Car Accidents in Fort Worth: 2023 Data and How a Claim Works

NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System records every fatal crash on public roads. For 2023, crashes coded to Fort Worth account for 118 deaths in 108 fatal crashes, fourth in Texas behind Houston, Dallas and San Antonio and ahead of Austin and El Paso. Arlington, in the same county, recorded 42 more, and Tarrant County as a whole adds substantially to the total.

Fort Worth's pattern is night. Eighty-three of 108 fatal crashes, 77 percent, occurred in dark conditions, lighted or not, the highest share of any city in the national top 25 and well above Dallas at 64 percent. Only 24 were intersection-related, 22 percent, among the lowest shares in the country. The most common first harmful event, 71 crashes, was something other than hitting another moving vehicle, which on Fort Worth's highways at night means a fixed object, a rollover or a pedestrian. Head-on crashes, 10, were notable.

Forty fatal crashes involved a pedestrian or cyclist, 37 percent. Thirty-six were on a weekend. FARS counts fatal crashes only; injury crashes in Tarrant County, reported through TxDOT, are many times more numerous.

FARS roadway coding, as reported by Texas, identifies where fatal crashes concentrated in 2023.

• I-35W frontage roads: 6 fatal crashes on the feeder roads beside the interstate.
• I-35W main lanes: 4 fatal crashes.
• US-287: 4 fatal crashes on the highway through the southeast and northwest of the city.
• Beach Street: 3 fatal crashes on the east side arterial.
• McCart Avenue: 3 fatal crashes in the south.
• Miller Avenue: 3 fatal crashes in the southeast.
• Across all coding, I-35W and its frontage roads together account for 10 fatal crashes, the deadliest corridor in the city.

A fatal or serious crash at night on an I-35W frontage road usually involves speed and often involves a single vehicle leaving the road or striking a pedestrian. Night crashes bring visibility arguments: the pedestrian was in dark clothing, the stalled car had no flashers, the cyclist had no lights. Those arguments are answered by the lighting evidence at the location, the vehicle's event data for speed, and camera footage from businesses and Trinity Metro buses, all of which disappear quickly.

Frontage roads add their own fault pattern. Vehicles exit the interstate at speed onto a feeder road where cross traffic, driveways and pedestrians are present, and Texas law gives frontage road traffic the right of way over vehicles entering from side streets and driveways in most configurations. Who was on the frontage road and who was entering it is the first question in a Fort Worth feeder crash.

Texas's 51 percent bar makes the fault percentage decisive. A driver or pedestrian found 50 percent at fault recovers half; at 51 percent, nothing. Night crashes with few witnesses are the ones where insurers push hardest toward 51, and the physical evidence is what holds the line.

Suppose your car stalled on the I-35W frontage road at night and you were standing beside it when a driver exiting the interstate struck you. You suffered a fractured pelvis and a fractured arm, with $130,000 in medical bills and six months off work. The driver's insurer argued you were in the roadway without reflective clothing or flares and assigned you 55 percent of the fault, which under Texas law would bar the claim.

Your hazard lights were on, confirmed by a passing Trinity Metro bus camera obtained by a preservation letter in the first week, and the driver's event data showed a speed 20 miles over the frontage road limit with no braking. The fault assignment was renegotiated to 20 percent. The driver carried Texas's $30,000 minimum, which was paid; your own underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000 paid the balance after the reduction, and your personal injury protection covered early bills.

A question about the lighting on that stretch of frontage road, which is a TxDOT road, would have been a claim under the Texas Tort Claims Act with a six-month notice requirement. The claim settled at month seventeen, inside the two-year deadline. All figures are hypothetical.

Fort Worth's crashes are night crashes on highways and frontage roads, and the visibility evidence is the first thing to secure.

• Get the Fort Worth Police Department or Texas DPS report number; Texas crash reports are available through TxDOT's online system.
• Photograph the lighting at the location, any street lights that were out, and the position of every vehicle and person.
• Identify every camera facing the location, including businesses and Trinity Metro buses, and have preservation letters sent within days.
• Ask that no vehicle be scrapped before its event data recorder is downloaded.
• Get witness names; night crashes on frontage roads often have few, and one independent account can decide the fault percentage.
• Report to your own insurer the same day and confirm your uninsured and underinsured motorist limits and personal injury protection in writing.
• If street lighting, road design or a government vehicle contributed, note the six-month Texas Tort Claims Act notice period and any shorter city charter requirement.

Texas is a fault state. The at-fault driver's liability insurer is the primary source of recovery. Texas insurers must offer personal injury protection of at least $2,500, which pays your own medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault unless rejected in writing, and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which can also be rejected. The minimum liability coverage is $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage.

Fault follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar under Texas's proportionate responsibility statute: you recover if your share is 50 percent or less, reduced by that share. The injury deadline is two years from the crash under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. Claims against the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Trinity Metro or TxDOT fall under the Texas Tort Claims Act, with damage caps and a six-month notice requirement that city charters can shorten.

Crashes in Arlington, which recorded 42 deaths in 2023, and in the rest of Tarrant County follow the same Texas rules. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the Texas Division of Workers' Compensation with a one-year claim deadline, and Texas employers who have opted out of the system can be sued directly.

A Fort Worth claim is usually a night claim on a highway or frontage road where visibility is the insurer's argument, the fault percentage decides everything under Texas's 51 percent rule, and the at-fault driver carries the minimum. The questions to answer early are what the cameras and event data show about lighting and speed, what coverage exists on both sides, and whether a public entity shares responsibility on a six-month clock. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency.

Ask Legal Matters is a free claim-review request service, not a law firm. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in Texas, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say what the claim is worth. If you were hurt in a crash in Fort Worth or Tarrant County, you can request a free claim review.

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• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation
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• Hit by an Amazon Delivery Van: Who Is Liable and Who Pays
• Hit by a Government Vehicle: Police Car, City Truck Claims
• What Negligence Means in a Car Accident Claim: The Four Elements

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