What to Do After a Car Accident: A Step-by-Step Checklist
Few think clearly right after a crash, so decide now and follow the list later. Here is the sequence, in the order decisions actually arrive. It runs from the roadside through the claim to the repair.
At the scene
1. Safety before anything. Check for injuries; call 911 if anyone is hurt or the cars can't move safely. If the vehicles are drivable and it's legal in your state, move them out of traffic, a fender-bender in a live lane is how small accidents become big ones. Hazards on.
2. Call the police for anything beyond trivial. Many states require a report above a damage threshold, and an official report settles the "he said, she said" problem before it starts. If officers won't respond to a minor crash, most states let you file a report yourself within a few days, do it.
3. Exchange exactly this: name, phone, insurance company and policy number, driver's license number, and plate. Photograph their insurance card and license instead of transcribing.
4. Document like an adjuster. Wide shots of the whole scene from several angles, close-ups of every damaged area on both cars, the other car's plate and VIN (visible through the windshield), skid marks, debris, traffic signs, and the general intersection. Thirty photos is not too many. If there are witnesses, get names and numbers before they drift away.
5. Say little, admit nothing. Be polite, check on the other driver, and skip statements like "I'm sorry, I didn't see you"; fault is determined from evidence, not adrenaline. Never accept cash at the scene to "keep it off insurance"; hidden damage makes roadside settlements a losing bet.
The tow decision: small choice, real money
If the car isn't drivable, you generally choose where it's towed. A tow to a storage yard starts a daily storage meter and means a second tow later; a tow directly to the repair shop you intend to use skips both. If you don't know a shop yet, towing it home (if possible) costs nothing per day while you decide. Find a qualified shop near the scene on the map before the tow truck picks for you.
In Texas the storage clock starts at midnight, not at the hour you were towed
The advice above is general. Texas is a state we have read in full, and its numbers turn "do not let storage accumulate" from a vague worry into arithmetic you can do at the roadside.
The storage day is a calendar day, not a 24-hour period. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which licenses tow companies and vehicle storage facilities, puts it this way: "A daily storage fee may be charged for any part of the day, except that a daily storage fee may not be charged for more than one day if the car remains at the VSF less than 12 hours. A day is considered to begin and end at midnight."
Work that through, because it is commonly got wrong in both directions. A car dropped at 11pm and collected at 1am has crossed a midnight, but it was there two hours, so the under-twelve-hour rule holds it to one day. A car dropped at 8pm and collected at 10am was there fourteen hours and touched two calendar dates, and that is two days of storage on a single overnight. The trigger is not simply how long the car sat, and it is not simply whether the sun came up. It is both: at least twelve hours, across two dates.
The rates, and why to check the date on any figure you are quoted. TDLR lists the daily storage charge as $20 per day or part of a day for a vehicle 25 feet long or less, and $35 for one longer than 25 feet, "subject to a biennial adjustment set forth in Texas Occupations Code SS 2303.1552(b)(1)." It then gives the adjusted numbers: "Per the 2023 adjustment, $22.85 for a car that is 25 feet long or less and $39.99 for a vehicle longer than 25 feet." Because the statute adjusts on a cycle, treat any printed figure, including that one, as the number for its date.
There is a five-day ceiling until the yard writes to you. A facility that takes in a Texas-registered car "may not charge for more than five days of storage fees unless a notice ... is mailed or published", the notice being the one that tells the owner where the car is. For a car registered outside Texas, the same five-day limit runs until a request for owner information is sent to the state that registered it. Once that notice goes out, the daily meter runs again until the car is collected and the charges are paid.
The fee list is closed. After the tow charge, the storage charge, a notification fee capped at $50 and an impoundment fee that "may not exceed $20" and must be itemised, TDLR states the rule flatly: "A VSF may NOT charge additional fees related to the storage of a car other than fees listed above." It also puts the housekeeping inside the storage fee rather than on top of it. Locking doors, rolling up windows and closing hatchbacks, sunroofs, trunks and hoods "are included in the storage fee." And the notification fee cannot be charged at all "if a car is reclaimed by the owner within 24 hours or before notification is sent."
Two things at the yard are free, and people pay for them anyway. "At the VSF, you may have access to your car to get ownership documents. You do not have to pay a fee to do this." TDLR says the same for recovering personal property. You do not have to settle the bill first to get your title, your insurance card, or the contents out of the car.
There is also a clock on you. If you believe the tow, the storage or the boot was wrong, or that you were charged more than allowed, Texas gives you a hearing in a justice of the peace court in the county where the car was towed. The request must be filed before the 14th day, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, after the car was placed in the facility or booted. Miss it and the cheap route closes.
Scope limit, stated because it matters here. TDLR's page is written for private property tows, and the tow-charge maxima it lists are the private-property-tow maxima. Its section on what information you are owed extends expressly to "any tow from a traffic accident and incidents", but we have not separately verified that every fee cap above applies identically to a police-ordered tow from a crash scene. Read as the shape of the rules, and confirm the specific caps for your tow. Source: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Consumer Information about Towing, read in full on 2026-08-16. All quotations above are that page's own words. We did not read Occupations Code chapter 2303 itself; the Texas Legislature's statute site served us a page with no statutory text in it.
Within 24 hours
Notify your insurer even if the other driver was at fault, your policy requires prompt notice, and your insurer can protect you if the other party's story changes. Note the claim number.
See a doctor if anything hurts. Collision injuries routinely announce themselves a day late; a same-week medical record also matters if an injury claim develops.
Write down your account while it's fresh: time, weather, lane positions, speeds, what each car did. Memory rewrites itself within days.
Setting up the repair
Get the vehicle to a shop you chose, in most states that choice is yours, whatever the insurer suggests (see how insurance claims work). Prioritize shops whose qualifications you can verify: state license in good standing, manufacturer certification if you drive something aluminum-bodied, electric, or luxury, and modern calibration capability if the car has driver-assist features. Ask for a written estimate and expect a supplement once panels come off, that's normal.
What not to do
Don't sign anything at the scene except a police officer's paperwork. Don't give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer without preparation, you're not obligated to. Don't post about the crash on social media while a claim is open. And don't let storage fees accumulate at a tow yard while you deliberate.
The records angle
The one decision on this list with lasting consequences is the shop. Certifications, license status, and safety records aren't marketing claims, they're public records, and this directory exists so you can check them in the time it takes the tow truck to arrive.
General consumer information: not legal, insurance, or financial advice. Requirements, coverage, and practices vary by state, policy, and manufacturer.