Texas Car Crash Injuries: Deadlines and Missed ER Diagnoses

If you're hurt in a Texas car crash, you generally have two years from the crash date to sue the at-fault driver. A medical malpractice claim may also be possible if the emergency room missed an injury. Don't assume your crash claim covers the hospital's care, since a malpractice claim has its own deadline and additional requirements.

Put your health first. Bring your ER discharge instructions to the medical reassessment if symptoms appear or get worse after you've gone home. Ask which changes mean you need immediate care. While you're getting treatment, you can put off the legal review, but keep a reminder on your calendar.

The Texas crash numbers behind the concern

When November 2025 arrived, the Texas Department of Transportation marked 25 years of daily traffic deaths. According to TxDOT, Texas roads last had a deathless day on November 7, 2000. Since that date, more than 91,000 people had died in crashes, it reported.

In 2025, San Antonio also passed 100 traffic deaths. According to KSAT's December report, the city's newly launched public High-Injury Network Dashboard showed where severe and fatal crashes were concentrated. To build it, the city used crash data from 2018 through 2022. You couldn't use it to count that year's crashes live.

When someone in your family is hurt, you're likely wondering which injuries came from the crash and whether the hospital caught them, with more than an abstract interest. Don't wait for answers before treatment.

Two claims, different questions

The same medical chart may serve both reviews. They ask different questions, though. To review the crash, someone checks which injuries the collision caused; the hospital review turns on what clinicians knew during the ER visit, including whether a missed diagnosis caused additional harm.

A later diagnosis alone doesn't answer those questions. Have the initial ER chart compared with the later treatment records rather than relying only on your discharge summary.

After discharge, focus on changes and reassessment

You can't decide whether to bring a malpractice case just by checking symptoms. While you're following your discharge instructions, ask a treating clinician to look at any symptoms that are new or getting worse. Explain what's changed since the symptoms began. Include what you told the clinicians at your first ER visit.

Don't leave details vague. If you can't tell from the discharge paperwork when you should return, ask the clinician to explain the instructions. If the patient can't explain some changes, a family member can help describe them and write down the clinician's answer.

A possible missed or delayed diagnosis claim involves a legal question, not just the medical question about your condition now. Ask your treating clinician about how you're doing now. Someone reviewing a possible claim needs to look back at the earlier care, including what happened afterward because of it.

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Texas malpractice has its own clock

Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 74.251, you generally must file within two years of the breach or of the date the relevant treatment or hospitalization ended. You can't rely on a general statutory discovery rule for these claims in Texas. Even if you learn about the injury later, that alone won't start another two-year period for filing.

If a patient had no reasonable chance to discover the injury, Texas courts allow a narrow exception under the open-courts rule. Don't count on it without asking a lawyer. You also face a ten-year outer limit on claims under Chapter 74.

The statute treats a child's filing deadline differently. A child under 12 has until the fourteenth birthday to file; for other children, the two-year rule applies regardless of age. Ask a Texas lawyer how the rules apply, using your family's treatment dates and what happened during care.

Check where the care took place. If you received care outside Texas, check the US state pages; Texas deadlines aren't the ones to use for treatment in another state. You'll find the medical malpractice rules for this state on the Texas page.

Notice, expert reports and the damages cap

Under §§ 74.051 and 74.052, a claimant can't file suit without first giving each provider at least 60 days' written notice by certified mail, including the statutory medical authorization form. Giving notice tolls the filing deadline for 75 days. Ask a lawyer to work out the dates, since notice isn't the same as filing.

Once you file, there's another deadline to track. You have 120 days from each defendant's answer to provide that defendant with an expert report and CV, as required by Section 74.351. Missing that requirement means your case is dismissed with prejudice, and you'll owe fees.

Under Section 74.301, a claimant can receive no more than $250,000 in non-economic damages from all physicians and other individual providers combined (not $250,000 apiece). Although each health care institution in a claim has a $250,000 limit of its own, you can't recover more than $500,000 from all institutions together. You can't read your claim's possible value from those dollar limits.

Keep records for both reviews

Don't put collision paperwork in the same folder as medical records. Don't discard available originals. For missing records, write down when you requested them.

• Along with crash photographs and any crash report you get, save the messages you've exchanged with the insurance companies.
• When you request the full ER chart, make sure it includes the nursing notes as well as discharge instructions.
• If later treatment reveals an injury, save the record explaining it with the other records of your medical care.
• Keep payment statements with bills. Include records of missed work if you're seeking money for lost income.
• Date your notes about symptoms, including the notes about what you told clinicians. Don't mix what you remember with what the chart says.

What the 2025 legislative debate actually established

In May 2025, The Texas Tribune's report published by KSAT described the House's passage of Senate Bill 30. The proposal would limit recovery for medical care in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. The House version removed language that would have barred non-economic damages, while preserving judges' authority to decide whether certain medical-history evidence was relevant.

According to the report, Senate agreement or further negotiations remained necessary. You can't tell from it that the proposal became law. Ask counsel which law applies to your claim before you treat a legislative headline as a current limit on damages.

Your next step

For a review of the claim against the driver, you can contact Ried Pecina Trial Lawyers through its car accident lawyer page and ask about the filing deadline. Explain any concern about the ER visit at the same time, and ask whether a separate medical malpractice review is needed.

This isn't legal advice, just general information. When you go to the consultation, bring your crash date, ER paperwork and records of later treatment. Ask the lawyer to identify each possible claim's deadline before you decide whether to move forward.