What Does Uninsured Motorist Cover in Texas?

Uninsured motorist coverage in Texas pays for your injuries, your passengers’ injuries, and damage to your vehicle when the driver who caused your accident has no insurance, doesn’t carry enough to cover your losses, or flees the scene. It’s first-party coverage, meaning you collect from your own insurer, and the list of compensable losses runs well beyond medical bills.

What the Coverage Pays For

A Texas uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) policy covers both bodily injury and property damage. Specific recoverable losses include:

Medical expenses, including hospital stays, surgery, rehabilitation, and ongoing treatment for you and your passengers
Lost wages from time missed because of accident-related injuries
Pain and suffering, including emotional distress and reduced quality of life
Vehicle repairs, subject to a $250 deductible
Personal property inside the car that was damaged in the crash
A rental car while your vehicle is being repaired
Diminished value — the drop in your car’s market value after repairs

The bodily injury side of the coverage carries no deductible. Property damage claims are subject to a flat $250 statutory deductible, which is typically lower than a standard collision deductible.¹

What It Won’t Pay

UM/UIM does not cover punitive damages.² Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.104 also requires policies to exclude injuries or damage caused by the insured’s own intentional conduct. And if you or a household family member owns a vehicle that isn’t listed on the UM/UIM policy, injuries sustained while occupying that unlisted vehicle are typically excluded.³

Texas uses modified comparative fault. If you are found partially responsible for the crash, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are more than 50 percent at fault you cannot recover at all.³

When UM Coverage Applies

The coverage is a single combined product under Texas law, but it responds to three different situations.

The Other Driver Has No Insurance

Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage applies when the at-fault driver carries no liability insurance at all or when their insurer has become insolvent and cannot pay.⁴

The Other Driver Doesn’t Have Enough

Underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage fills the gap when the at-fault driver has insurance but not enough to cover your damages. Under Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.103, a vehicle is “underinsured” when its liability limits are originally lower than your UIM limit, or have been reduced by payments on other claims from the same accident to an amount below your limit.⁵ UIM claims commonly arise because many Texas drivers carry only the state-minimum liability of $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident, which a single emergency room visit can exhaust.⁶

Hit-and-Run

UM applies to hit-and-run crashes, but Texas imposes a physical contact requirement. There must be actual contact between your vehicle and the vehicle driven by the person who fled. If a driver runs you off the road and the two vehicles never touch, the coverage generally won’t apply.⁷

Texas courts have read “contact” to include indirect collisions, such as when the fleeing driver strikes a second car that then hits yours. Hitting debris that fell off another vehicle, or being struck by a detached part like a mirror or tailgate, does not count. If you later identify the hit-and-run driver through a license plate or witness, the special hit-and-run rules fall away and the claim proceeds as a standard UM case.⁷

Who the Coverage Protects

UM/UIM protects more than the named policyholder. It generally extends to the policyholder’s spouse, children, and other family members living in the same household. A child away at college who still maintains the same permanent residence is typically included.⁸

An important distinction: Texas liability insurance follows the vehicle, but UM/UIM coverage follows the person. You are generally covered under your own UM/UIM policy when you are a passenger in someone else’s car, riding a bicycle, or walking as a pedestrian.⁸

How the Payout Is Calculated

A UIM claim does not pay your full policy limit on top of whatever the other driver’s insurer paid. Texas uses an offset method: your UIM coverage pays the full amount of your legally recoverable damages, reduced by whatever you already recovered (or could recover) from the at-fault driver’s insurer, up to your own UIM policy limit.⁹

The Texas Supreme Court held in Stracener v. United Services Automobile Association that this offset is subtracted from your actual damages, not from your policy limit. That distinction can meaningfully increase the amount you ultimately collect.³

How UM/UIM Differs from PIP and MedPay

Three types of first-party auto coverage in Texas can pay after a crash, and they’re easy to confuse.

UM/UIM is fault-based. It applies only when the other driver is uninsured or underinsured, and it covers bodily injury, property damage, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Personal Injury Protection (PIP) pays regardless of fault. It covers medical expenses, funeral costs, and 80 percent of lost income. Insurers must offer PIP, and you have to reject it in writing to opt out.
Medical Payments (MedPay) also pays regardless of fault but covers only medical and funeral costs. It does not pay for lost wages or pain and suffering.

If you carry both PIP and UM/UIM, your insurer may offset the UM/UIM payout by the amount PIP already paid, to prevent double recovery. The Texas Supreme Court has held, however, that this offset cannot push your total recovery below your UM/UIM policy limit when your actual damages exceed the combined limits of both coverages.¹⁰

Limits You Can Buy

Minimum UM/UIM limits in Texas match the state’s minimum liability requirements: $30,000 per person for bodily injury, $60,000 per accident for bodily injury, and $25,000 per accident for property damage.⁶ Higher limits are available in $5,000 increments, but Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.105 caps UM/UIM limits at the bodily injury and property damage limits of your own liability policy.¹¹ The Texas Department of Insurance recommends carrying at least enough property damage coverage to replace your vehicle.¹

Do You Already Have It?

Possibly, even if you don’t remember buying it. Under Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.101, no auto liability policy can be issued in the state unless it includes UM/UIM coverage or the policyholder has rejected it in writing.¹² If you never signed a written rejection, you are considered to have the coverage by law, even if it doesn’t appear on your declarations page.¹³

Once you reject the coverage in writing, that rejection carries forward to every renewal and reinstatement of the policy. Your insurer isn’t required to ask again unless you submit a written request to add it back.¹² Pull your current declarations page and look for a UM/UIM line. If it’s missing and you never signed a rejection, call your insurer and ask them to confirm the coverage status in writing.

1
Texas Department of Insurance. Uninsured Motorist Coverage
2
Texas Department of Insurance. Protect Against Other Drivers With Uninsured Motorist Coverage
3
Texas Department of Insurance. Personal Auto Policy Checklist
4
Texas Public Law. Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.102
5
Justia. Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.103
6
Texas Department of Insurance. Auto Insurance Basics
7
Carabin Shaw. UM UIM Coverage Hit and Run Accidents
8
Underwood Law Office. Does My Automobile Insurance Cover Me for Accidents on My Bicycle
9
Justia. Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.106
10
Office of Public Insurance Counsel. Auto Insurance Basics
11
Justia. Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.105
12
FindLaw. Texas Insurance Code Section 1952.101
13
Mercury Insurance. Why You Need Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Austin, Texas