Rideshare Accident Lawyer in Texas

Texas's Transportation Network Companies Act is codified at Tex. Occ. Code Chapter 2402 and was enacted as HB 100 in 2017. Before HB 100, several Texas cities — Austin and Houston in particular — had passed restrictive local TNC ordinances that drove Uber and Lyft out of those markets. HB 100 preempted all local rules and established a single statewide framework administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The result is one of the most TNC-friendly regulatory environments in the country.

Tex. Occ. Code § 2402.151 codifies the four-period TNC insurance tier framework. Period 0 (app off): driver's personal auto policy applies. Period 1 (app on, no ride matched): the TNC must provide at least $50,000 per person / $100,000 per accident bodily injury and $25,000 property damage. Periods 2 and 3 (en route to pickup or passenger aboard): the TNC must provide at least $1,000,000 in coverage. Uber and Lyft both maintain the $1M Period 2/3 floor as a national corporate standard. The single most important early evidence in any Texas rideshare case is trip data screenshots from the rider's app — they establish which period the driver was in.

Tex. Occ. Code § 2402.114 expressly classifies TNC drivers as independent contractors for all state-law purposes — workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, wage and hour law — provided the driver meets the statutory criteria. Texas does not have a state-law equivalent to California's AB 5 / Dynamex ABC test, and there is no Texas analog to Prop 22. The statutory classification is more protective of TNCs than the equivalent rules in California or Pennsylvania, which means direct vicarious liability claims against Uber and Lyft are even harder to plead in Texas. The practical recovery source is the TNC's $1,000,000 commercial insurance policy responding to the driver's negligence during Periods 2 and 3.

Texas applies modified comparative fault with a 51% bar under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001. If a passenger, pedestrian, or other driver is found 51% or more at fault for the underlying crash, recovery is barred entirely. The personal injury statute of limitations is two years under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003. Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth all generate heavy rideshare crash volume, particularly around airport pickup zones at IAH, DFW, AUS, SAT, and DAL. Some Texas cities maintain their own short notice-of-claim deadlines under municipal charters — Houston's 90-day rule applies even to private rideshare crashes when a city employee or vehicle is involved.