Driving away from a crash in Texas is a crime even when nobody is hurt. Leaving the scene of an accident in Texas with no injuries is a misdemeanor under the Transportation Code, ranging from a fine-only Class C offense to a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. What determines the charge is not whether anyone was injured but how much property damage you caused and whether you fulfilled your statutory duties before leaving.
What You Have to Do Before You Can Leave
If you collide with a vehicle that has a driver, passenger, or anyone nearby, Texas law requires you to stop immediately at the scene, or as close as possible without unnecessarily blocking traffic. If your car has already moved past the point of impact, you have to return.1State of Texas. Texas Code Transportation Code 550.022 – Collision Involving Damage to Vehicle
Once stopped, you have to give the other driver or the person attending the vehicle:
- Your name and address
- Your vehicle’s registration number
- The name of your auto insurance company
You also have to show your driver’s license to anyone involved in the collision who asks to see it.2State of Texas. Texas Code Transportation Code 550.023 – Duty to Give Information and Render Aid Skip any of these, and the elements of a hit-and-run charge are in place.
Parked Cars and Empty Vehicles
Clipping a parked car with nobody around does not get you off the hook. You have to stop and try to find the owner. If you locate them, hand over your name and address along with the vehicle owner’s information (which differs if you are driving someone else’s car). If you cannot find the owner, leave a written note securely attached to the damaged vehicle in a visible place, including your name, address, the vehicle owner’s details, and a short description of what happened.3State of Texas. Texas Code Transportation Code 550.024 – Duty on Striking Unattended Vehicle A loose note that blows off the windshield before the owner returns can leave you exposed, so secure it.
Guardrails, Mailboxes, and Other Roadside Property
A separate statute covers collisions with structures, fixtures, or landscaping along a highway, including guardrails, fences, mailboxes, utility poles, and plantings. You have to take reasonable steps to locate the owner or person in charge, give them your name, address, and vehicle registration number, and show your license if asked.4State of Texas. Texas Code Transportation Code 550.025 – Duty on Striking Structure, Fixture, or Highway Landscaping The section reaches structures “adjacent to a highway” and fixtures or landscaping “legally on or adjacent to a highway,” so property farther off the road may be governed by other rules. When in doubt, stop and try to make contact.
The Freeway Exception
If the collision happens on a freeway in a metropolitan area and both vehicles can be safely driven, you have to move your car off the main lanes as soon as possible, to a designated collision investigation site, frontage road, cross street, or other suitable spot. You still owe the same information exchange; you just complete it somewhere that is not blocking traffic.1State of Texas. Texas Code Transportation Code 550.022 – Collision Involving Damage to Vehicle A vehicle qualifies as safely drivable only if it does not need a tow and can operate normally without creating additional hazards. Failing to move a drivable car off the freeway is its own Class C misdemeanor, separate from any hit-and-run charge.
Criminal Penalties If You Drive Away
The same penalty structure applies whether you hit an occupied vehicle, an unattended car, or a roadside structure. The split is based on the dollar value of the damage:
- Damage under $200: Class C misdemeanor, maximum $500 fine, no jail.5State of Texas. Texas Code Penal 12.23 – Class C Misdemeanor
- Damage of $200 or more: Class B misdemeanor, up to $2,000 in fines, up to 180 days in county jail, or both.6State of Texas. Texas Code Penal 12.22 – Class B Misdemeanor
The $200 figure counts total damage across all vehicles or property, not just one car.1State of Texas. Texas Code Transportation Code 550.022 – Collision Involving Damage to Vehicle Even a minor bumper scrape runs several hundred dollars to repair, so most property-damage hit-and-run cases that prosecutors pursue land in the Class B tier.
How Long Prosecutors Have to File Charges
The statute of limitations for either a Class B or Class C misdemeanor hit and run is two years from the date of the collision.7State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art 12.02 – Limitation Investigations that rely on surveillance footage and paint-transfer evidence can take months, so silence from police in the weeks after a crash does not mean the file is closed.
Private Parking Lots Count Too
The stop-and-exchange duties are not limited to public roads. Texas extends its accident-duty statutes to privately owned parking facilities where a fee is charged for parking or storing a vehicle, which captures grocery lots, mall garages, and paid structures.
Defenses Worth Knowing About
The most common defense is that the driver genuinely did not know a collision had occurred. On a noisy highway merge with no visible damage to your own vehicle and no audible impact, that argument has traction, because prosecutors generally need to show the driver knew or should have known about the damage.
Safety can also matter. The statute itself contemplates moving a vehicle when stopping at the exact spot would be hazardous, so driving a short distance to a safer location before stopping and completing your duties is different from leaving. Driving home and calling police the next morning is not.
Insurance, Record, and Rate Consequences
A conviction follows you past the courtroom. Auto insurers treat a hit-and-run conviction as a serious risk signal, and industry data suggests drivers convicted of leaving the scene pay roughly double their prior rates, often more than $1,000 in extra annual premiums. The rate impact typically lasts three to five years.
Some policies carry exclusions for damage arising from criminal acts. If an insurer invokes that language, you could end up personally liable for the other party’s repair bill despite carrying coverage. This is uncommon in routine property-damage cases but becomes a real risk when the circumstances suggest intentional flight.
A conviction also creates a permanent criminal record. Even a Class C misdemeanor shows up on background checks and can complicate job applications, rental decisions, and professional licensing, because the offense sits in the criminal code rather than being treated as an ordinary traffic violation.
Call the Police and Document the Scene
Texas requires a law enforcement officer who investigates a collision to file a written crash report when property damage appears to reach $1,000 or more, submitted electronically to the Texas Department of Transportation within ten days.8State of Texas. Texas Code Transportation Code 550.062 – Officers Collision Report Drivers can no longer file their own crash reports; TxDOT stopped retaining driver-filed reports as of January 2019 after Senate Bill 312 ended the CR-2 program in 2017.9Texas Department of Transportation. Crash Reports and Records If an officer does not come to your scene, there will be no official state record of the collision. For damage that looks like it might approach $1,000, calling police creates the documentation you will want later for insurance and legal protection.
Whether or not police respond, photograph the damage, the surrounding area, and any identifying details of the other vehicle or property, and collect contact information from witnesses. Those records become your best evidence if someone disputes what happened weeks or months later.