substance, a drug, a dangerous drug, a combination of those, or any other substance, or having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. Separately, Tex. Transp. Code § 601.051 provides that a person may not operate a motor vehicle in this state unless financial responsibility is established for that vehicle, and § 601.191 makes operating in violation of that section an offense punishable by a fine of not less than $175 or more than $350, rising to not less than $350 or more than $1,000 for a person previously convicted. All of that is real, and none of it produces money. A criminal case is not a compensation system, and a driver with no policy usually has little to collect against.

That is why your own coverage matters. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101(b) prohibits an insurer from delivering or issuing for delivery in this state an automobile liability policy unless the insurer provides uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage in the policy or supplemental to it, and § 1952.101(c) provides that the required coverage does not apply if any insured named in the policy rejects it in writing. Section 1952.101(a) describes what that coverage does: it protects insureds who are legally entitled to recover from owners or operators of uninsured or underinsured motor vehicles, for bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death, or property damage. A driver with no liability policy is the exact situation the coverage exists for. Unless someone signed a written rejection, it should be in your policy.

Personal injury protection works the same way and pays sooner. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152 requires PIP to be provided unless the named insured rejects it in writing, and § 1952.155(a) makes those benefits payable without regard to the fault or nonfault of the named insured or recipient in causing or contributing to the collision, and without regard to any collateral source. Under § 1952.155(b) the paying insurer generally has no right of subrogation, but § 1952.155(c) gives it one against a person who was operating a vehicle for which chapter 601 financial responsibility had not been established — which is precisely this driver.

One more thing worth knowing. A claim you make on your own policy is a first-party claim. Tex. Ins. Code § 542.051(2) defines a claim in the prompt-payment subchapter as a first-party claim made by an insured, policyholder or named beneficiary that must be paid by the insurer directly to the insured or beneficiary, and Tex. Ins. Code § 541.060(a) frames the unfair settlement practices as practices with respect to a claim by an insured or beneficiary. So the protections that would mean nothing against a stranger's insurer do apply to your own.

What you can do

1. Find your declarations page and look for uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and personal injury protection, and their limits. If you cannot find it, ask your agent or insurer for a copy today.

2. Report the crash to your own insurer promptly and in writing, and ask them to open both a UM/UIM claim and a PIP claim.

3. Request the officer's crash report from the investigating agency and keep the report number.

4. Get medical care and keep every record, itemized bill and out-of-pocket receipt in one place.

5. Ask a Texas attorney before signing any release or accepting a final settlement from your own insurer, and about whether additional damages are available where a driver was intoxicated.

*Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — your declarations page and what the crash report shows — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.*

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) allows two years from the day the cause of action accrues to bring suit for personal injury or for injury to property. Your own policy also imposes its own notice and proof conditions, which can be far shorter than any statute. When these periods start depends on your facts, so put the dates in front of a Texas attorney rather than counting from a page like this.