Houston motorcycle accident lawyer

ByJimmy Suerken, Esq.

• Texas Attorney
• Yale B.A. · University of Houston Law Center J.D.
• Habla español
• Updated November 4, 2026

How many riders are hurt on Houston roads?

TxDOT’s crash records for 2025 count 293 people killed and 1,465 seriously injured in crashes inside the City of Houston, out of 60,317 reported crashes. Across Harris County, 503 people died on the roads that year — nearly twice Dallas County’s 274. Statewide, TxDOT counted 559 motorcyclists and motorcycle passengers killed in 2025.

The city’s own Vision Zero report, built on the same state crash data, breaks the numbers down by who was hurt. In 2022, the most recent year the city has reported that way, 37 people in its “motorcyclist & other” category were killed on Houston streets and 165 were seriously injured, up from 34 and 149 the year before. TxDOT’s motorcycle safety campaign adds that about one-third of motorcycle deaths in Texas happen at intersections — exactly where a driver turning left or pulling out of a side street has to see a bike coming.

Which Houston roads are the most dangerous?

The city has mapped it. Houston’s Vision Zero program identified a High Injury Network: about 6% of Houston’s streets, where 60% of the city’s traffic deaths and serious injuries happen. Streets the city has named for that work include Telephone Road, Hillcroft Avenue, Fondren Road, Shepherd and Durham, North Main, Bagby and Garden City Drive. These are not motorcycle-only lists — the city publishes crash locations by type of road user only as maps — but they are the streets where speed, wide lanes and constant driveways come together.

Speed is the common thread. When the city measured traffic on its 35-mph streets, 46% of drivers were going 6 to 10 mph over the limit and another 9% were going 11 or more over, and speeding showed up in more than 30% of the crashes that killed or seriously injured someone. For a rider, that is the difference between a close call and a car that cannot stop.

Outside the city streets, the risk moves to the freeways and county roads. Of the 503 deaths in Harris County in 2025, TxDOT counted 198 on city streets, 134 on interstates, 69 on county roads, 58 on U.S. and state highways, 25 on farm-to-market roads and 19 on tollways. On I-45, I-10, the 610 Loop and Beltway 8, riders deal with merges, exits across the feeder road and drivers changing lanes into a space they never checked.

Who responds to a motorcycle crash in Houston?

It depends on exactly where you went down. Inside city limits it is usually the Houston Police Department. In unincorporated Harris County it is the Sheriff’s Office or one of the county’s constable precincts, and DPS works many crashes on state highways. Some places that feel like Houston are not: Aldine is split between the Sheriff and HPD depending on the block, and Galena Park is its own city with its own police and its own claim rules. The officer has ten days to file the crash report with TxDOT. We get the report from whichever agency wrote it; what helps most is the report number, if you were able to get it.

The helmet and lane-splitting arguments

Expect the driver’s insurer to raise both. Texas requires a helmet unless the rider is at least 21 and has either finished an approved safety course or has health insurance that covers crash injuries (Transportation Code § 661.003). That is a traffic rule about headgear; it does not decide who caused the crash. Lane splitting has been illegal in Texas since September 1, 2023 (§ 545.0605), and a 2025 bill to allow filtering in slow traffic died in committee — but the same section gives a rider full use of the lane, and no driver may crowd a motorcycle out of it. We explain how fault is argued in hit on my motorcycle in Texas: will they blame me? If you were in a car or on foot and a rider hit you, that is a different question, answered in a motorcycle hit me: who pays?

On Houston freeways and arterials, the answer to a speed or lane-position argument usually comes from video: dashcams, business cameras along the street and phone footage. Much of it is recorded over quickly, which is why we start asking for it right away.

When a city vehicle, METRO or the road itself is part of it

On two wheels, the road matters more. A pothole, an uncovered trench, debris from a work zone or a dead traffic signal can put a rider down when a car would roll through. Claims against a government for road conditions are narrow. The Texas Tort Claims Act generally allows a claim for a missing or broken sign or signal only if the government did not fix it within a reasonable time after it was notified (Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 101.060), and for “special defects such as excavations or obstructions” on the road (§ 101.022).

The deadlines are the bigger danger. If a City of Houston vehicle hit you or a City of Houston street condition caused the crash, the city charter requires written notice, sworn before a notary, within 90 days, saying when, where and how it happened. Harris County, the State and METRO generally require notice within six months, and the Act caps what can be recovered. We cover those rules in hit by a city, county or state vehicle and METRO bus crashes. We prepare and send every notice; you do not deal with the city or METRO yourself.

Where riders are treated

The most serious injuries in Houston are treated at the county’s two adult Level I trauma centers. Ben Taub Hospital, run by Harris Health, was re-verified by the Texas Department of State Health Services as a Comprehensive Level I Trauma Facility in May 2025. Memorial Hermann–Texas Medical Center’s Red Duke Trauma Institute is the other, and is the city’s only Level I trauma center for both adults and children; Memorial Hermann’s Life Flight air ambulance serves the greater Houston area. Wherever you are treated, make sure the record says you were on a motorcycle and how you were hit. That chart is the first piece of evidence in your claim.

When the driver has little or no insurance

Texas only requires a driver to carry $30,000 per injured person (Transportation Code § 601.072), and a serious motorcycle injury costs far more. Your own motorcycle policy may include uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and personal injury protection; both are part of every Texas policy unless someone rejected them in writing. One trap matters in Houston traffic: if a car forced you off the road and drove away without touching you or the bike, uninsured motorist coverage for an unknown driver requires actual physical contact (Insurance Code § 1952.104). More in the driver has no insurance. Once you hire us, every conversation with every insurer — the driver’s and yours — goes through us.

Houston, and the rest of Texas

We handle motorcycle cases across Houston and all of Texas, from the Loop to Aldine and Galena Park, and out to El Paso County, including Socorro. We work by phone, text, email and video call, and in person when needed. You talk directly with Jimmy, in English or Spanish. Call Jimmy.