Texas Motorcycle Accident Lawyers
What this page covers
This page covers injury and wrongful death claims by motorcyclists and their passengers anywhere in Texas — crashes caused by a car or truck driver, by a road defect, or by a defective part. Crashes with commercial trucks carry an additional federal rulebook covered on our Texas truck accident page; the general framework for all motor vehicle claims is on our Texas car accident page and our Texas personal injury overview.
Southern Injury Attorneys handles motorcycle cases across Texas from our offices in Dallas and Houston, with dedicated local pages for Dallas, Houston , Austin and Fort Worth motorcycle accidents. Consultations are free, and there is no attorney fee unless we recover for you.
How dangerous is riding in Texas?
The numbers
The Texas Department of Transportation’s 2024 crash facts report 585 motorcyclists — operators and passengers — killed in Texas in 2024, out of 4,150 total traffic deaths. Source: TxDOT, Texas Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash Facts, Calendar Year 2024. Nationally, NHTSA’s fatality-rate data shows motorcyclists dying at roughly 28 times the rate of passenger-vehicle occupants per vehicle mile traveled. A motorcycle offers no crumple zone, no restraint and no cabin; in a collision with a 4,000-pound car the rider absorbs nearly all of the energy.
Why riders get hurt
The most common motorcycle crash in Texas is not a rider losing control. It is a driver turning left across the rider’s path, changing lanes into the rider, or pulling out from a side street or driveway — and afterward saying “I never saw the motorcycle.” That statement is an admission of a failure to keep a proper lookout, not a defence. The second pattern is the rear-end crash at a stop, where a distracted driver hits a stationary rider at speed. Both produce injuries far out of proportion to the vehicle damage involved.
Where it happens
High-speed urban freeways — I-35 through Dallas, Austin and San Antonio; I-10, I-45 and the 610 Loop in Houston — produce the lane-change and rear-end crashes. The Hill Country roads west of Austin and San Antonio, the Twisted Sisters loop, and the long rural stretches of the state’s two-lane highways produce the single-vehicle and road-hazard crashes, and because rural response times are long, those crashes are more often fatal. Just over half of all Texas traffic deaths in 2024 occurred on rural roads.
How long do you have to file a motorcycle accident claim in Texas?
Two years for most claims
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) gives two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury suit against the driver who hit you. Insurance negotiations happen in the shadow of that deadline; if suit is not on file by the second anniversary, the claim is ordinarily barred.
Six months’ notice for government defendants
Where a government vehicle was involved, or where a road defect — a pothole, loose gravel from a resurfacing job, an unmarked edge drop, a missing guardrail — contributed to the crash, the Texas Tort Claims Act applies. Written notice must reach the governmental unit within six months (§ 101.101), many city charters require it sooner, and damages are capped under § 101.023. Road-defect claims also carry special proof requirements about the government’s actual knowledge of the condition.
Wrongful death
Because motorcycle crashes are so often fatal, wrongful death claims are common. They must be filed within two years of the date of death and belong to the surviving spouse, children and parents under § 71.004; a separate survival claim belongs to the estate under § 71.021. See our Dallas and Houston wrongful death pages.
What Texas laws apply to motorcyclists?
Helmets: required, with an adult exemption
Tex. Transp. Code § 661.003 makes it an offence to operate or ride as a passenger on a motorcycle without protective headgear meeting Department of Public Safety standards. A rider who is at least 21 years old is exempt if he or she has either completed an approved motorcycle operator training and safety course or is covered by a health insurance plan providing medical benefits for injuries from a motorcycle collision. A peace officer may not stop a rider solely to check for the exemption. Texas is therefore a partial-helmet-law state, unlike Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia, which require helmets for all riders.
Lane splitting is illegal
Since September 1, 2023, Tex. Transp. Code § 545.0605 has expressly prohibited a motorcycle operator from passing another vehicle in the same lane, or from operating between lanes of traffic moving in the same direction. Before that date the practice was not specifically addressed by statute. A rider who was lane-splitting at the moment of a crash should expect it to be raised as comparative fault, but it does not automatically bar the claim — the driver’s own failure to signal, check mirrors or control the vehicle still counts.
Licensing and equipment
Texas requires a Class M licence or endorsement (§ 521.084), and a first-time applicant must complete a DPS-approved motorcycle safety course. Motorcycles must carry the same 30/60/25 minimum liability coverage as cars. Riding without the endorsement is a traffic offence, and insurers will raise it, but it is not proof that the rider caused the crash.
Does not wearing a helmet hurt your Texas claim?
Liability versus damages
Two different questions get run together. Whether you wore a helmet has nothing to do with whether the driver who turned left in front of you was negligent; a helmet does not make a rider visible or stop a car from crossing the centre line. Where a helmet can matter is on damages: an insurer will argue that a head injury would have been less severe with a helmet, and under Chapter 33 will ask the jury to assign the rider a percentage of responsibility for the injury. That argument requires medical and biomechanical proof, not assertion, and it is irrelevant to injuries below the neck — the leg, pelvis, spine and arm injuries that make up most serious motorcycle claims.
Why it often matters less than insurers claim
A rider over 21 who qualified for the exemption was riding lawfully. Even where a helmet argument has some force, it reduces the head-injury component of the claim, not the whole claim. We treat the helmet argument as a contested issue to be met with evidence, not as a reason to discount the case before it starts.
How does Texas’s 51 percent bar work for riders?
The rule
Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001, a claimant whose percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent recovers nothing; at 50 percent or below, the recovery is reduced by that percentage. A rider found 25 percent at fault with $400,000 in damages recovers $300,000. A rider found 51 percent at fault recovers nothing. The percentage is the jury’s to assign, not the adjuster’s.
What gets argued against you
Speed is the first argument in nearly every motorcycle case, followed by lane position, conspicuity, lane splitting, helmet use, licensing and alcohol. Some of these are serious; most are routine and answerable with the crash report, witness accounts, the other vehicle’s event data recorder, and reconstruction. Bias against motorcyclists is real among adjusters and some jurors, which is why motorcycle cases need to be built with more evidence, not less.
Joint and several liability
Where more than one party caused the crash — two drivers, or a driver and a road authority — each pays only its own percentage unless its share exceeds 50 percent, in which case it is jointly and severally liable for the whole judgment (§ 33.013). Defendants can designate absent responsible third parties under § 33.004, and fault assigned to an empty chair reduces the recovery.
What insurance actually pays after a Texas motorcycle crash?
The driver’s liability policy
Texas’s minimum liability policy is 30/60/25 (Tex. Transp. Code § 601.072). Thirty thousand dollars does not cover a helicopter flight and an orthopaedic surgery. Many Texas drivers carry exactly the minimum, and some carry nothing.
Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
UM/UIM coverage is part of every Texas auto policy unless rejected in writing (Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101), and it is the single most important coverage a Texas rider can carry. It responds when the driver has no insurance, too little insurance, or cannot be identified — although an unidentified hit-and-run vehicle must have made actual physical contact to qualify (§ 1952.104). Check your motorcycle policy specifically: UM/UIM on your car policy does not automatically follow you onto a motorcycle you own, and motorcycle policies are sometimes written without it. Under Brainard v. Trinity Universal Ins. Co., 216 S.W.3d 809 (Tex. 2006), the UIM carrier owes nothing until the other driver’s liability and underinsured status are established, so these claims are usually litigated. Our Dallas and Houston uninsured motorist pages cover the details.
Personal injury protection and health insurance liens
Texas insurers must offer personal injury protection of at least $2,500 unless rejected in writing (Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152); it pays medical bills and part of lost income regardless of fault. Health plans, ERISA plans, Medicaid, Medicare and hospital lien holders under Property Code Chapter 55 assert reimbursement rights against the settlement, and those are negotiated rather than simply paid.
What is a Texas motorcycle accident claim worth?
Economic damages
Past and future medical expenses, lost earnings and lost earning capacity, uncapped. Motorcycle injuries — femur and tibia fractures, pelvic fractures, degloving, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation — frequently involve multiple surgeries and permanent limitation, so future care and lost capacity usually dominate and require expert proof. Recoverable medical expenses are limited to amounts actually paid or incurred (§ 41.0105).
Non-economic damages
Physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement and loss of consortium. Texas does not cap non-economic damages in an ordinary motorcycle accident case.
Punitive damages
Available on clear and convincing proof of gross negligence — a drunk driver, a street racer, a driver who fled the scene (§ 41.003) — and capped under § 41.008(b) at the greater of $200,000 or twice the economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000.
What we will not tell you
No honest lawyer can give you a number for your case from a web page. Value depends on the injuries, the medical proof, the liability picture, the available coverage, the fault percentage a jury might assign and the venue. Anyone quoting you a figure before reviewing your records is guessing.
Which court hears a Texas motorcycle accident case?
Texas district courts and county courts at law. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 15.002, venue generally lies in the county where the crash occurred or where the defendant resides. Out-of-state defendants can remove a case to the federal Northern, Southern, Western or Eastern District of Texas when more than $75,000 is in controversy. Because juror attitudes toward motorcyclists vary by county, venue is not a formality in these cases.
What should you do after a motorcycle accident in Texas?
- Get medical care immediately and follow through. Internal injuries and head injuries are commonly missed at the scene.
- Get the crash report. The CR-3 is purchased through TxDOT’s Crash Report Online Purchase System, usually within about ten days. Read it for errors; officer narratives in motorcycle crashes are often corrected later.
- Preserve the motorcycle and your gear. Do not repair or sell the bike. Keep the helmet, jacket and boots — damage patterns prove impact direction and speed.
- Find witnesses and video. Businesses, traffic cameras and other drivers’ dash cams overwrite footage in days.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the driver’s insurer before you have advice. Our Texas guide to what not to say explains why.
- Find your own declarations page. Your UM/UIM and PIP limits determine the ceiling on many Texas motorcycle claims.
Where we handle Texas motorcycle cases
Statewide, from our Dallas office on N. Central Expressway and our Houston office on Beltway 8, with dedicated local pages for Dallas motorcycle accidents, Houston motorcycle accidents , Austin motorcycle accidents and Fort Worth motorcycle accidents. Related Texas pages: car accidents, truck accidents, Dallas uninsured motorist claims, Houston uninsured motorist claims, Dallas wrongful death, Houston wrongful death. Our national motorcycle accident page covers the general framework.
Frequently asked questions about Texas motorcycle accidents
How long do I have to file a motorcycle accident claim in Texas?
Two years from the date of the crash under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. Claims involving a government vehicle or road defect require written notice within six months under § 101.101, and some cities require it sooner.
Does Texas require motorcycle helmets?
Yes, under Tex. Transp. Code § 661.003, but riders 21 and older are exempt if they have completed an approved motorcycle safety course or carry health insurance covering motorcycle injuries.
Can I still recover if I was not wearing a helmet?
Yes. Helmet use does not affect whether the other driver was negligent. An insurer may argue that a head injury would have been less severe with a helmet, which can reduce that part of the claim if proven, but it does not bar recovery and has no bearing on injuries below the neck.
Is lane splitting legal in Texas?
No. Since September 1, 2023, Tex. Transp. Code § 545.0605 prohibits operating a motorcycle between lanes of traffic moving in the same direction or passing in the same lane. Lane splitting at the time of a crash will be raised as comparative fault but does not automatically bar a claim.
Can I recover if the crash was partly my fault?
Yes, as long as your share of responsibility is not greater than 50 percent. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage; at 51 percent or more you recover nothing under § 33.001.
What if the driver who hit me has no insurance?
Your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage responds if your motorcycle policy includes it. UM/UIM is part of every Texas policy unless rejected in writing under Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101. An unidentified hit-and-run vehicle must have made actual physical contact to qualify.
Does the UM coverage on my car policy cover me on my motorcycle?
Usually not for a motorcycle you own, because most auto policies exclude owned vehicles not listed on the policy. Check the motorcycle policy itself, and review both policies with a lawyer before assuming there is no coverage.
How much is a Texas motorcycle accident case worth?
It depends on the injuries, the medical proof, the fault picture, the coverage available and the venue. Texas does not cap compensatory damages in an ordinary motorcycle case. No reliable number can be given before the records are reviewed.
Should I talk to the other driver’s insurance company?
Not before you have advice. You are not required to give a recorded statement, and statements given early, while injured or medicated, are used to reduce claims later.
What if a road hazard caused my crash?
A claim may exist against the state, county or city responsible for the road under the Texas Tort Claims Act, subject to the six-month notice requirement, damage caps, and proof that the governmental unit knew of the condition. Photograph the hazard immediately; road crews repair it quickly.
Should I repair my motorcycle after the crash?
Not until it has been inspected and photographed. The motorcycle and your gear are evidence of impact direction, speed and the mechanics of the crash, and insurers will argue mechanical failure if the bike is gone.
What does it cost to hire a Texas motorcycle accident lawyer?
Nothing up front. We work on a contingency fee, with no attorney fee unless there is a recovery. Consultations are free and available 24/7 at 469-253-2533 in Dallas or 346-299-8430 in Houston.
Start your free case review
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This page is legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutes, regulations and case law change; every case turns on its own facts. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Reviewed by Larry “Jimmy” Peters, Founder, Southern Injury Attorneys, Texas Bar No. 24113438. Texas matters are handled from the firm’s offices at 4245 N. Central Expressway, Suite 490, Dallas, Texas 75205 and 340 N. Sam Houston Parkway E., Suite A1045, Houston, Texas 77060.
