Texas Bicycle Accident Law

Who Pays After a Crash in Texas

Texas is an at-fault state. The driver who caused the crash is responsible for your losses, and Transportation Code section 601.072 requires that driver to carry at least $30,000 in coverage for one person's injuries, $60,000 for everyone hurt in the collision, and $25,000 for property damage. Those limits have stood since 2011. Two bills to raise them were filed in the 2025 session and neither left committee, so no increase is scheduled.

There is no injury threshold to clear before you can bring a claim. Your bike and gear are paid from the driver's $25,000 property limit and your injuries from the bodily injury limit.

Texas adds a rule that shrinks the medical part of a claim. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 41.0105, you can recover only the medical expenses actually paid or incurred by you or on your behalf. If the hospital billed $40,000 and your health plan settled the bill for $12,000, the claim is built on what was paid, not on the sticker price.

Texas also has a first-party benefit most riders overlook. Every auto policy sold in the state includes personal injury protection unless the policyholder rejected it in writing, and Insurance Code section 1952.152 puts the minimum at $2,500 per person. PIP pays medical and funeral expenses incurred within three years of the crash, plus lost income, without regard to fault and without regard to what your health plan pays.

The statute extends PIP to the named insured and members of the household and says nothing about being inside a car. Whether your own policy pays when you are hit on a bike turns on its wording, so ask your insurer in writing. The Texas Department of Insurance says the separate medical payments coverage on an auto policy does pay when you are hurt while biking.

If you own no car, the driver's PIP does not reach you. A household member's auto policy is the only place to look; after that it is the driver's liability coverage, your health plan, and whatever you carry on the bike itself.

Fault and How It Reduces a Claim

Texas calls its system proportionate responsibility, and the line sits at 51%. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 33.001, a claimant whose share of responsibility is greater than 50% recovers nothing. At 50% or below, section 33.012 reduces the award by that percentage. A rider found 50% responsible for a $100,000 loss collects $50,000. At 51%, the same rider collects zero.

The material comes from the Transportation Code. Section 551.101 gives a cyclist the rights and duties of a driver, and Texas courts treat traffic statutes as the standard of care, a doctrine the Texas Supreme Court applied again in 2025 in City of Houston v. Manning. The rules most likely to be raised:

• Lane position. Section 551.103 requires a rider slower than traffic to keep as near as practicable to the right edge. The exceptions are broad: passing, left turns, hazards, and any outside lane under 14 feet wide with no adjacent bike lane. Two abreast is legal if it does not impede traffic.
• Lights. Section 551.104 requires a white front lamp visible from 500 feet at night and a red rear reflector or lamp.
• Sidewalks and crosswalks. Since September 1, 2025, a cyclist lawfully on a sidewalk has a pedestrian's right-of-way in a crosswalk. Entering the crosswalk faster than 8 mph is presumed unreasonable.

The same statute works in your favor once the driver crosses 50%. Under section 33.013, a defendant more than 50% responsible is liable for all of your recoverable damages, including shares assigned to others.

Helmets are unsettled. Texas has no statewide bicycle helmet law, and no statute or Texas Supreme Court decision says whether riding without one can count against you. The court ruled in 2015 that seat belt evidence may be weighed in assigning responsibility, and a defense lawyer may argue the same logic applies to a helmet.

Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers

Insurance Code section 1952.101 requires every Texas auto policy to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless the policyholder rejected it in writing. The limits cannot be lower than the state minimums of $30,000, $60,000, and $25,000, and cannot be higher than your own liability limits.

The statute protects insureds who are legally entitled to recover from an uninsured driver and does not require that you be in a vehicle at the time. Who counts as covered away from the car is set by the policy form, so confirm with your insurer that the coverage follows you onto a bike, and check the declarations page to see that it was never rejected.

For a driver who flees, section 1952.104 requires actual physical contact between the unknown vehicle and "the person or property of the insured." The wording reaches a car that clips your rear wheel without touching you. It does not reach a car that runs you off the road with no contact at all.

The Texas Department of Insurance is blunt about the second condition: uninsured motorist coverage will not pay for a hit-and-run that was not reported to police. The statute sets no deadline, which leaves the deadline to your policy. Call from the scene. Section 550.026 already requires immediate notice to police of any collision with an injury.

The underinsured half applies when the at-fault driver's limits are lower than your own underinsured limit, and it is reduced by what that driver's insurer pays. Against a driver carrying the $30,000 minimum, a policy with the same $30,000 limit adds nothing.

Property damage under uninsured motorist coverage carries a $250 deductible set by statute. Whether a bicycle counts as covered property is a policy-form question, so a bike policy's crash coverage is the dependable source for the bike.

Two things to check in a bike insurance policy: whether it offers uninsured motorist coverage of its own, and whether crash damage is covered no matter who hit you.

Dooring and Passing Laws

Transportation Code section 545.418 covers dooring in two parts. A person may not open the door of a motor vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it can be opened in reasonable safety without interfering with other traffic. And a person may not leave a door on the traffic side open longer than necessary to load or unload a passenger. The statute applies to passengers as well as drivers.

Passing is where Texas law is thin. There is no statewide minimum passing distance for bicycles. Section 545.053 requires a driver to pass on the left "at a safe distance" and not return to the lane until safely clear, and that is all the state code says.

Cities have filled the gap. San Antonio adopted a vulnerable road user ordinance in 2010 and Fort Worth in 2011. Both require a driver passing a cyclist to move out of the lane where two or more lanes run in the same direction, or else leave at least three feet in a car or light truck and six feet in a larger truck. Where you crashed decides which rule you can cite, so write down the city and look up its code.

One statewide protection carries criminal weight. Under section 545.428, a driver who with criminal negligence injures a cyclist in a crosswalk commits a Class A misdemeanor, or a state jail felony when the injury is serious.

E-bikes

Transportation Code section 664.001 defines an electric bicycle as a bike with fully operable pedals, a motor of fewer than 750 watts, and a top assisted speed of 28 mph or less. Class 1 assists only while you pedal, up to 20 mph. Class 2 can run without pedaling, up to 20 mph. Class 3 assists only while you pedal, at more than 20 but less than 28 mph, and must be sold with a speedometer. Every e-bike needs a label showing its class, top assisted speed, and wattage.

Section 551.107 sets the minimum age for operating a Class 3 at 15. It also says the state's title and registration, driver's license, and financial responsibility laws do not apply to an electric bicycle. No plate, no license, no compulsory insurance. In a crash you stand where any cyclist stands: the same 51% bar, the same two-year deadline, the same claim against the driver.

Texas has no helmet requirement for any class or any age.

The label is worth a photograph. A machine with a motor at or above 750 watts, or one that assists past 28 mph, falls outside the definition and loses those exemptions. The other side's insurer will want to know which side of that line your bike was on.

One question has no answer in Texas statute, Department of Insurance guidance, or published appellate decisions: whether an auto policy's PIP or uninsured motorist coverage applies to you on an e-bike. Get your insurer's position in writing. In a bike insurance policy, check that your e-bike's class is covered and that the motor matches its label.

Deadlines

Texas gives you two years to sue, but a claim against a governmental unit can be lost in six months or less.

1. At the scene

   Notify Police Immediately

   Section 550.026 requires immediate notice to police, by the quickest means available, of any collision involving injury or death. An officer who investigates a crash with an injury or at least $1,000 in apparent damage must file a report with the Texas Department of Transportation within 10 days, which tells you when to request your copy.

2. Six months, or less

   Notice to a Governmental Unit

   A claim against a governmental unit (a city bus, a county vehicle, a state road crew) falls under the Texas Tort Claims Act. Section 101.101 requires notice within six months of the incident, describing the injury or damage, the time and place, and what happened. The same section ratifies city charter provisions that require notice sooner, so the real deadline for a claim against a city may be much shorter than six months. Read the charter in the first week.

3. Two years

   Injury and Bike Damage Lawsuit

   Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003 gives you two years to sue for personal injury and the same two years for damage to the bike. A wrongful death claim runs two years from the death. For a rider under 18, section 16.001 does not count the time before the 18th birthday.

Government Code section 311.034 makes the six-month notice jurisdictional: miss it and the claim is over, however much of the two-year period remains. Recovery is capped as well. Section 101.023 limits bodily injury claims to $250,000 per person against the state or a municipality and $100,000 per person against other local governments.

For a dispute over the bike alone, justice court hears claims up to $20,000.

Evidence to Preserve

With a 51% bar, evidence in Texas does one job above all: it keeps your percentage down. Collect it with that in mind.

• The officer's crash report, requested once the 10-day filing window has passed, and the report number from the scene.
• The city and exact location. They decide whether a local passing ordinance applies and which charter sets the notice deadline.
• Lane width. A measurement or a photo with a reference object shows whether the lane was under 14 feet, the point at which section 551.103 let you ride away from the right edge.
• Your lights and reflector, photographed on the bike, if the crash happened after dark.
• Speed data from a bike computer or phone if you entered a crosswalk from a sidewalk, where 8 mph is the line.
• The e-bike label showing class, top assisted speed, and wattage.
• The driver's insurance details, which Texas law requires a driver in an injury collision to give you, along with name, address, and registration number.
• Your auto policy's declarations page, showing that PIP and uninsured motorist coverage were not rejected.
• Explanation-of-benefits statements from your health plan. Under the paid-or-incurred rule, the amounts actually paid are the medical claim.
• The damaged bike, unrepaired, with receipts for the bike and gear.

Coverage for Texas Riders

Texas law leaves a rider exposed in four places: a driver carrying the $30,000 minimum, a driver who flees, medical costs your health plan passes on to you, and a bike that auto coverage may not treat as covered property. The Velosurance policy offers the coverages discussed above.

Uninsured Motorist covers losses beyond medical bills, such as lost wages, when the at-fault driver cannot pay.

Medical Payments covers the deductible and out-of-pocket costs your health plan leaves, regardless of the driver's insurance. Choose a limit close to your plan's out-of-pocket deductible.

Liability is the coverage for the day the percentages run against you. If you are held responsible for a crash, it covers injury to other people and damage to their property, including the cost of defending a covered lawsuit, with limits from $25,000 to $500,000.

Crash damage to the bike is part of the policy itself: stated value with no depreciation, subject to the deductible, whoever was at fault. Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 e-bikes are covered like conventional bikes.

For any of these coverages to apply, it must be on the policy before the crash. Get a quote before the next ride, not after it.

Bicycle Accident Attorneys in Texas

Velosurance legal partners who represent injured cyclists in Texas.

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  Bill Shirer - Accident and Injury Claims Attorney

  5720 LBJ Frwy, Ste 575
  Dallas, TX 75240

  (972) 392 - 1225