Texas is one of the great American road trip states. The Hill Country between Austin and Fredericksburg offers winding two-lane roads through limestone landscapes. Big Bend National Park sits at the end of a long desert drive that most people say was worth every mile. The Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi to Galveston Island delivers beach access, seafood, and flat horizon views. Interstate 10 through Houston and San Antonio connects the South to the Southwest in a single long day behind the wheel.
Millions of visitors drive through Texas every year. Most trips are exactly what they were planned to be. But Texas also records more traffic fatalities than any other state. The Texas Department of Transportation counted 4,302 traffic deaths in 2023. Harris County alone reported 67,644 total crashes in Houston that year. For road trippers who pass through on their way somewhere else or who come specifically to explore the state, knowing what to do if something goes wrong is practical preparation, not pessimism.
Here is what every road tripper should know before driving in Texas.
Texas Is an At-Fault State
Understanding how Texas handles car accident liability changes what you do in the first minutes after a crash. Texas is an at-fault state. The driver who caused the crash is legally responsible for the resulting damages. The at-fault driver’s insurance is the primary source of compensation for your medical bills, vehicle repair, and other losses.
This is different from no-fault states, where each driver’s own insurance covers their own medical costs regardless of who caused the crash. In Texas, the fault determination matters immediately. What you say at the scene, how the accident is reported to police, and what the crash report documents all feed into that determination. Understanding this before the crash means you are less likely to accidentally say something that shifts fault toward you in the moments after impact.
Texas Requires Minimum Insurance But Minimums Are Often Not Enough
Texas Transportation Code Chapter 601 requires all drivers on Texas roads to carry minimum liability insurance of 30,000 dollars per person, 60,000 dollars per accident, and 25,000 dollars for property damage. These are commonly written as 30/60/25.
For road trippers visiting from other states or from abroad, your home state’s insurance policy follows you onto Texas roads. Check before you leave whether your coverage includes the Texas minimums and whether your policy covers rental vehicles if you are planning to hire a car at your destination.
The minimums required by Texas law are frequently insufficient for serious injury cases. A single emergency room visit for a moderate injury can exceed 30,000 dollars. A hospitalization, surgery, and follow-up care for a spinal injury or traumatic brain injury can push into six figures. Carrying uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy gives you a recovery path when the at-fault driver’s coverage is not enough to cover your actual costs.
The 5 Most Dangerous Corridors for Road Trippers in Texas
The roads that make Texas great for road trips are often the same roads that produce the most crashes.
Interstate 10 between Houston and San Antonio is one of the busiest freight corridors in the country. Commercial trucks, high-speed traffic, and long straight stretches that encourage inattention all combine to produce frequent crash incidents. Passing through Houston adds dense urban traffic to the mix on one of the widest urban freeways in the world.
US Highway 83 running north to south through the Texas Hill Country is a scenic two-lane road with limited sight lines, blind curves, and head-on collision risk on sections without center barriers. Road trippers who underestimate the speed of oncoming traffic on unfamiliar two-lane roads face elevated crash risk on this corridor.
Interstate 35 between Dallas and San Antonio carries some of the highest traffic volume in Texas. Construction zones, frequent lane changes, and the mix of commercial freight and passenger traffic create conditions that produce crashes year-round.
US Highway 285 through West Texas toward Big Bend is remote, beautiful, and statistically dangerous. Long straightaways encourage high-speed driving. Wildlife crossings, tire debris from commercial vehicles, and limited emergency services in case of a crash make this corridor one where preparation matters most.
Farm-to-market roads throughout the state connect small towns and rural communities through some of Texas’s most beautiful scenery. Many of these roads have no shoulders, limited lighting, and fast-moving local traffic from drivers who know the road and move accordingly. First-time drivers on farm-to-market roads should reduce speed significantly below what the posted limit suggests the road can handle.
What to Do in the First 30 Minutes After a Crash in Texas
The steps taken immediately after a crash in Texas matter legally as well as medically.
Call 911 first. Texas requires drivers to remain at the scene of a crash involving injury or property damage and to report crashes that result in injury, death, or more than 1,000 dollars in property damage. The responding officer will complete a crash report that becomes the primary official record of the incident.
Get medical care the same day even if you feel okay at the scene. Adrenaline after a crash masks pain signals for hours. Whiplash symptoms commonly appear 24 to 72 hours after impact. Traumatic brain injury symptoms can seem mild at the scene and worsen over the following day or two. An emergency room visit on the day of the crash creates the medical record that connects your injuries to the crash event. Without it, insurance carriers argue your injuries happened elsewhere.
Take photographs at the scene before anything is moved. Photograph both vehicles, the license plates, the road conditions, and any visible injuries. Get the names and phone numbers of anyone who witnessed the crash. Witness memories fade quickly and contact details become harder to obtain once people leave the scene.
Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver’s insurance company before speaking with an attorney. Adjusters are trained to ask questions that gather information useful to the carrier’s case. You are not legally required to give a recorded statement to the opposing carrier.
If Your Crash Happens in or Around Houston
Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the United States. Road trippers who pass through on Interstate 10, Interstate 45, or the Sam Houston Tollway are driving through one of the most crash-active urban areas in the country. If a crash happens in or around Houston, the legal process follows Harris County procedures, Texas law applies, and the two-year statute of limitations under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.003 begins running from the date of the crash.
Sutliff and Stout is a well-established and widely recognized Houston personal injury law firm with 17 years of continuous practice in Harris County. Both founding partners, Graham E. Sutliff and Hank Stout, hold Board Certification in Personal Injury Trial Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. The firm has recovered more than 1 billion dollars for Texas injury victims, including documented Harris County jury verdicts that reflect its willingness to take cases to trial when settlement offers do not match the documented damages.
Out-of-state road trippers who are injured in a Houston crash do not need to be physically present in Houston throughout the legal process. A Houston car accident attorney from Sutliff and Stout can handle evidence preservation, insurance communication, and medical record coordination while the injured traveler continues their recovery.
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A Few Things to Do Before Your Texas Road Trip
Spending five minutes on insurance preparation before a Texas road trip reduces what happens if something goes wrong during it.
Review your auto insurance policy and confirm your liability limits, your uninsured motorist coverage status, and whether your policy covers rental vehicles. If you are renting a car, understand what the rental company’s collision damage waiver covers and what it excludes. Add your attorney’s contact information and your insurance carrier’s claim number to your phone before you leave, so you have both immediately available if you need them on the road.
Texas roads are worth driving. The landscapes, the distances, the food, and the variety of terrain that the state packs into a single drive make it one of the best road trip destinations in the country. Most drives through Texas are exactly what people picture when they plan them. But the ones that are not go better when you know what to do before they happen.
Last Updated on June 5, 2026
