Evidence checklist

What is a legal duty, and what is only useful

The legal exchange is the one in § 550.023: name, address, registration number, liability insurer’s name, and the driver license if requested and available. Leaving a notice on an unattended car is § 550.024. Those are statute duties for the crashes the sections cover.

The rest of this page is practical. TDI’s auto guide suggests getting the other driver’s name, address, phone, and plate, the exact insurance company name, the company’s phone, and the policy number, and taking a picture of the card. TDI also suggests witness names and phone numbers when people will give them, photos of damage, and later the officer’s report and medical bills. None of that extra list is quoted here as a criminal statute. People at the scene do not have to speak to you because a website suggested it.

A practical set to keep in your own camera roll

• Each vehicle, from more than one side, including plates.
• The area where the vehicles stopped, and debris, if you can see it safely.
• Traffic signals, signs, and lane markings that were part of what happened.
• Weather and light, if a picture shows them better than a sentence would.
• Insurance cards that were shown to you.
• The information card or incident number an officer gave you.
• Visible injuries and torn safety gear, if you choose to document them.

Write the time, the cross streets or freeway mile marker, the direction you were traveling, and who was in each car. If a witness offers a name and a phone number, write them down. If they do not, do not follow them. Do not post another person’s license, medical photos, or plate publicly. That is a privacy caution, not a privilege ruling.

What not to treat as the official report

Your photos are not the CR-3. The checklist checkmarks on this site are not the CR-3 either. They are stored only as step-ids in this browser. If an officer investigated, use the crash-reports page to see how HPD and TxDOT say a copy is requested. If no officer investigated, keep your own notes and any form you were actually handed. TxDOT will not keep a CR-2 you mail in.