Austin’s vibrant tourism industry brings in more than 30 million domestic visitors every year, and a large share of them pick up a rental car after landing at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. If you add the residents using rental cars after their own vehicles break down or go into the shop, there can be thousands of rental vehicles on Austin roads at any given time.

When a rental car is part of a crash, the legal situation can quickly become more complicated than your typical car accident. More parties are involved, more insurance policies may apply, and there are more opportunities for an injured person to end up with nothing if they are unequipped to handle it.

If you were hurt in a rental car accident in Austin, Loewy Law Firm can help determine the proper path forward and fight to get you the compensation you deserve. Send us an email or call (512) 280-0800 today for a free consultation.

What to Do After a Rental Car Accident in Austin

If you’ve just been in a rental car accident, the steps you take in the hours that follow directly affect your ability to recover compensation. Here’s what to do:

1. Call 911: Get law enforcement to the scene and make sure a police report gets filed. In rental car cases, where multiple parties may later dispute what happened, that report is one of the most valuable pieces of documentation you’ll have.
2. Document everything: Photograph the damage, the scene, the other vehicle, and any visible injuries before anything is moved. Also photograph your rental agreement and gather the other driver’s insurance and contact information.
3. Notify the rental company: You’re typically required under your rental agreement to report a crash, but do not sign anything, accept any charges, or make any admissions until you’ve spoken with an attorney.
4. Contact your own insurance: Let them know what happened, but decline to give a recorded statement until you’ve gotten advice first. Recorded statements can be used to minimize your case later.
5. See a doctor: Even if you feel okay, get checked out. Back injuries, concussions, and soft tissue damage can take days to fully manifest, and a gap in medical care can be used against you to argue that your injuries weren’t serious.
6. Call Loewy Law Firm: Rental car accident cases can progress quickly. The rental company and the other driver’s insurer will start gathering information right away, and the sooner an attorney is involved, the stronger your position when it comes time to negotiate or pursue a case.

Our accident attorneys with experience in rental car accidents can advise you on what to document, review your rental agreement, handle all communication with the rental company and insurance adjusters, and make sure no recorded statement or signature is used against you later.

Insurance Coverage in Rental Car Accident Cases

In a typical car accident, there’s usually one insurance policy covering the at-fault driver, and you deal with that insurer to recover your damages. In a rental car accident, there could be multiple insurance sources in play at the same time.

The At-Fault Driver’s Insurance

If another driver caused the crash, their liability insurance is the starting point for your compensation. Texas requires all drivers to carry a minimum amount of liability coverage, though those minimums don’t always cover the full cost of serious injuries, which makes other sources of coverage important.

Your Personal Auto Insurance

Most personal auto insurance policies extend at least partial coverage to rental vehicles, but the limits and exclusions vary widely from policy to policy. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is especially relevant here if the at-fault driver doesn’t carry enough insurance to cover your injuries. Your own policy’s UM/UIM coverage may be what bridges that gap.

The Rental Company’s Coverage

Texas law requires rental companies to carry basic liability coverage on their vehicles. At the rental counter, agents will also offer an optional Collision Damage Waiver, commonly called a CDW, for an additional daily fee. Accepting a CDW means the rental company agrees not to hold you financially responsible for damage to the vehicle, but it does nothing to cover injuries to you or anyone else.

Credit Card Rental Coverage

A number of credit cards offer coverage when you use them to pay for a rental, but that coverage is almost always secondary, meaning it only activates after your other insurance has paid out. It also typically does not cover personal injuries and is mostly limited to damage to the rental vehicle itself.

What Happens When Coverage Is Disputed

When multiple insurance companies are potentially responsible, they tend to point at each other. Each insurer has a financial incentive to argue that another policy should pay first, and without an attorney pushing back, injured people can end up waiting indefinitely with no clear answer on who is actually responsible.

Our attorneys untangle which policies apply to your specific situation, deal directly with each insurer, and make sure no company passes its responsibility onto another at your expense.

Who Can Be Held Responsible After a Rental Car Accident in Austin

Rental car accidents can bring in more than one responsible party, and Loewy Law Firm works to identify all of them for our clients. Depending on the circumstances, responsibility may fall on the at-fault driver, the rental company, or even the vehicle’s manufacturer.

The At-Fault Driver

If another driver caused the crash, their liability insurance is the starting point for your compensation. Texas requires all drivers to carry a minimum amount of liability coverage, though those minimums don’t always cover the full cost of serious injuries.

The Rental Car Company

Rental companies are generally protected under a federal law called the Graves Amendment, which limits their liability when they rent a vehicle to a licensed driver and the company itself did nothing wrong. That protection isn’t absolute, though. If the rental vehicle had a mechanical defect that the company knew about, or should have caught through routine inspections, the company can be held responsible for injuries that result.

Vehicle Manufacturers

If a defect in the vehicle contributed to the crash, a faulty brake system, a defective airbag, or a steering failure, the manufacturer may share responsibility. Rental fleets are made up of newer vehicles, but defects and recalls still happen, and those issues can be a factor in a crash.

Texas Laws at Play in a Rental Car Accident

Texas Is an At-Fault State

Texas does not split fault automatically between drivers the way other states do. The driver who caused the crash is responsible for the damages that result, which means your case depends on proving that the other driver, or another party, was at fault.

Evidence used to prove fault comes from police reports, witness statements, camera footage, and physical evidence from the scene.

Modified Comparative Fault

Texas follows a comparative fault rule, which means your compensation can be reduced based on your own percentage of fault in the crash. If an insurer successfully argues you were 20% at fault, your compensation gets reduced by 20%. If they push that number above 50%, you can’t recover anything at all.

Insurance companies use this rule aggressively and look for anything, a lane change, a following distance, a reaction time, that they can use to assign fault to you and reduce what they owe. Having an attorney who can push back on those arguments directly affects how much you recover.

The Two-Year Filing Deadline (Statute of Limitations)

In Texas, the statute of limitations for injury cases gives you two years from the date of the crash to bring a personal injury case. If you pass the deadline before filing, you’ll generally be barred from bringing the case. Two years can feel like a long time, but a strong case takes time to build. Evidence can disappear or degrade quickly after a crash. Rental companies return vehicles to service, footage gets overwritten, and witnesses become harder to locate. Start the process as soon as possible to preserve your options.

The Graves Amendment

The Graves Amendment is a federal law that protects rental companies from being held liable for crashes caused by their renters or other drivers, as long as the company is in the business of renting vehicles and wasn’t negligent itself. In practice, this means you generally can’t sue Enterprise or Hertz simply because one of their cars was involved in your crash. However, if the rental vehicle had a mechanical defect the company failed to catch, or if the company rented to someone they had reason not to trust behind the wheel, that protection can fall away.

Loewy Law Firm can review the circumstances of every rental car case to determine whether the Graves Amendment applies or whether an exception gives you a path to hold the company accountable.

Injuries and Damages in Rental Car Accident Cases

Rental car accidents produce the same range of injuries as any other crash, and the severity depends on speed, angle of impact, and the size of the vehicles. Injuries seen in rental accident cases include:

• Head and brain injuries, from concussions to traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Back and spinal cord injuries, including herniated discs
• Broken bones, particularly in the arms, legs, ribs, and collarbone
• Soft tissue injuries to muscles, tendons, and ligaments
• Internal injuries

Keep in mind that injuries, especially brain or internal injuries, don’t always appear right away. Adrenaline can mask pain in the hours after a crash, and what feels like soreness on the day of the accident can manifest itself as something more serious within 24 to 48 hours.

Get evaluated by a doctor the same day to protect both your health and your case. Any gap between the crash and your first medical visit gives insurance companies grounds to argue that your injuries weren’t serious or weren’t caused by the crash.

Damages You May Be Able to Recover

Texas does not cap economic damages in rental car accident case, which means the compensation you can recover is tied to your actual, documented losses. Here are some examples of possible damages you may be able to recover:

• Medical expenses, from emergency care through rehabilitation and any future treatment your injuries require
• Lost income if your injuries kept you from working
• Reduced earning capacity if long-term injuries affect your ability to work going forward
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Personal property damaged in the crash

When the At-Fault Driver Is from Out of State

A large portion of Austin visitors rent cars and get behind the wheel on roads they’re unfamiliar with. Busy highways like I-35, US-183, and SH-71 near the airport see significant tourist traffic, and unfamiliar roads combined with heavy Austin congestion create risk of accidents.

When the driver who caused your crash is from another state, the insurance questions can become more detailed. Their policy was issued under a different state’s rules, coverage amounts may differ, and tracking down their insurer can take time.

Loewy Law Firm handles cross-state cases and knows how to pursue a claim against an out-of-state driver’s insurer without losing ground or time in the process.

Get a Free Consultation and Find Out if You Have a Case

Rental car accident cases have more moving pieces than standard car accident cases, and each piece has to be handled correctly for you to recover what you’re owed. Loewy Law Firm:

• Identifies every party that may be liable and every insurance policy that may apply to your case
• Handles all communication with the rental company, their insurer, and the at-fault driver’s insurer, so you don’t have to deal with any of it directly
• Gathers and preserves evidence before it disappears, including the rental vehicle’s maintenance records, the police report, witness statements, and any available camera footage
• Builds the strongest possible case for your documented losses and pursues maximum compensation on your behalf

Loewy Law Firm works on contingency, meaning you pay no attorney fees unless you recover compensation.

If you were hurt in an accident with a driver of a rental vehicle, the insurance companies involved are already working to protect themselves. Loewy Law Firm levels that playing field. Reach out today for a free consultation by calling (512) 280-0800 and let the firm start working on your case while you focus on your recovery.