When an At-Fault Driver Never Provides Insurance Information in Texas

Attorney Answer

You have two routes and you should work both: the other driver's liability coverage, which he was legally required to give you at the scene, and your own policy's uninsured motorist coverage, which exists for exactly the situation where the responsible driver cannot be reached. Neither one runs itself, so the first move is written contact with your own insurer.

Start with what he owed you. Tex. Transp. Code § 550.023 requires the operator of a vehicle involved in a collision resulting in the injury or death of a person, or damage to a vehicle that is driven or attended by a person, to give the operator's name and address, the registration number of the vehicle the operator was driving, and the name of the operator's motor vehicle liability insurer to any person injured or to the operator, occupant, or attendant of a vehicle involved in the collision; to show the operator's driver's license to that person if requested and available; and to provide any injured person reasonable assistance, including transporting or arranging transportation to a physician or hospital if it is apparent that treatment is necessary or if the injured person requests it. That duty is not satisfied by talking to an officer and leaving. Tex. Transp. Code § 601.051 separately provides that a person may not operate a motor vehicle in this state unless financial responsibility is established for that vehicle.

Now your own coverage, which is the part you control. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101(b) prohibits an insurer from delivering or issuing for delivery in this state an automobile liability policy unless it 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 it as protecting insureds legally entitled to recover from owners or operators of uninsured or underinsured motor vehicles for bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death, or property damage. One rule to know if he is never identified: Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.104(3) requires, for a claim based on an unknown owner or operator, that actual physical contact must have occurred between the vehicle owned or operated by the unknown person and the person or property of the insured. A T-bone collision is contact, so that element is met.

Personal injury protection is the other piece. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152 requires PIP 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 and without regard to any collateral source. A strained jaw and a strained back are still injuries, and the fact that nobody took them into account at the scene does not close that door.

What you can do

1. Request the full crash report from the sheriff's office using the case number you already have. It contains the driver and vehicle identification the officer recorded.

2. Send your own insurer, in writing, the case number, the license plate photograph and the crash report, and ask them to open both an uninsured motorist claim and a personal injury protection claim.

3. Ask your insurer, also in writing, what the $3,000 you are paying represents and whether they are pursuing recovery of it. Keep their answer.

4. Get examined by a doctor now if you have not been, and keep every record, bill and receipt tied to the jaw and back injuries.

5. Ask a Texas attorney about your UM and PIP coverage, about how to reach a driver the police identified but did not locate, and about the $3,000, before you sign any release.

*Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — your declarations page, the crash report and the settlement paperwork behind the $3,000 — 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 carries separate notice and proof conditions on a UM or PIP claim, and those can be far shorter. When each period started depends on your facts, so have a Texas attorney review the dates rather than counting from a page like this.