Car Accidents in San Antonio: 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 San Antonio account for 178 deaths in 173 fatal crashes, sixth nationally and third in Texas behind Houston and Dallas. Bexar County outside the city limits adds more.

San Antonio's distinguishing figure is its pedestrian and cyclist share. Seventy-nine of 173 fatal crashes, 46 percent, involved at least one person not in a vehicle, a share exceeded only by Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Albuquerque and Austin among the top 25 cities. The most common first harmful event, 118 crashes, was something other than a collision with another moving vehicle. Angle collisions, 28, and rear-end collisions, 12, were the leading two-vehicle types.

Darkness was a factor in 112 of 173 fatal crashes, 65 percent. Only 47 were intersection-related, 27 percent, which points to crashes on highways, frontage roads and mid-block on the wide arterials of the West and South Sides. FARS counts fatal crashes only; injury crashes in Bexar County, reported through TxDOT, are many times more numerous.

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

• Loop 410 (I-410): 11 fatal crashes on the loop around the city, the most of any road.
• Culebra Road: 7 fatal crashes on the West Side arterial.
• US-90: 6 fatal crashes on the highway through the West and Southwest Sides.
• I-35: 4 fatal crashes, with a further 4 on its frontage roads.
• General McMullen Drive: 4 fatal crashes on the West Side.
• Across all coding, I-35 and its frontage roads together account for 8 fatal crashes.

A pedestrian struck on Culebra Road or General McMullen Drive at night has an injury claim against the driver's liability insurer, and the defenses are familiar: the person was outside a crosswalk, in dark clothing, crossing mid-block. On the West Side arterials, where protected crossings can be a half mile apart, mid-block crossing is the norm rather than the exception, and the fault argument turns on the driver's speed, attention and lighting as much as on the pedestrian's position.

Texas's 51 percent bar makes that argument decisive. A pedestrian assigned 51 percent of the fault recovers nothing; at 50 percent, half. The physical evidence, including the vehicle's event data recorder for speed, the lighting at the location, and camera footage from businesses and VIA buses, is what moves the percentage, and it has to be gathered in the first days.

Pedestrians and cyclists frequently have coverage on their own household auto policies. Texas uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage applies to a named insured or household member struck by a vehicle on foot, and with many San Antonio drivers carrying the $30,000 minimum or nothing, that coverage is often the larger source of recovery. Hit-and-run crashes are uninsured motorist claims if reported to police promptly.

Suppose you were crossing Culebra Road at night, mid-block, when a driver traveling well over the limit struck you. You suffered a fractured femur requiring surgery and a traumatic brain injury, with $210,000 in medical bills and no return to work for eight months. The driver's insurer argued you crossed outside a crosswalk and assigned you 55 percent of the fault, which under Texas law would bar the claim entirely.

The vehicle's event data recorder, preserved by a letter sent in the first week, showed a speed 18 miles over the limit with no braking before impact. A VIA bus camera showed the driver looking down in the seconds before the crash. The fault allocation was renegotiated to 30 percent. The driver carried Texas's $30,000 minimum, which was paid; your own underinsured motorist coverage of $250,000, on your household's auto policy, paid the balance of the claim after the 30 percent reduction.

Your health insurer and the hospital asserted liens on the settlement, which were negotiated down under Texas's lien rules. The claim settled at month nineteen, inside the two-year deadline. Without the event data and the bus footage, the 55 percent assignment would have ended it. All figures are hypothetical.

San Antonio's crashes are night and pedestrian crashes on wide roads, and the evidence that decides fault disappears fast.

• Get the San Antonio Police Department or Bexar County Sheriff's Office report number; Texas crash reports are available through TxDOT's online system.
• Identify every camera facing the location, including businesses and VIA bus routes, and have preservation letters sent within days.
• Ask that the vehicle not be scrapped before its event data recorder is downloaded.
• Photograph the lighting, the distance to the nearest crosswalk, and the position of the vehicle and the person.
• Check your own and your household members' auto policies for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, even if you were on foot.
• Report to your own insurer the same day and confirm your personal injury protection coverage in writing.
• If a street light, crossing or road design 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 San Antonio, Bexar County, VIA or TxDOT fall under the Texas Tort Claims Act, with damage caps and a six-month notice requirement that the city charter shortens.

Crashes in the surrounding communities, from New Braunfels to Seguin and the military installations, follow the same Texas rules, with claims involving military vehicles or federal property governed by federal procedures. Workers' compensation for a crash on the job runs through the Texas Division of Workers' Compensation with a one-year claim deadline.

A San Antonio claim is often a pedestrian or night claim where the fault percentage decides everything under Texas's 51 percent rule and the at-fault driver's coverage is minimal. The questions to answer early are what the recorders and cameras show, what coverage exists on both sides including your own household policies, and whether a public entity shares responsibility on a short 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 San Antonio or Bexar County, you can request a free claim review.

• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation
• Wrongful Death Claims: Who Can File, Deadlines and Damages
• At Fault in a Car Accident? Comparative Negligence Explained
• What Is the Average Car Accident Settlement? What Sets the Value
• Back and Neck Injury Settlement After a Car Accident: Factors
• Bicycle Accident Claim: Hit by a Car While Riding
• Can I Sue for a Slip and Fall? Premises Liability Explained
• Can I Sue My Employer for a Work Injury? Workers' Comp vs Lawsuit

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