San Antonio Car Accident Lawyer
If you or a loved one have been injured in a motor vehicle collision, it is best to speak with a seasoned personal injury attorney. A San Antonio car accident lawyer can advise you of your legal rights and the legal remedies that may be available to compensate you for your injuries.
A skilled personal injury lawyer can provide support and advise you throughout your case, investigate liability or fault in the collision, and seek full and fair compensation for your damages from the responsible individual, company or entity. En Español.
Types of Car Wreck Cases
Motor vehicle collisions are dangerous. San Antonio car accident attorneys often handle cases involving:
Drunk driving accidents often leave victims and their families dealing with catastrophic injuries. In busy nightlife areas such as the River Walk, these types of collisions often occur late at night.
Head-on collisions often cause devastating injuries because the force of two vehicles moving toward each other is combined on impact. These wrecks can happen when someone crosses the center line, enters the wrong lane, misjudges distance when passing a vehicle, or drives the wrong way on a frontage road or highway ramp. In the city, where busy interchanges and quick lane changes are common, determining how a vehicle ended up in oncoming traffic may require a close review of the scene evidence and vehicle damage patterns.
Distracted driving wrecks can occur when drivers text, use navigation apps, eat, or adjust in-car technology while operating a vehicle. Even a momentary lapse in attention can cause a driver to miss slowing traffic, drift out of their lane, or fail to notice a red light. This type of crash often occurs during daytime commuting hours on major roads such as Loop 410 or U.S. 281, and they can be especially frustrating for injured people because they are entirely preventable.
Intersection crashes are another common type of collision. Navigating an intersection safely requires drivers to process multiple things at once, including traffic lights, signage, pedestrians, and cross traffic. When a driver runs a red light, misjudges a left turn, or fails to yield the right-of-way, the result is often a high-impact collision. Because vehicles are typically struck from the side, occupants may suffer serious injuries to the head, chest, or hips. Liability disputes can arise in intersection accident cases, making a thorough investigation particularly important.
Rear-end collisions often occur in stop-and-go traffic or at traffic signals when a driver follows too closely or fails to brake in time. While rear-end crashes are sometimes labeled as minor, they frequently lead to whiplash, herniated discs, and other soft-tissue injuries that can worsen over time. High-impact collisions can cause broken bones or spinal injuries, especially when larger vehicles are involved.
Side-swipe crashes typically happen when vehicles are traveling in the same direction, and one driver fails to check blind spots or improperly changes lanes. These accidents are common on highways and multi-lane roads throughout the city. Although side-swipe collisions may appear less severe at first glance, they can cause a driver to lose control, leading to secondary impacts with other vehicles, guardrails, or fixed objects. Motorcyclists and smaller vehicles are particularly vulnerable in these scenarios.
Attorneys in San Antonio can help an injured person understand how and why a vehicle collision occurred. They can identify negligent parties, gather appropriate evidence, and pursue compensation that reflects the full extent of the harm suffered.
Understanding Local Car Insurance Requirements
Texas requires drivers of vehicles registered in the state to have liability insurance coverage. The mandatory minimum coverage limits are $30,000 bodily injury to one person, $60,000 aggregate bodily injury to more than one person, and $25,000 for property damage.
Personal injury protection (PIP) covers a driver’s bodily injury and other items like lost wages. Having PIP is mandatory, but a driver may decline to purchase it if they sign a written waiver. All insurers who write automotive policies in the state must offer uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, but a consumer has the right to decline it.
What Happens After an Accident?
Texas is an “at-fault” state, which means that the insurance company of the driver who caused the accident pays the damages of anyone who suffered losses in the wreck. If it is clear which driver is at fault, people who were hurt submit their claims to the at-fault driver’s insurer.
If there is a dispute around fault, a claimant might not receive timely payment. If the claimant has PIP, they could claim their medical expenses and lost wages from their insurer, and the insurer might try to recoup its payments from the other driver’s insurer.
A claimant without PIP might have to wait for reimbursement until the insurance companies negotiate an allocation of fault. A claimant’s attorney could participate in these negotiations to ensure the claimant bears no more than their share of the blame.
What To Do Immediately After a Car Accident
Right after a crash, the first priorities should be ensuring the safety of those involved and addressing medical needs. Call 911 if someone is hurt. Even when injuries seem minor, prompt medical evaluation is important because some conditions develop over hours or days. Seeking care also creates documentation that connects symptoms to the collision, which can be helpful later if an insurer questions when an injury began.
When it is safe to do so, preserving evidence of what happened at the scene can help prevent disagreements later. Photos of vehicle positions, damage, skid marks, debris, traffic signals, and surrounding roadway conditions can capture details that may not be fully reflected in a police report. If witnesses are present, getting basic contact information can also help, because independent observations often carry weight when drivers give conflicting accounts of the same event.
In the days that follow, it is usually wise to be cautious about communicating with insurance companies. Adjusters may request recorded statements or ask questions that sound routine but are designed to minimize the claim. Speaking with an attorney first can help protect an injured person from avoidable missteps and ensure their San Antonio car crash claim is supported by the right documentation from the start.
What If Insurance Does Not Cover All Losses?
The state’s mandatory coverage limits are modest, and a severely injured person might find the at-fault driver’s coverage inadequate to reimburse their expenses. The claimant could seek coverage from their PIP, but that coverage also has limits.
When an injured person’s damages exceed the coverage limits of the available insurance policies, bringing a negligence lawsuit might be the only way of securing an adequate settlement. However, plaintiffs must recognize that the at-fault driver is personally liable for any damages over and above their coverage limits.
In practical terms, if an at-fault driver does not have assets to cover a judgment bringing a lawsuit might not be worthwhile. A savvy accident lawyer could investigate the at-fault driver’s finances to ascertain whether a lawsuit is likely to produce a collectible judgment. They also could attempt to locate other sources of insurance coverage which might help to make the claimant whole.
Liability in San Antonio Car Crash Claims
The most common causes of car crash claims and accident injuries due to negligence are speeding, drunk driving, following too closely, failure to obey a stop sign or traffic light, driving while impaired or influenced by drugs, and texting while driving. These are all common negligent factors in auto collisions. Driver fatigue and poor road conditions can also lead to a serious car accident.
A skilled San Antonio attorney representing someone injured in a car collision must prove that the alleged at-fault individual or party was negligent and establish liability in order to recover for the plaintiff’s injuries. The elements of negligence that must be proven are as follows:
- The defendant driver owed a legal duty of care to the plaintiff. All drivers are subject to a legal obligation to exercise reasonable care when behind the wheel to avoid causing injury to others.
- The defendant driver failed to live up to their duty of care.
- The defendant driver’s violation of their duty of care was the cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.
- The plaintiff’s injuries caused them to endure damages.
While liability may rest entirely with the defendant, in some cases the court may determine that the plaintiff bears a portion of the legal fault for the wreck. Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 33.001 allows a plaintiff to be partially compensated as long as their percentage of liability or responsibility is not greater than 50 percent. If the injured claimant is found to be 51 percent or more at fault, they are ineligible to recover compensation for damages.
What Are Common Car Wreck Injuries?
The injuries sustained in a car accident can range from mildly to extremely grave and even life-threatening. Car wreck injuries such as spinal, neck and back injuries, lacerations, scarring, bruising, and whiplash, broken bones, and fractured bones are common. Individuals involved in serious wrecks may also endure traumatic brain injuries, amputations, and burns.
When Is The Deadline to Pursue Financial Compensation For a Car Crash?
Unless some unusual exception applies, generally the deadline to pursue financial compensation is two years from the date of the car accident per Tex. Civ. Prac. and Rem. Code § 16.003. This means is that if the injured party fails to commence legal action by filing a lawsuit within two years of the crash, they will be precluded from pursuing any subsequent claim for compensation. It is prudent to talk with a San Antonio car wreck lawyer as soon as possible before the statutory two year deadline to avoid any issues with timely pursuing your claim.
However, there is much less time to act if a unit of government bears some responsibility for the accident. The state or a local government might be liable if:
- One of the other drivers involved in the wreck is a public employee and they were on official business when the crash occurred
- A unit of government owns one of the other vehicles involved in the crash
- Poor road maintenance, a faulty traffic control device, or unclear or misleading signage contributed to the accident
When the state or a local government might be liable in a car accident case, the victim has a very short time to file a notice of claim—six months if the case is against the state, and only 90 days if the City of San Antonio is responsible. Failing to file a notice of claim with the proper government office within the statutory time limits will bar a claimant from pursuing damages from the government defendant.
One of Our Firm’s Significant Recent Results: Rear-End Collision
Our client was driving from Uvalde to her home in Asherton, Texas, along with her three-and-a-half-month-old baby, who was seated in the back seat in a rear-facing baby carrier. As she travelled on US Highway 83, she encountered a construction zone that had caused US Highway 83 to be closed to one lane. In this area, US Highway 83 is a two-lane road with one lane in each direction of travel. As she entered the construction zone, she stopped her vehicle due to her lane of travel being closed. When she stopped, there was only one other vehicle stopped in front of her. As she waited for their lane to open, she was suddenly struck from behind by a work truck towing a PT-170T Pull Tender (fertilizer buggy) loaded with 8,000 pounds of fertilizer. The PT-170T Pull Tender fertilizer buggy was not equipped with an independent braking system. As a result of the rear-ending, the baby was killed, and our client sustained severe injuries to her head and body. The ECM download of the Chevrolet 5500HD showed that the work truck driver only applied the brakes one second before impact, decreasing the speed from 57 mph to 54 mph only. A download of the work truck driver’s phone indicated that he was on the phone at the time of the crash. We filed a lawsuit against Helena Agri-Enterprises, LLC, and the driver.
Why Hire a Lawyer?
After a serious car accident, many people assume the insurance process will be straightforward. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Insurance companies often begin protecting their own financial interests immediately, sometimes before an injured person fully understands the extent of their injuries. Without legal guidance, it can be difficult to recognize when a settlement offer does not reflect the long-term impact of a crash.
The San Antonio attorneys at Felix Gonzalez Law protect people who were hurt in vehicle collisions caused by negligent drivers. Their approach centers on careful case evaluation, detailed investigation, and direct communication with insurance carriers. Rather than rushing toward a quick resolution, the legal team at Felix Gonzalez Law takes the time to understand how an accident has affected someone’s health, income, and daily life. This allows claims to reflect not only immediate medical bills but also ongoing care, future limitations, and financial disruptions.
A lawyer can also help manage the administrative and legal burdens that follow a crash. Police reports, medical documentation, insurance correspondence, and legal deadlines can quickly become overwhelming, particularly while someone is still recovering. Having legal representation allows injured individuals to focus on healing while their case is handled with attention to detail and procedural accuracy. When high-traffic roadways increase the likelihood of disputed liability, legal advocacy can be essential.
Talk to a San Antonio Car Accident Attorney
Injuries sustained in a car wreck because of a driver’s negligence can have negative consequences and bring your life to a halt. A San Antonio car accident lawyer is ideally positioned to help you pursue compensation for your crash injuries. You could be entitled to compensation for damages such as medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost income, and emotional anguish.
An experienced personal injury attorney will fight to protect your rights to help you get back on your feet and get your life back on track. Call today to schedule a free consultation.
