The Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report is the document every insurer reads first and the one riders most often assume is final. It is a report, prepared under a statutory duty, on a statutory timetable, with statutory rules about who may obtain an unredacted copy and what gets removed from the public version.
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Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (713) 715-4760Transportation Code §550.062(a) requires a peace officer who in the regular course of duty investigates a motor vehicle crash that results in injury to or the death of a person, or damage to the property of any one person to the apparent extent of $1,000 or more, to make a written report of the crash. Subsection (b) requires that report to be filed electronically with the department not later than the 10th day after the date of the crash. That threshold and that deadline are the reason a rider who requests a report the next day may be told nothing exists yet.
Transportation Code §550.026(a) requires a person to immediately report a crash to the local police department if the crash occurred within a municipality, or to the sheriff or the nearest office of the Department of Public Safety if the crash occurred outside a municipality, using the quickest means of communication, where the crash resulted in injury to or the death of a person or where a person involved appears to be intoxicated. Transportation Code §550.023 separately requires an involved operator to give name, address, vehicle registration number, and liability insurer, to show a driver's license on request when available, and to render reasonable assistance.
The Houston Police Department's crash report request form directs requests to the Records Division Public Counter Unit at 1200 Travis Street, Houston, Texas 77002, and sets the fee at $6.00 for a non-certified copy and $8.00 for a certified copy. The form states that Texas statute allows the investigating officer 10 days to submit the report and asks that requests not be submitted until at least 10 days after the crash date, and it lists (713) 308-8500, option 3, for questions, along with an online option through the LexisNexis police reports portal for the Houston Police Department jurisdiction.
Transportation Code §550.065(c)(4) permits release of a crash report to a person directly concerned in the accident or having a proper interest in the report, and the section enumerates who that includes. Subsection (c-1) provides for release of a redacted report to any person, and subsection (f)(2) enumerates the information redacted from those public copies. Subsection (d) sets the fee for a copy at $6, an additional $2 for certification, and $6 for a certification that no report is on file. Which version a person receives therefore depends on the statutory category the requester falls into, not on how the request is worded.
A crash report identifies vehicles, people, location, a narrative, a diagram, and factors recorded by the investigating officer. It is a record made by someone who arrived after the event. A contributing factor entered on a report is not an apportionment of responsibility under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33, where §33.003 requires the trier of fact to determine percentages in whole numbers for each claimant, defendant, settling person, and designated responsible third party. A rider who disagrees with an entry is better served by preserving independent evidence than by attempting to relitigate the form.
Photographs of both sides of the motorcycle and of the other vehicle, contact points, tire and gouge marks, debris positions, the controlling signal or sign from the approach direction, the gear worn, and the motorcycle's storage location are the rider's own record. Note each camera's address, direction, and the exact time window needed, and record witness names with their actual vantage points. Wayside accounts for 9 of the 906 half-mile segments on the City of Houston High Injury Network, which covers all road users on local, major, and frontage roads from 2014 through 2018. This page is general information about Texas statutes and published records, not legal advice, and specific questions belong with the attorney who advertises here or another attorney the reader chooses.
Crash Reports and Rider Evidence in Houston. Call (713) 715-4760 and a Houston lawyer reviews the claim and the deadline that applies. Nothing is signed on that call.
Call (713) 715-4760Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 33.001 a claimant recovers nothing if their percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent, and under 33.012 a claimant below that line has their damages reduced by the percentage of responsibility assigned to them.
Why it matters: A percentage dispute can make the road sequence, vehicle damage, video, and witness accounts important. The helmet statute has its own requirement and statutory exceptions; this site does not make an evidence or damages statement about helmet use.
Sources: statutes.capitol.texas.gov · statutes.capitol.texas.gov
TxDOT's Crash Records Information System, queried on April 17, 2025 for the state's FY2026 highway safety grant application, ranked Harris County first in Texas for crashes involving a motorcycle and another motor vehicle in 2024, with 908. Dallas County was second at 438 and Fort Bend County recorded 74.
Why it matters: More rider-versus-driver collisions happen in this county than anywhere else in Texas, and the great majority of them are the ordinary kind: a car turning or merging into a motorcycle on a surface street or a freeway feeder. That is the crash pattern the explanations on this page are built around, and it is why physical evidence from the vehicles matters more here than a driver's account of not seeing the bike.
Source: egrants.bts.txdot.gov
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003 requires a personal injury suit to be brought no later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, and sets the same two-year period for an action for injury resulting in death, running from the date of death.
Why it matters: A two-year filing date is easy to lose track of while treatment, insurance calls, and motorcycle storage compete for attention. Recording the date early helps the person involved seek individualized advice before relying on a general website explanation.
Source: statutes.capitol.texas.gov
No obligation · Written for Houston · Harris County