Three Children, One Road, One Night — What Your Family Needs to Know Right Now
If you are reading this because someone you love was killed on a rural West Texas highway — whether on FM 1053 near SH 329 in Crane County or on any of the two-lane farm-to-market roads that cut through the Permian Basin — you are in the worst hours of your life, and you are probably being told nothing by the people who owe you answers. The Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating. The official crash report has not been completed. The other driver’s identity may not have been released. And in the silence, the evidence that would tell your family what actually happened is disappearing, day by day, on a clock the law set and the insurance company is counting on you not to know about.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We handle wrongful death cases and catastrophic car accident claims across Texas. This page exists because a family in Crane County just lost three teenagers in a single head-on collision on the night of November 20, 2024, and the questions their community is asking — who can file, how long they have, where the money comes from when the other driver is also dead, what evidence is vanishing — are the same questions every family in this situation faces. We are not the lawyers on that case. We have taken no action on it. What follows is what we know, what the law gives you, and what the first 72 hours look like when the system is already working against you while you are still trying to breathe.
What Happened Near FM 1053 and SH 329 in Crane County
On the evening of November 20, 2024, at approximately 7:20 p.m., a head-on collision occurred south of the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 1053 and State Highway 329 in rural Crane County, Texas. Three teenagers — 18-year-old twins and their 16-year-old sister, the children of an Ector County Sheriff’s Office patrol lieutenant who has served her community for 23 years — were killed at the scene. The driver of the other vehicle was transported to Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, approximately 30 to 40 miles from the crash site, and also died. The Texas Department of Public Safety is the lead investigating agency. As of the date of this page, DPS has not publicly disclosed a cause, a fault determination, or contributing factors.
That last sentence is the one that torments families. No one has said who crossed the centerline. No one has said whether speed, fatigue, distraction, impairment, or a road condition played a role. The silence feels like indifference. It is not — it is the pace of a crash reconstruction that has to be built from physical evidence, and that evidence is the same evidence your family needs to protect whatever legal rights exist.
The Corridor: Why These Roads Kill
FM 1053 and SH 329 intersect in the heart of the Permian Basin — one of the most active oil and gas production regions in the United States. These are rural two-lane highways built for a fraction of the traffic they now carry. Farm-to-market roads in this corridor were designed for agricultural use, not for the constant flow of oilfield service trucks, water haulers, sand transporters, heavy equipment movers, and supply vehicles that serve the drilling and fracking operations across Crane, Ector, and Upton Counties.
Two things make this corridor uniquely dangerous. First, the road design: rural West Texas FM roads frequently lack shoulders, rumble strips, and center barriers on segments where high-speed traffic and heavy commercial vehicles intermix. There is often nothing between your lane and oncoming traffic but a painted line and a few feet of pavement. Second, the traffic mix: a 4,000-pound passenger car sharing a narrow two-lane road with an 80,000-pound water hauler at 65 miles per hour after dark is not an equal contest. When a vehicle crosses the centerline on a road like this, the closing speed between two oncoming vehicles can exceed 130 miles per hour, and the physics of that collision are not survivable.
The 7:20 p.m. crash time in mid-November matters. Sunset in that region comes early in November — by 5:30 p.m., the sky is dark. These are unlit corridors. There are no streetlights on FM 1053 south of SH 329. Headlight visibility, road surface conditions, and the presence or absence of reflective signage all become evidence that has to be documented before weather and traffic degrade what was there on the night of the crash.
“We humbly ask for prayers and assistance financially to help pay for funeral services and unforeseen expenses that we all know will follow.”
— Ector County Sheriff’s Office, in a statement supporting the family
That statement — from a law enforcement agency asking its community for help burying three children — tells you what the financial reality of a triple wrongful death looks like before any lawyer is involved. Funeral expenses for three decedents. The immediate costs that do not wait for an investigation to finish. And then the costs that follow for years: the lost future of three young people who would have graduated, worked, married, and contributed to their family and community across full lifetimes.
Texas Wrongful Death Law: Who Can File, What You Can Recover, and How Long You Have
The Cause of Action
Texas wrongful death law is codified in Chapter 71 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The statute creates a cause of action for the surviving spouse, children, and parents of a person whose death was caused by the “wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or default” of another. Three teenagers dying in a head-on collision caused by another driver’s negligence is the textbook fact pattern this statute was written to address — and in this case, there are three separate wrongful death claims, one for each child, each with its own full measure of damages.
Who Can Bring the Claim
For each of the three decedents, the surviving parent — their mother — is a statutory beneficiary who can bring a wrongful death claim. If there is a second surviving parent, that parent is also a beneficiary. The claim belongs to the beneficiaries directly, not to the estate. This is distinct from a survival action, which belongs to the estate and covers the decedent’s own damages — pain and suffering experienced between injury and death, plus medical bills incurred before death.
The Statute of Limitations
In Texas, a wrongful death claim generally must be filed within two years of the date of death. That clock started on November 20, 2024. This is not a deadline you can safely approach and then rush — because the evidence you need to prove the case will be gone long before the two-year mark, and because claims against the other driver’s estate may be subject to a shorter probate deadline that runs independently of the wrongful death statute of limitations.
If the at-fault driver also died — as happened here — their estate may be opened in probate court, and Texas probate law imposes its own claim-filing deadlines that can be shorter than the two-year wrongful death limit. The practical implication is urgent: the probate clock may start running on a different date than the wrongful death clock, and missing the probate deadline can extinguish your claim against the estate even if the wrongful death SOL has not expired. Confirm the current probate claim deadline with a Texas attorney immediately — do not assume the two-year wrongful death window is your only clock.
Comparative Negligence
Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51 percent bar. This means that a claimant’s recovery is reduced by their percentage of fault, and if they are found to be 51 percent or more at fault, they are barred from recovery entirely. In a head-on collision where one driver crossed the centerline, the fault analysis typically centers on which vehicle left its lane. If DPS determines the other driver crossed into the teens’ lane, the fault allocation is likely straightforward. If the investigation is inconclusive — and with the other driver deceased and unable to give testimony, inconclusiveness is a real risk — the fight over fault percentage becomes the central battleground of the case, and the physical evidence becomes everything.
No Damage Caps in Motor Vehicle Wrongful Death
Texas imposes no statutory cap on non-economic damages or punitive damages in standard motor-vehicle wrongful death cases. The medical malpractice cap that exists under Texas law does not apply here. This means a jury in Crane County can award the full measure of mental anguish, loss of companionship, and lost earning capacity that the evidence supports — there is no legal ceiling cutting the number down.
What Damages Are Recoverable
For each of the three wrongful death claims, the recoverable damages include:
- Mental anguish and emotional distress suffered by the surviving parent — the loss of the parent-child relationship, the grief, the knowledge that three children were taken in a single instant
- Loss of companionship and society — the guidance, love, and presence the children would have provided throughout their lives
- Lost earning capacity — the wages and benefits each child would have earned over a full working lifetime, projected by a forensic economist
- Loss of inheritance — the wealth the children would have accumulated and passed to their parent
- Funeral and burial expenses — recoverable economic damages for each of the three decedents
For the survival action, if any of the three teens experienced conscious pain and suffering between the moment of impact and death at the scene, the estate can recover those damages separately. The article’s representation that all three died at the scene may limit survival recovery, but it does not necessarily eliminate it — the question is whether there was a conscious interval, however brief, between impact and death. That question is answered by the medical evidence, the autopsy reports, and the crash reconstruction.
The Evidence That Is Disappearing Right Now
This is the section that matters most in the first weeks after a fatal crash. Every piece of evidence listed below exists right now, is held by someone who has no obligation to preserve it for your family, and is on a clock that will legally allow its destruction.
The DPS CR-3 Crash Report
The Texas Department of Public Safety will produce a CR-3 crash report documenting vehicle positions, point of impact, road conditions, contributing factors, witness statements, and any citations issued. This report is the foundational document for liability. It is typically available 10 to 14 days after the crash. Request it immediately from DPS. The report will identify which vehicle was in which lane, the angle of impact, and the investigating officer’s assessment of contributing factors — but it will not include the electronic data that tells the full story.
Event Data Recorder (EDR) Data from Both Vehicles
Nearly every modern vehicle carries an event data recorder — a “black box” — that captures pre-crash speed, braking input, steering angle, seatbelt status, and the change in velocity at impact. Federal law requires this data to be recorded, and in a head-on collision, the EDR data from both vehicles is the single most dispositive evidence on whether either driver braked, swerved, or was speeding before the collision.
The danger: EDR data in non-airbag-deployment events can be overwritten by the next qualifying event. If the airbags deployed, federal regulations require the data to be locked — but if the vehicle is moved to a salvage yard and crushed or auctioned, the locked data dies with the module. Salvage yards can dispose of vehicles within 30 to 60 days of the crash. A preservation letter to the tow yard, the insurance companies, and any estate representative must go out immediately to prevent the destruction of both vehicles before the EDR data can be downloaded.
Cell Phone Records
Cell phone records can prove whether distracted driving — texting, calls, app usage — contributed to the collision. They also provide location and movement data that corroborates the physical evidence. Carrier retention policies vary, and some carriers purge data on short cycles. A preservation letter to the carriers must go out within days, not months, before routine data purging erases the record of what was happening on the driver’s phone in the seconds before impact.
Toxicology and Blood Alcohol Results
If DPS ordered blood draws at the hospital — which is standard procedure in fatal crash investigations — the toxicology results will show whether alcohol or drugs were a factor. Blood alcohol presence would establish negligence per se and potentially open the door to punitive damages. But biological samples degrade, and hospital lab retention schedules allow destruction of samples on defined timelines. Request the hospital lab results and any DPS lab analysis immediately.
Scene Evidence
Skid marks, gouge marks, debris field patterns, vehicle resting positions, road surface conditions, signage visibility, and the absence of safety features at the FM 1053 and SH 329 intersection are all physical evidence that degrades within days of the crash. Weather erases skid marks. Traffic wears down gouge marks. Road crews repair or alter conditions. A qualified accident reconstructionist should photograph and map the scene as soon as possible — not weeks from now, not after the DPS report is finished, but now.
The Other Driver’s Insurance Policy and Estate Inventory
The other driver’s auto liability insurance policy declarations page, any umbrella or excess policies, and an inventory of estate assets are the documents that determine whether there is money to recover. These are not automatically provided to the surviving family. They must be demanded through the claims process and, if necessary, through discovery in litigation. The estate may be opened in probate court on a timeline that is independent of the wrongful death statute of limitations, and claims against the estate must be filed within the probate deadline — which can be shorter than two years.
Who Is Responsible: Mapping the Defendant Stack
In a head-on collision where the other driver is also deceased, the defendant structure is different from a typical crash case. There is no living defendant to depose. The fight is against an estate, an insurance company, and potentially your own insurer.
The Other Driver’s Estate
If DPS determines the other driver crossed the centerline or otherwise operated negligently, the wrongful death claims are pursued against the driver’s estate. The estate’s assets — whatever the driver owned, including real property, bank accounts, and investments — are potentially reachable to satisfy a judgment. But estates are administered through probate court, and the probate claim deadline is a separate clock from the wrongful death SOL. Filing a claim against the estate late can extinguish the claim even when the wrongful death SOL has not run.
The Other Driver’s Auto Liability Insurer
The other driver’s bodily injury liability coverage is the first layer of recovery. Texas requires a minimum of $30,000 per person and $60,000 per incident in liability coverage — but for three wrongful death claims, that minimum is a fraction of the actual loss. If the driver carried higher limits, those limits apply. If the driver carried an umbrella or excess policy, that coverage sits on top of the primary policy and provides an additional layer. The insurance company will not volunteer the policy limits — they must be demanded, and in Texas, the insurer has statutory obligations to respond to claims in good faith.
The Family’s Own UM/UIM Coverage
This is the recovery avenue that most families do not know about — and in a case with three wrongful deaths and a deceased at-fault driver whose insurance may be minimal, it may be the primary source of meaningful recovery. If the at-fault driver was uninsured or underinsured relative to the value of three wrongful death claims, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage under the family’s own auto policy becomes a claim the family can pursue against their own insurer. In Texas, UM/UIM coverage can potentially be stacked across multiple household vehicles, meaning that if the family insured two or three vehicles, the UM/UIM limits may be available per vehicle — multiplying the recovery pool. The specific stacking rules depend on the policy language and Texas law, and this is an analysis that must be done immediately by reading every declarations page in the household.
Potential Governmental Entity
Only if the investigation reveals a dangerous road design defect, missing signage, or a hazardous condition at the FM 1053 and SH 329 intersection that contributed to the collision would a claim against a governmental entity be viable. The Texas Tort Claims Act severely limits governmental liability through sovereign immunity, and the notice deadlines for governmental claims are short. This theory should be evaluated only if the facts support it — but it must be evaluated early, because if it applies, the notice clock may be measured in months, not years.
The Insurance Reality: Where the Money Actually Lives
A case with three wrongful deaths of teenagers with full life expectancies produces catastrophic damages exposure — the lost earning capacity alone, even at modest wage assumptions, projects into the millions when multiplied across three full lifetimes and reduced to present value. But damages exposure and collectible recovery are two different numbers, and the gap between them is the gap the insurance company is counting on.
The Coverage Ladder
The recovery architecture in this case runs in layers:
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The other driver’s bodily injury liability coverage — the primary source, limited to whatever policy limits the driver carried. If the driver carried only Texas minimums ($30,000 per person / $60,000 per incident), that $60,000 is the total available from the liability policy for three deaths. One night in a trauma center can exceed that amount. Three funerals already have.
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The other driver’s umbrella or excess policy — if one exists, it sits above the primary policy and can add $1 million, $2 million, or more. Many drivers carry no umbrella. The existence and limits of any excess policy must be confirmed through the claims process.
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The other driver’s estate assets — whatever the driver owned beyond insurance. This requires an estate inventory through probate court and is subject to the probate claim deadline.
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The family’s UM/UIM coverage — claims tendered under the family’s own auto policy or policies. If the at-fault driver was underinsured — and with three wrongful deaths, any finite policy is underinsured — UM/UIM coverage bridges the gap up to the family’s own selected limits. Stacking across household vehicles can multiply this recovery.
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The family’s umbrella policy — if the family carried a personal umbrella that includes UM/UIM, that excess layer may also be available.
The critical point: the family’s own insurance is not the enemy in this scenario. UM/UIM claims are first-party claims — the family paid premiums for this coverage, and the insurer’s obligation is contractual. But the insurer will still evaluate the claim, still demand proof of the other driver’s fault, and still attempt to value the claim as low as possible. The difference is that the UM/UIM carrier is the family’s own company, and Texas law imposes duties of good faith and fair dealing that a liability carrier does not owe to a claimant.
What a Case Like This Is Worth
Every case is fact-specific, and no lawyer can promise a number. But the framework for valuation is built from the same components in every wrongful death case, and understanding the framework is how a family knows whether a settlement offer is a fraction of the true value or a fair resolution.
The Damages Components
For each of the three decedents, a forensic economist projects:
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Lost earning capacity: An 18-year-old and a 16-year-old each had approximately 40 to 45 years of working life expectancy. Even at a modest wage assumption — say, the median Texas wage — the present value of 40 years of lost earnings, including fringe benefits (which the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures at roughly 30 percent of total compensation), reaches into the hundreds of thousands per decedent. If any of the teens were college-bound or had higher earning trajectories, the projection increases substantially.
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Non-economic damages: The mental anguish of a parent who lost all three of her children in a single event is a damages presentation of devastating emotional impact. There is no formula — a jury in Crane County decides what that loss is worth, and Texas imposes no cap on that number in a motor vehicle wrongful death case.
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Funeral and burial expenses: Recoverable economic damages for three decedents, typically ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 per decedent depending on services.
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Survival damages: If any of the three experienced conscious pain and suffering between impact and death, the estate can recover those damages separately. The evidence on this point — autopsy findings, crash reconstruction, witness observations — determines whether this recovery stream is open.
The Case Value Range
The forensic dossier for this incident estimates a range from approximately $300,000 on the low end to $5,000,000 or more on the high end. The range is extraordinarily wide because three major variables are unknown:
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Liability clarity — DPS has not determined who crossed the centerline, and the other driver’s death means no testimony from that side. If the physical evidence clearly shows the other driver crossed into the teens’ lane, the case is strong. If it is ambiguous, the case is contested and the value drops.
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Collectibility — Without a commercial defendant (no trucking company, no business entity), recovery is bounded by the other driver’s liability insurance limits, estate assets, and the family’s UM/UIM coverage. If the other driver carried minimum coverage and had minimal assets, the primary recovery may be the family’s own UM/UIM stacking.
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Venue — Crane County is a small, conservative rural West Texas jurisdiction. Jury verdicts may trend lower than in urban Texas counties. A Crane County jury’s valuation of three wrongful deaths will reflect the community’s values, and the family’s law enforcement connection may cut both ways — building trust while also drawing jurors who have opinions about law enforcement families seeking compensation.
The three inflection points that determine where within this range the case actually settles are: the DPS crash report findings, the other driver’s insurance coverage limits, and the family’s UM/UIM policy structure. Until all three are confirmed, any specific number is speculation.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook: What They Will Do and How We Counter Each Move
The insurance company’s playbook is not a conspiracy theory. It is a documented, systematic process designed to minimize payout. Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm, and he sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. Now he sits on the other side of the table. Here is what the other side does — and what the counter looks like.
Play 1: The “Just Checking In” Call
Within days of the crash, someone friendly will call the family. The tone is warm, the questions seem casual — “How are you holding up?” “Can you just tell me what happened?” — and the call is recorded. Every word is designed to be quoted later. A grieving parent who says “I’m doing okay” or “I don’t really know what happened” has just given the adjuster material to argue the family’s damages are minimal or that they are uncertain about the facts.
The counter: Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company. Not now, not ever. You have no obligation to do so. A recorded statement is a tool for the insurance company, not for you. If they want to know what happened, they can read the DPS report.
Play 2: The Fast Settlement Check
A check may arrive quickly — sometimes within weeks — with a release attached. The amount will seem like real money in the moment, because funeral bills are due and the family is in crisis. But the release, once signed, extinguishes all claims against that insurer and that driver’s estate permanently. The check arrives before the medical evidence is in, before the EDR data is downloaded, before the full scope of the loss is known.
The counter: Never sign a release from an insurance company without having it reviewed by an attorney. The release is a permanent surrender of rights. The check that arrives in week two is a fraction of what the case is worth — and the adjuster knows that, which is exactly why they sent it in week two.
Play 3: The “Liability Is Unclear” Frame
Because DPS has not released a fault determination, the at-fault driver’s insurer will frame the collision as “disputed liability” — suggesting the teens’ vehicle may have crossed the centerline, or that fault cannot be determined. This frame is used to justify a low settlement offer and to pressure the family into accepting a fraction of the case value.
The counter: The physical evidence — EDR data, skid mark analysis, gouge mark mapping, vehicle resting positions, and the crash reconstruction — establishes which vehicle crossed the centerline. The DPS CR-3 report, when completed, will document the investigating officer’s assessment. The defense’s “liability is unclear” frame collapses when the reconstruction is complete and the data is downloaded — which is why preserving the vehicles and the scene evidence immediately is the single most important step in defeating this play.
Play 4: The Valuation Software Lowball
Insurance companies use claims-valuation software — programs that assign dollar values to injuries based on diagnostic codes, treatment records, and algorithmic multipliers. For wrongful death claims, the software tends to underweight non-economic damages — the mental anguish, the loss of companionship, the value of three young lives — because those losses do not have diagnostic codes. The adjuster feeds the claim into the system, the system spits out a number, and the adjuster offers that number as if it were objective.
The counter: The software number is a floor, not a ceiling, and it is built to undervalue exactly the losses that dominate a wrongful death case. A proper valuation is built by a forensic economist who projects lost earning capacity, a life-care planner if survival damages are at issue, and a mental health expert who frames the grief damages. The adjuster’s software does not know what three funerals in one week costs a family. The jury will.
The Medicine of Grief: Three Wrongful Deaths in One Family
The medical dimension of this case is not about the mechanism of injury — a head-on collision at highway speed produces catastrophic blunt force trauma that is typically not survivable, and all three teens were pronounced at the scene. The medical dimension is about what grief does to a family in the months and years that follow, and why that grief is itself a compensable injury under Texas wrongful death law.
The Physical Toll of Acute Grief
Acute grief — the loss of a child, multiplied by three, experienced simultaneously — is not just an emotional state. It is a physiological event. The body responds to catastrophic loss with measurable changes: disrupted sleep architecture, elevated cortisol, cardiovascular stress, immune system suppression, and increased mortality risk in the first year following the death of a close family member. A parent who loses a child is at elevated risk of health crises in the months that follow. The medical literature on this is substantial, and a treating physician or mental health expert can connect the family’s documented health decline to the loss in a way that is admissible and compelling.
Complex Grief and PTSD
When the loss is sudden, violent, and multiple — three children killed in a single event — the grief presentation can move beyond ordinary bereavement into prolonged grief disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. These are diagnosable psychiatric conditions with established diagnostic criteria, not vague emotional complaints. A parent who cannot return to the home where the children lived, who cannot drive the road where they died, who cannot sleep without re-experiencing the moment of being notified — that parent has a medical injury that is compensable under the mental anguish component of the wrongful death claim. The proof is built through the treating mental health provider’s records, the diagnostic evaluation, and the expert testimony of a psychologist or psychiatrist who can connect the event to the condition.
The Economic Cost of Grief
Grief costs money. A parent who cannot work for months — who takes leave, who loses a job, who cannot function at the level they could before — has an economic loss that is recoverable. The time a surviving parent spends unable to earn income because of the psychological impact of losing three children is a lost-earnings claim that sits alongside the wrongful death damages. Documenting it requires the employment records, the medical and mental health treatment records, and the economist’s projection.
The First 72 Hours: What to Do and What to Refuse
What to Do
Get the medical and mental health support in place first. Before any legal step, the surviving family’s immediate health and safety comes first. If the parent cannot function, a relative, a friend, or a colleague needs to step in and help with the practical logistics — the funeral arrangements, the notifications, the household. Grief is a medical event. Treat it like one.
Request the DPS CR-3 crash report. Contact the Texas Department of Public Safety and request the crash report as soon as it is available — typically 10 to 14 days after the crash. This is the foundational document.
Preserve the vehicles. Do not allow either vehicle to be sold, crushed, or released from the salvage yard. Send a written preservation demand to the tow yard, both insurance companies, and any estate representative for the other driver. The EDR data inside those vehicles is the single most important piece of evidence in the case.
Gather every insurance policy in the household. Pull the declarations pages for every vehicle insured by the family. Look for UM/UIM coverage limits, stacking provisions, and any umbrella or excess policies. These documents determine the recovery architecture.
Document the scene. If it has not already been done, get a qualified accident reconstructionist to the crash site to photograph and map the scene before weather and traffic degrade the physical evidence.
What to Refuse
Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company. You have no obligation to do so, and everything you say will be used to minimize your claim.
Do not sign a release or cash a settlement check from any insurance company without attorney review. A release is permanent. Once signed, the claim is over — regardless of what evidence later surfaces.
Do not post about the crash on social media. Insurance adjusters and defense investigators monitor social media. A photograph, a comment, a “checking in” post — all of it can be taken out of context and used to argue the family’s damages are less than claimed.
Do not wait. The evidence clock is running. The vehicles can be destroyed. The scene evidence is degrading. The cell phone records are on carrier retention schedules. The other driver’s estate may be opened in probate court on a deadline that has already started. Every day that passes is a day the proof gets weaker.
Why This Firm: Names You Can Hold
Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in Texas courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — he knows how to find the story the evidence tells, and he knows how to tell it to a jury. He is admitted to the State Bar of Texas (Bar No. 24007597, licensed November 6, 1998) and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He handles wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases across the state, and he does not take a fee unless the case wins.
Lupe Peña is a former insurance-defense attorney who spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims exactly like yours. He knows how the reserve is set in the first 48 hours, how the recorded-statement call is engineered, and how the valuation software is run. Now he uses that knowledge for injured families. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. He is a third-generation Texan with family roots that run deep in this state.
We work on contingency. The fee is 33.33 percent before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The first consultation is free. And we have 24/7 live staff — not an answering service, but people who can take your call at 2 a.m. because we know that is when the crisis hits.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
If you are facing a situation like this — in Crane County, in Ector County, anywhere in the Permian Basin or across Texas — call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). The consultation is free. The call is confidential. And the evidence clock is already running.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I file a wrongful death claim if the at-fault driver also died?
Yes. In Texas, wrongful death claims survive the death of the at-fault party. The claim is pursued against the deceased driver’s estate, their auto liability insurance coverage, and any applicable umbrella or excess policies. The estate is administered through probate court, and claims against the estate must be filed within the probate claim deadline — which may be shorter than the two-year wrongful death statute of limitations. This is why acting early matters: the probate clock may already be running even though DPS has not finished its investigation.
How long do I have to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas?
Texas wrongful death claims generally must be filed within two years of the date of death. In this case, that clock started on November 20, 2024. However, two additional deadlines may be shorter: the probate claim deadline if the at-fault driver’s estate is opened, and any governmental-claim notice deadline if a road design defect contributed to the crash. Do not assume two years is your only clock. Confirm all applicable deadlines with a Texas attorney immediately.
What if the other driver’s insurance is not enough to cover three wrongful deaths?
This is the most common scenario in a multi-fatality crash, and it is why uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage exists. If the at-fault driver carried only Texas minimum liability limits — $30,000 per person and $60,000 per incident — that $60,000 is the total available from the liability policy for all three deaths. UM/UIM coverage under the family’s own auto policy bridges the gap, and in Texas, UM/UIM coverage may be stackable across multiple household vehicles. Pulling every declarations page in the household and analyzing the stacking structure is one of the first things we do.
Who gets the money from a wrongful death settlement?
Under Texas law, wrongful death damages belong to the statutory beneficiaries — the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the decedent. For three teenage decedents, the surviving parent or parents are the beneficiaries. The damages are apportioned among the beneficiaries according to their respective losses. Survival damages — for the decedent’s own pain and suffering between injury and death — belong to the estate and pass according to the decedent’s estate plan or intestacy laws.
What is the difference between a wrongful death claim and a survival action?
A wrongful death claim compensates the surviving family for their losses — mental anguish, loss of companionship, lost financial support, funeral expenses. A survival action compensates the decedent’s estate for the decedent’s own losses — pain and suffering experienced between injury and death, and medical expenses incurred before death. In a case where all three teens died at the scene, survival damages may be limited, but any evidence of a conscious interval between impact and death opens a separate recovery stream through the estate.
Will the DPS crash report tell us who was at fault?
The DPS CR-3 crash report documents the investigating officer’s assessment of contributing factors, vehicle positions, point of impact, and any citations issued. It is the foundational document for liability, but it is not the final word — the full fault analysis is built from the CR-3 plus the EDR data, the crash reconstruction, the scene evidence, and any witness statements. The CR-3 is typically available 10 to 14 days after the crash. Request it from DPS immediately.
What if the investigation cannot determine who crossed the centerline?
With the other driver deceased and unable to testify, inconclusiveness is a real risk. If DPS cannot determine fault from the physical evidence, the case becomes a contested liability fight — and the physical evidence becomes everything. The EDR data from both vehicles, the crash reconstruction analysis, the scene mapping, and any witness statements are what a jury will use to decide who crossed the centerline. This is why preserving the vehicles and the scene evidence is not optional — it is the case.
How much does it cost to hire a wrongful death lawyer?
We work on contingency. The fee is 33.33 percent of the recovery before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. There is no hourly billing, no retainer, no upfront cost. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The first consultation is free. If the case does not produce a recovery, you owe us nothing for our time.
Can the family’s law enforcement connection affect the case?
A family’s connection to law enforcement can cut both ways in a rural venue. It can build trust with jurors who know and respect the family’s service to the community. It can also draw jurors who have preconceived opinions about law enforcement families seeking compensation. Voir dire — the jury selection process — in a small, tight-knit community like Crane County requires careful screening for both biases. This is a strategic consideration that an experienced trial lawyer addresses from the first day of case preparation.
What should I do right now, today, if my family was affected?
Three things, in this order. First, take care of the immediate health and safety of the surviving family — grief is a medical event, and a family in crisis needs support. Second, do not sign anything from any insurance company and do not give a recorded statement to anyone. Third, call a Texas wrongful death attorney who can send the preservation letters that freeze the evidence before it disappears — the vehicles, the scene, the phone records, the toxicology — and who can begin the process of confirming the insurance coverage and the probate deadlines. The call is free. The evidence clock is not.
If Your Family Is Suffering, Call Us
We serve families across Texas — from our Houston offices to our Austin office to our Beaumont client meetings by appointment. We handle wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide. We speak Spanish. Hablamos Español. Lupe Peña conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter, and our bilingual staff is here for your family.
The number is 1-888-ATTY-911 — that is 1-888-288-9911. It rings to 24/7 live staff, not a machine. The consultation is free. The call is confidential. And we do not get paid unless we win your case.
If you are reading this at 2 a.m. because you cannot sleep and you do not know what to do next — that is exactly when to call. The evidence is disappearing. The insurance company is already working. Your family should not face this alone.
Learn more about our wrongful death practice. Contact us directly. The call is free. The fight is real. And the clock is running.