Unrestrained Child Passengers and At-Fault Rear-End Liability

Attorney Answer

Probably not, at least not in the way you are hoping. How the baby was riding does not undo your responsibility for causing the crash, and under Texas's fault statute it usually does not reduce what the child can recover either.

Start with the driving duty. Tex. Transp. Code § 545.062(a) requires an operator following another vehicle to maintain an assured clear distance between the two vehicles so that, considering the speed of the vehicles, traffic, and the conditions of the highway, the operator can safely stop without colliding with the preceding vehicle or veering into another vehicle, object, or person on or near the highway. That is the standard a rear-end collision is measured against in Texas. Nothing about how a passenger in the other car was seated changes what that section asked of you.

Now the fault statute, because this is where the reasoning people expect usually breaks down. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001 bars a claimant from recovering at all if that claimant's percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. If the claimant is not barred, § 33.012(a) requires the court to reduce the damages by a percentage equal to the claimant's percentage of responsibility. Read those words carefully: the reduction is by the claimant's own percentage. A baby is the claimant on the baby's own injury claim. The adult who was holding him is a different person. Section 33.003(a) has the trier of fact assign percentages of responsibility, in whole numbers, to each claimant, each defendant, each settling person and each designated responsible third party, but responsibility placed on the adult who held the child is not the child's percentage, so it does not cut the child's recovery under § 33.012(a). Section 33.013(a) does help you in one respect: a liable defendant is generally liable only for its own percentage of the damages, with a narrow exception in § 33.013(b) for a defendant more than 50 percent responsible or acting in concert in certain intentional conduct.

Texas does have a child passenger safety seat requirement, and a violation can matter to a citation and, in some circumstances, to argument about damages. Texas has a specific section on this, and a Texas attorney should be the one to tell you how it plays on your facts.

Finally, the part of your message that carries the most risk. Where a collision results in or is reasonably likely to result in injury to a person, Tex. Transp. Code § 550.021(a) requires the driver to stop immediately, return to the scene if the vehicle was not stopped there, determine whether a person is involved and whether that person requires aid, and remain until the requirements of § 550.023 are met. Section 550.023 sets out the exchange: name, address, vehicle registration number, liability insurer, driver's license on request, and reasonable assistance to anyone injured. A crash involving an infant is exactly the kind an officer may revisit.

What you can do

1. Preserve what already exists — photographs, dashcam files, the exchange information, and any insurance correspondence. Do not write out a new account of the crash, and do not post about it.

2. Before you speak with police, the other family, or any insurance adjuster about the child, talk to a Texas criminal-defense attorney.

3. Ask that attorney how and when to give notice to your own auto insurer.

4. Do not contact the other driver to argue about the car seat. It changes nothing legally and reads badly later.

5. 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. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) sets two years from the day the cause of action accrues for suits over personal injury and over damage to property. Special rules can apply where the injured person is a child, and criminal timing runs separately. When any of these deadlines actually falls depends on the specific facts, and a Texas attorney should review them.