When Someone Turns Left Across Your Path and Then Drives Away
If you are reading this because someone you love was on that motorcycle on Andrews Highway on the night of March 14, 2026 — or because you were the one on the Harley, hurt and trying to make sense of what happened — the first thing we want you to know is this: the driver who turned left in front of that motorcycle and then drove away broke two laws that night, not one. The first was the duty to yield. The second was the duty to stop. Both exist in Texas law for the same reason — because a turning car and an oncoming motorcycle are one of the deadliest combinations on any road, and the minutes after impact are the minutes that decide whether someone lives or dies.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We handle motorcycle accident cases across Texas, and we built this page for one person: the reader who is sitting in a hospital waiting room in Lubbock, or at a kitchen table in Odessa, staring at a phone and trying to figure out what to do next. Everything below is written to you — the law that applies, the evidence that is disappearing right now, the insurance company’s playbook, and the honest answer to what a case like this is worth.
What Happened at University and Andrews Highway on March 14, 2026
At approximately 8:49 p.m. on a Saturday night, a 65-year-old man was riding a black Harley-Davidson motorcycle northbound on Andrews Highway — the Business Route of U.S. Highway 385 that runs through the heart of Odessa’s commercial corridor. Andrews Highway is one of the busiest north-south arterials in Ector County, carrying a mix of local passenger traffic, commercial vehicles, and the heavy through-traffic that the Permian Basin oilfield economy sends through this city every day. The intersection at University Boulevard is signalized and high-volume, the kind of junction where a single failure to yield can rewrite a family’s life in two seconds.
A blue Honda Civic was traveling southbound on Andrews Highway in the opposite direction. The driver, a 53-year-old Odessa resident, attempted to turn east onto University Boulevard — a left turn that took his vehicle directly across the northbound lanes and directly into the path of the oncoming motorcycle. He did not yield the right of way. The Civic collided with the Harley-Davidson.
The rider sustained serious bodily injury. He was transported first to Medical Center Hospital in Odessa — the regional facility that serves as the initial stabilization point for trauma patients across the Permian Basin — and then air-lifted by helicopter to a Level I trauma center in Lubbock, approximately 140 miles northeast. When a patient is flown from Odessa to Lubbock, it means the injuries exceeded what the regional hospital could definitively treat. It means the treating physicians made a decision that every minute of delay mattered more than every minute of transport.
Then the driver of the Honda Civic drove away. He did not stop. He did not render aid. He left a 65-year-old man on the pavement.
The Odessa Police Department identified the driver and arrested him. He was charged with Collision Involving Serious Bodily Injury — a third-degree felony in Texas — and was also held on an unrelated warrant for Assault Causing Bodily Injury (Family Violence), a Class A misdemeanor. A second person, a 54-year-old woman, was arrested in connection with the incident for providing a False Report to a Peace Officer, a Class B misdemeanor. The investigation is ongoing under OPD Case #26-0002710.
The Right of Way Was Violated — and That Is Not a Disputable Fact
In Texas, the driver of a vehicle turning left at an intersection must yield the right of way to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction that is close enough to constitute a hazard. This is not a suggestion, a guideline, or a matter of driver preference. It is a statutory duty written into the Texas Transportation Code, and it exists because left-turn collisions are one of the most dangerous crash configurations on American roads — especially for motorcyclists.
The Texas Transportation Code governs the duties of motorists on public roadways, including the obligation of a left-turning driver to yield to oncoming vehicles and the statutory duty to stop, remain at the scene, and render reasonable aid following a collision involving personal injury. Failure to stop and render aid is independently criminalized and, when serious bodily injury results, can be charged at the felony level.
The physics of this collision are not complicated. The Honda Civic was crossing the path of an oncoming vehicle. The motorcyclist had the right of way. The turning driver had one legal obligation — to wait until the oncoming traffic was clear — and he did not meet it. In the language of Texas personal injury law, this is a textbook breach of the duty of reasonable care, and it is also negligence per se — a violation of a safety statute designed to protect the exact class of people that includes the rider on that Harley.
There is a common defense tactic in motorcycle cases that we need to name now so you are not blindsided by it later: the attempt to shift blame to the rider. The insurance adjuster or the defense lawyer may suggest the motorcycle was speeding, or that the rider could have braked harder, or that the headlight was hard to see. This is the anti-motorcycle bias that sits in the background of every motorcycle case — the assumption, never spoken but always present, that the person on the bike must have been doing something wrong. The answer to that is the same answer every time: the rider was lawfully proceeding through a controlled intersection on a registered vehicle, in his lane, with the right of way. The person who violated the law was the one who turned across his path and then drove away.
Why the Driver Who Fled May Owe Far More Than a Driver Who Stayed
There is a difference in Texas law between negligence and something worse. When a driver fails to yield and causes a crash, that is negligence — and the injured person can recover compensation for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and the full range of personal injury damages. But when a driver causes a crash involving serious bodily injury and then flees the scene without rendering aid, that conduct crosses a line that Texas law treats differently. It becomes evidence of gross negligence — and gross negligence opens the door to exemplary damages.
Exemplary damages are available under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 41 upon a showing by clear and convincing evidence of malice or gross negligence. The hit-and-run facts here are a paradigmatic gross-negligence predicate.
What “gross negligence” means in Texas is not simply carelessness. It means the defendant acted with conscious indifference to the rights, safety, and welfare of the person he injured. When a driver hits a 65-year-old motorcyclist, sees the results of the impact, and chooses to drive away rather than stop and render aid — that choice is the definition of conscious indifference. The driver knew someone was hurt. He knew his vehicle had just collided with a human being on a motorcycle. And he decided that his own convenience — his own desire to avoid the consequences — mattered more than whether that person lived or died in the minutes after the crash.
Exemplary damages — what many people call punitive damages — are damages above and beyond compensation for the actual harm. They exist to punish and to deter. In a case where the driver fled the scene, the punitive damages claim is not a stretch or a legal gimmick. It is the natural legal consequence of conduct that the criminal system has already classified as a third-degree felony.
The False Report: What It Means for the Case
The arrest of a second individual for providing a False Report to a Peace Officer is not a sidebar to this case. It is evidence — and it is powerful evidence.
When someone provides a false report to police in connection with a crash investigation, two things are true. First, it demonstrates consciousness of guilt on the part of the person who fled — people do not enlist others to misdirect investigators when they believe they did nothing wrong. Second, if the false report was made to shield the driver from identification or prosecution, it constitutes affirmative post-incident conduct that obstructed the investigation and potentially delayed emergency response to the injured rider.
In a civil case, this matters in several ways. The false report and the text messages, phone records, and communications between the driver and the person who made the false report are discoverable — meaning we can demand them in litigation. The deposition of the person who made the false report can reveal the full scope of what happened after the driver fled: who he called, where he went, what he said, and what was done to try to cover up his involvement. This is a discovery gold mine. It can also support a civil conspiracy or aiding-and-abetting theory — the idea that the false report was not an isolated act but part of a coordinated effort to help the driver escape accountability.
Who Can Be Held Responsible: Mapping Every Liable Party
One of the most important things we do early in a motorcycle accident case is identify every party who may share legal responsibility — because the at-fault driver is often not the only source of recovery, and sometimes not even the primary one.
The at-fault driver. The man who turned left across the motorcyclist’s path and fled the scene is the primary defendant. His negligence — the failure to yield — caused the collision. His gross negligence — the flight from the scene — supports a punitive damages claim. But here is the hard truth that the dossier on this case makes clear: an individual defendant driving a Honda Civic with an outstanding assault warrant is what we call a thin-pocket defendant. He may carry only Texas’s minimum liability limits. He may have no meaningful assets. The criminal charges against him, while important for accountability, do not by themselves pay for a trauma center stay.
The registered owner of the Honda Civic. This is a discovery target we identify early. If the vehicle is owned by someone other than the driver — a family member, a friend, a roommate — and that owner knew or should have known of the driver’s unfitness to operate the vehicle (including his outstanding assault warrant, his driving record, or any history of reckless behavior), a negligent entrustment claim can open a separate insurance policy and a separate source of recovery. In Texas, the owner who hands the keys to someone they know is dangerous can be held directly liable for the consequences.
The person who made the false report. If her false report was made to facilitate the driver’s escape or misdirect the investigation, she may be liable under a civil conspiracy or aiding-and-abetting theory. Her role in the aftermath of the crash — and her communications with the driver — are discoverable and potentially devastating at trial.
A dram-shop defendant, if intoxication is confirmed. If toxicology testing reveals that the driver was intoxicated at the time of the crash, a Texas dram-shop claim becomes a viable parallel theory. Under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, an establishment that over-serves an obviously intoxicated person can be held liable for the injuries that person causes on the drive home. A dram-shop defendant — a bar or restaurant — often carries far larger insurance coverage than an individual driver, which can materially change the recovery picture in a case where the at-fault driver is thin-pocketed. Whether intoxication is a factor here is unknown until toxicology results are obtained from the police investigation and any hospital lab work.
The Evidence Is Disappearing Right Now
This is the section that matters most in the first days after a crash — because the evidence that will win or lose this case is on clocks, and some of those clocks are already running out.
Business and traffic-camera surveillance at the intersection. The intersection of University Boulevard and Andrews Highway is in the commercial heart of Odessa. There are likely businesses with exterior cameras, and there may be traffic-camera infrastructure at the signalized intersection. This footage can show the collision sequence, confirm the left-turn failure to yield, document the hit-and-run departure, and may capture pre-crash speed and signal phase. But surveillance video overwrites itself on a rolling cycle — commonly 7 to 30 days. Every day that passes without a preservation demand is a day closer to that evidence being gone forever.
The Event Data Recorder (EDR) in the Honda Civic. Modern vehicles carry a black box — an event data recorder — that captures pre-impact vehicle speed, brake application, throttle position, steering input, and seat-belt status. In a left-turn collision, the EDR can tell us whether the driver applied his brakes before or during the turn, what his approach speed was, and whether he made any evasive maneuver. But EDR data can be lost if the vehicle is released from impound, repaired, or scrapped. The inspection and download of this data must be demanded before the vehicle is released.
The Honda Civic’s physical damage. The damage pattern on the Civic — the point of impact, the angle of collision, the force vectors — confirms the left-turn cross-path configuration. A forensic inspection of the vehicle can also reveal prior mechanical defects that may have contributed. But vehicles get released, repaired, or destroyed. A forensic inspection must be scheduled within days.
The motorcycle and protective gear. The motorcycle’s physical evidence documents the forces transmitted to the rider, the mechanism of injury, and the adequacy of the helmet and gear. This supports both the biomechanical causation opinions and the medical causation of the rider’s injuries. Motorcycles get released from police impound or tow yards to insurance carriers for disposal — sometimes within weeks.
Odessa Police Department body-worn camera and in-car dashcam footage. When officers responded to the scene and later arrested the driver, their body cameras and dashcams may have captured his demeanor, his statements, any field-sobriety observations, and the scene conditions. They also may have captured the statements of the person who made the false report. OPD typically retains this footage for 30 to 90 days under department policy. A formal public-records request should be filed immediately.
Cell-phone records for the at-fault driver. If the driver was texting, calling, or using an app at the time of the crash, that is distracted driving — and it is a punitive damages amplifier. Cell-phone carrier retention policies vary, but preservation letters should go out immediately to prevent routine data purge.
Toxicology and blood-alcohol results. If the driver was tested for intoxication, those results are critical. Intoxication elevates the civil case to gross negligence, opens dram-shop liability against any over-serving establishment, and strengthens the punitive damages claim. Blood draws have a narrow evidentiary window. Results must be obtained from OPD and any hospital lab promptly.
The police investigation file — Case #26-0002710. This file contains the crash report, witness statements, the crash diagram, the charge documents, and the false-report affidavit. It is the foundational discovery document. The file is being actively assembled by OPD. Obtaining it early prevents the loss of witness statements and scene measurements that may not be recreated later.
The preservation letter — the written demand that tells every person and entity in possession of evidence to freeze it and not destroy it — is the first legal action in any serious motorcycle accident case. It goes out in days, not weeks. Not because we are being aggressive, but because the law lets evidence die on a schedule, and we refuse to let that schedule work against the person we represent.
What the Insurance Adjuster Is Already Doing
If you have been contacted by an insurance adjuster — whether the at-fault driver’s carrier or your own — you need to understand what is happening on the other end of that phone call. Lupe Peña, our associate attorney, spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm before he came to this side of the table. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims exactly like this one. He knows their playbook because he used to run it. Here is what they are doing right now:
Play 1: The “just checking in” recorded statement. Within days of the crash, someone friendly will call to “check on you” and ask you to “just tell us what happened” — on a recording that is engineered to be quoted against you. Every answer you give is being measured against a transcript that will be used to minimize your claim. The counter is simple: do not give a recorded statement without an attorney. You have no legal obligation to be recorded by the other driver’s insurance company.
Play 2: The quick settlement check with a release buried under it. A check may arrive fast — sometimes before the full extent of your injuries is known, before the MRI results come back, before the surgeon has decided whether another operation is needed. Attached to that check, or accompanying it, is a release that signs away your right to seek any further compensation. Once you sign, the case is over — no matter what your doctors discover next week or next month. The counter: never sign a release from any insurance company without having it reviewed by an attorney. A check that arrives before the medical picture is complete is not generosity. It is strategy.
Play 3: The medical-authorization form. The at-fault driver’s insurer may send you a form authorizing them to obtain your medical records. This looks routine. It is not. A broadly worded medical authorization lets the insurance company pull your entire medical history — records unrelated to the crash, prior injuries, treatment for conditions that have nothing to do with what happened on Andrews Highway. They are looking for a pre-existing condition they can blame your symptoms on. The counter: do not sign any medical authorization from the at-fault driver’s insurance company. We provide the relevant records ourselves, on our terms.
Play 4: The comparative-fault argument. The adjuster may suggest that the motorcyclist was partly at fault — speeding, following too closely, or “appearing suddenly.” This is the anti-motorcycle bias at work, and in Texas, it has a specific legal purpose: Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51% bar. If the injured person is found to be 51% or more at fault, recovery is barred entirely. If the injured person is found to be 50% or less at fault, recovery is reduced by that percentage. Every percentage point the defense can pin on the rider is money directly subtracted from the recovery. This is exactly why the adjuster works so hard to manufacture fault on the rider’s side.
Play 5: Social media surveillance. The insurance company may monitor your social media accounts — and the accounts of your family members — looking for posts, photos, or check-ins that suggest you are less injured than you claim. A photo of you at a family barbecue does not prove your traumatic brain injury has resolved, but it will be presented to a jury as if it does. The counter: do not post about the crash, your injuries, your medical treatment, or your activities on any social media platform. Set your accounts to private. Tell your family to do the same.
For more on how to handle these calls, watch our short video on what you should never say to an insurance adjuster.
The Injuries and the Flight to Lubbock
When a 65-year-old man on a motorcycle is struck by a turning car and then air-lifted 140 miles from Odessa to a Level I trauma center in Lubbock, the medical picture is serious. The decision to air-lift is not made casually. It is made when the treating physicians at the regional hospital determine that the patient’s injuries require a level of specialized care — neurosurgery, complex orthopedic reconstruction, spinal-cord intervention, or multi-system trauma management — that exceeds what the regional facility can provide.
The pattern of stabilization at Medical Center Hospital followed by air-ambulance transfer to Lubbock signals injuries that fall into one or more of these categories:
Traumatic brain injury. The rotational and deceleration forces in a motorcycle collision — where the rider’s head is subjected to violent acceleration and then sudden arrest against a vehicle, the road, or both — can produce diffuse axonal injury, subdural hematoma, or contusive brain injury. A “mild” traumatic brain injury can come with a perfectly normal initial CT scan — the microscopic tearing of nerve fibers does not show on standard imaging. Roughly one in seven people with a so-called mild TBI still has symptoms three months later: the headaches, the lost words, the short temper, the inability to concentrate in a meeting or remember a grandchild’s name. You may see it across the dinner table before any scan sees it.
Spinal cord injury. The axial loading and flexion-distraction forces transmitted through the motorcycle to the rider’s spine can produce vertebral fracture, disc rupture, or direct cord injury. A complete spinal cord injury at the cervical level means paralysis below the level of injury — and the lifetime cost of care for a high cervical injury runs into the millions of dollars. Even an incomplete injury — one that leaves some function — can mean a lifetime of neurogenic bladder and bowel dysfunction, chronic neuropathic pain, pressure injuries, and recurrent infections.
Internal organ damage and severe polytrauma. The handlebars, the fuel tank, and the opposing vehicle can transmit blunt force to the abdomen and chest that ruptures the spleen, lacerates the liver, or causes aortic injury. Pelvic fractures from the impact forces can produce life-threatening hemorrhage. The term “polytrauma” — multiple major injuries simultaneously — is the clinical reality of a high-energy motorcycle collision, and it is why Level I trauma centers exist.
Road rash, degloving, and amputation. Even with protective gear, the sliding contact with asphalt at highway speed can produce severe friction burns and degloving injuries — where the skin and soft tissue are stripped from the underlying muscle and bone. These injuries require surgical debridement, skin grafting, and, in the worst cases, amputation. The scar tissue that forms does not stretch like normal skin, and in the years that follow, contractures can limit movement and require serial release surgeries.
The air ambulance itself is a medical expense that can run $25,000 to $50,000 — before a single day in the ICU, before a single surgery, before a single dose of the medications that keep a trauma patient alive through the first 72 hours. The costs stack quickly, and they stack on top of the income that has stopped because the person who earned it is now in a hospital bed.
What a Case Like This Is Worth
We are going to give you the honest answer — not the answer that sounds good on a website, but the one a trial lawyer who has done this for 27 years would give you across a kitchen table.
The value of a motorcycle accident case is driven by three variables: the severity of the injury, the strength of the liability proof, and the collectibility of the defendant. In this case, the liability proof is strong — the failure to yield and the flight from the scene establish clear fault. The severity of the injury is potentially catastrophic — the air-lift to a Level I trauma center signals injuries that may include TBI, spinal cord damage, or severe polytrauma. The third variable, collectibility, is where the honest conversation gets harder.
Low-end range: $75,000 to $250,000. This range applies if the at-fault driver carries only Texas minimum liability limits — $30,000 per person — the rider lacks uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage on his motorcycle policy, and the injuries, while serious, resolve without permanent disability. In this scenario, the recovery is largely limited to what the at-fault driver’s policy pays, and an individual defendant with a Honda Civic and an outstanding assault warrant is unlikely to have personal assets worth pursuing.
High-end range: $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 or more. This range applies if the injuries are catastrophic — traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, or severe polytrauma requiring months of hospitalization and rehabilitation — and one or more of the following recovery sources exist: the at-fault driver carries meaningful liability limits, the vehicle owner is a separate person with a negligent entrustment claim and their own coverage, the rider carried substantial UM/UIM coverage on his motorcycle policy, a dram-shop defendant is identified, and punitive damages are recoverable from collectible assets.
The dominant variable in this case is collectibility. The at-fault driver presents a thin-pocket profile. This is exactly why a thorough insurance-coverage investigation is the first priority — not the last. The question is not just “who is at fault?” but “who has the insurance or the assets to actually pay for what they did?”
For a deeper look at how case value is calculated, watch our video on how much a personal injury case is worth.
UM/UIM Coverage: Why It May Be Your Most Important Protection
When the at-fault driver has thin pockets — minimum limits, no assets, an outstanding warrant — the most reliable path to meaningful compensation may run through the injured rider’s own insurance policy. In Texas, uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage is an optional coverage that steps in when the at-fault driver is uninsured or does not carry enough liability insurance to cover the harm they caused.
If the rider carried UM/UIM coverage on his motorcycle policy, that coverage may pay the difference between the at-fault driver’s liability limits and the full value of the rider’s claim — up to the UM/UIM policy limits. In a case where the at-fault driver carries only $30,000 and the rider’s injuries are worth $1,000,000, the UM/UIM coverage becomes the primary recovery source for the remaining $970,000.
Texas also allows UM/UIM stacking in certain circumstances — meaning that if there are multiple vehicles on the policy or multiple policies that provide UM/UIM coverage, the coverage may be combined to increase the total available recovery. This is a technical area of Texas insurance law that requires careful policy analysis, and it is one of the first things we examine.
What makes UM/UIM especially important in a hit-and-run case is this: in Texas, a hit-and-run driver may be treated as an uninsured motorist for purposes of UM/UIM coverage. The rider’s own insurance may step in even though the at-fault driver was eventually identified — because the driver fled the scene and the rider was unable to obtain insurance information at the time of the crash.
For more on this topic, watch our explainer on uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
The First 72 Hours: What to Do and What Not to Do
If you or your loved one was injured in this crash — or in any motorcycle accident in the Odessa area — here is what matters most in the first 72 hours.
Medical care comes first — and symptoms lie. Adrenaline is a powerful anesthetic. In the hours after a crash, a person can feel “fine” and still have a subdural hematoma expanding inside their skull, a cervical spine fracture that has not yet declared itself, or internal bleeding that will become catastrophic in six hours. If you were offered a medical evaluation and declined it, go back. If you were discharged from the emergency department, follow up with your primary care physician or a specialist within days. Keep every appointment. The medical record is being built from the moment of the crash, and gaps in treatment become the defense’s favorite argument: “If she was really hurt, why did she wait three weeks to see a doctor?”
Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver’s insurance company. You are not required to. The adjuster’s questions are designed to elicit answers that minimize your claim. “How are you feeling today?” is not a courtesy — it is a question whose answer will be transcribed and compared to your medical records and your testimony at trial.
Do not sign any medical authorization forms from the at-fault driver’s insurer. These forms are often broader than they appear and can give the insurance company access to your entire medical history.
Do not post about the crash on social media. No photos, no updates, no check-ins. Set your accounts to private. Tell your family to do the same. A single photograph of you smiling at a family event can be misrepresented at trial as proof that your injuries were not serious.
Preserve everything. Keep the motorcycle. Do not let it be disposed of. Keep the helmet and all protective gear. Keep every medical bill, every discharge instruction, every prescription receipt, every work-absence note from your employer. Photograph your injuries on a schedule — bruises fade, swelling resolves, and the visual record of what the crash did to your body disappears within weeks.
Contact an attorney. The preservation letters that freeze the surveillance footage, the EDR data, the police body-camera video, and the cell-phone records need to go out in days. We send them the day you call. Ralph Manginello has been licensed in Texas since 1998 — 27 years. He does not delegate the strategy. He reads every file.
How We Build a Motorcycle Accident Case From Day One
Here is what happens when you call us about a motorcycle crash like this one.
Week one: the preservation letter goes out. We send written demands to every entity that holds evidence — the Odessa Police Department, the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier, the registered owner of the Honda Civic, any business with surveillance cameras at the intersection, and the cell-phone carrier for the at-fault driver. The letter tells them: freeze everything. Do not destroy, overwrite, or dispose of any evidence related to this crash. This is the letter that converts an automatic deletion into sanctionable destruction.
Week one: the insurance-coverage investigation opens. We confirm the at-fault driver’s liability limits. We identify the registered owner of the Honda Civic and determine whether a negligent entrustment claim exists. We verify whether the rider carried UM/UIM coverage on his motorcycle policy — and if so, what the limits are. We check for any additional policies that may stack. This investigation determines where the money is and how many pockets it sits in.
Weeks one through four: the evidence download begins. We file the public-records request for the OPD investigation file — Case #26-0002710 — including the crash report, witness statements, and all body-camera and dashcam footage. We demand the EDR data from the Honda Civic before the vehicle is released. We schedule the forensic inspection of both the Civic and the motorcycle. We obtain the rider’s complete medical records from Medical Center Hospital and the Lubbock trauma center.
Weeks four through twelve: the reconstruction and the medical picture. A board-certified accident reconstructionist models the left-turn cross-path collision geometry — the approach speeds, the reaction time available, the stopping distance, the forces transmitted to the rider. Medical experts — potentially a trauma surgeon, an orthopedic specialist, a neuropsychologist if TBI is suspected, a life-care planner, and a forensic economist — build the damages picture. The life-care planner prices out every future surgery, every medication, every piece of equipment, every year of attendant care. The forensic economist reduces it to present value.
The Stowers demand. Once coverage is confirmed and the damages picture is built, we calibrate a settlement demand to the available policy limits. In Texas, the Stowers doctrine imposes a duty on liability insurers to accept reasonable settlement demands within policy limits when an ordinarily prudent insurer would do so. If the insurer refuses a reasonable demand within limits and the case later produces a verdict above those limits, the carrier can be exposed to liability above the policy — meaning the insurer, not just the defendant, is on the hook for the excess. A well-documented Stowers demand is one of the most powerful tools in Texas personal injury law, and it is built from all the evidence we have gathered.
The Stowers doctrine imposes a duty on liability insurers to accept reasonable settlement demands within policy limits when an ordinarily prudent insurer would do so, exposing the carrier to liability above policy limits for bad-faith refusal.
Trial preparation, if settlement fails. If the insurance company will not offer what the case is worth, we prepare for trial — because the credible willingness to try a case is what makes settlement possible. Voir dire addresses the anti-motorcycle bias that jurors carry. The narrative foregrounds that the rider was lawfully proceeding through a controlled intersection on a registered vehicle and was struck by a driver who violated his right of way and then abandoned him. The reconstruction expert shows the jury exactly what happened in the 2.6 seconds before impact. The medical experts show them exactly what the injuries cost — in dollars, in years, and in the life the rider no longer gets to live the way he lived it before.
About Attorney911
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are based in Houston, and we take motorcycle accident, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death cases across Texas. We work on contingency: 33.33% before trial, 40% if the case goes to trial. We don’t get paid unless we win your case. The consultation is free. The phone is answered 24/7 by live staff — not an answering service.
Ralph P. Manginello is our Managing Partner. He has been licensed in Texas since November 6, 1998 — 27 years. He is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, including its Bankruptcy Court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer, which means he writes clearly, asks the right questions, and knows how to tell a story to a jury. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He reads every file. He does not hand your case to an associate and disappear.
Lupe Peña is our associate attorney. He is a former insurance-defense attorney who spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decide how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. He knows how insurance claims are valued from the inside — the Colossus software, the reserve-setting, the IME-doctor selection, the surveillance, the delay tactics. He now uses that knowledge for injured clients. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
We have recovered more than $50 million for our clients. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. But the number tells you something about what we do: we handle serious cases seriously, and we have the resources and the experience to take on the insurance companies that stand between an injured person and the compensation the law says they deserve.
Hablamos Español. If your family communicates in Spanish, we will meet you in your language — not through an interpreter, but directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a motorcycle accident lawsuit in Texas?
Texas has a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims, including motorcycle accidents. The clock starts on the date of the injury — in this case, March 14, 2026. If a lawsuit is not filed within two years of that date, the claim is barred forever, no matter how strong the case is. There are narrow exceptions, but they are rare and should never be relied on. The practical deadline is shorter than the legal one, because evidence disappears on its own schedule — surveillance video overwrites in weeks, not years. If you are reading this page and the crash was recent, the clock that matters most is not the two-year legal clock but the evidence clock.
Can I still recover compensation if the driver fled the scene?
Yes. The fact that the driver fled the scene does not eliminate your right to recover — in fact, it may strengthen your case. The failure to stop and render aid is independently criminalized in Texas, and when serious bodily injury results, it can be charged as a felony — as it was here. In a civil case, the flight from the scene is evidence of gross negligence, which opens the door to exemplary (punitive) damages under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 41. The driver was eventually identified and arrested, which means the civil case can proceed against him directly. If he had not been identified, your UM/UIM coverage might still apply, as a hit-and-run driver can be treated as an uninsured motorist under Texas law.
What if the at-fault driver has no insurance or very little?
This is one of the most common and most important questions in a motorcycle accident case. Texas requires minimum liability coverage of $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for bodily injury — but a single night in a trauma center ICU can consume that entire amount. When the at-fault driver is thin-pocketed — minimum limits, no assets — the primary recovery source may be your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage. We investigate every available policy, including stacking across multiple vehicles or policies where Texas law permits. We also investigate whether the vehicle was owned by someone other than the driver, which can open a negligent entrustment claim and a separate insurance policy. If intoxication was involved, a dram-shop claim against an over-serving establishment can provide a much larger recovery source.
Will the criminal case against the driver affect my civil claim?
The criminal case and the civil case are separate legal processes that run in parallel. The criminal prosecution — handled by the Ector County District Attorney’s Office — can result in prison time, fines, and a criminal record for the at-fault driver. The civil case — handled by us on your behalf — seeks financial compensation for your injuries, medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and potentially punitive damages. The criminal case does not pay you. But the criminal investigation produces evidence that is extremely valuable in the civil case: the crash report, witness statements, the driver’s statements, toxicology results, body-camera footage, and the false-report affidavit. We can obtain these through public-records requests and civil discovery. A conviction is not required for a civil recovery — the civil standard is lower than the criminal standard (preponderance of the evidence vs. beyond a reasonable doubt).
Can I sue the person who gave a false report to the police?
Potentially, yes. If the false report was made to shield the at-fault driver from identification or prosecution — to help him escape accountability — it may support a civil conspiracy or aiding-and-abetting theory. Her deposition and communications with the driver are discoverable, and they may reveal the full scope of the post-crash cover-up. Even if she does not have substantial assets or insurance, her testimony and text messages can be devastating evidence of the driver’s consciousness of guilt — which strengthens both the liability case and the punitive damages claim.
How much is my motorcycle accident case worth?
The honest answer is: it depends on three things — the severity of the injury, the strength of the liability proof, and the collectibility of the defendant. In this case, the liability is strong (failure to yield + hit-and-run), the injuries are potentially catastrophic (air-lift to a Level I trauma center), and the collectibility is the variable that determines the final number. If the at-fault driver carries only minimum limits and the rider has no UM/UIM, the recovery may be limited to $30,000 to $250,000. If the injuries are catastrophic and there is meaningful coverage — through the driver’s policy, a vehicle owner’s policy, UM/UIM, or a dram-shop defendant — the case can be worth $1 million to $5 million or more. We evaluate every case individually, and we give you the honest number — not the one that sounds good on a billboard.
What if I was partly at fault for the crash?
Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51% bar. If you are found to be 51% or more at fault, you cannot recover anything. If you are found to be 50% or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault — but it is not eliminated. For example, if your damages are $500,000 and you are found to be 20% at fault, you recover $400,000. This is exactly why the defense works so hard to pin fault on the motorcyclist — every percentage point they manufacture is money subtracted from your recovery. In a left-turn failure-to-yield case like this one, the legal duty to yield rests squarely on the turning driver, and the defense’s attempts to shift blame to the rider are typically based on speculation rather than evidence. We fight those attempts with the reconstruction, the EDR data, and the physical evidence.
Should I talk to the insurance adjuster?
Not without consulting an attorney first. The at-fault driver’s insurance adjuster is not your friend — no matter how friendly they sound on the phone. Their job is to settle your claim for as little money as possible, and every word you say to them is being evaluated for that purpose. You have no legal obligation to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company. You have no obligation to sign their medical authorization forms. You have no obligation to accept their first settlement offer — which is almost always a fraction of what the case is actually worth. Let us handle the adjuster. That is what we do.
How long does a motorcycle accident case take?
It depends on the complexity of the case and the willingness of the insurance company to offer a fair settlement. A straightforward case with clear liability and documented injuries may resolve in four to eight months. A catastrophic injury case that requires a life-care plan, multiple expert witnesses, and a Stowers demand may take 12 to 24 months. If the case goes to trial, it can take longer. We do not rush cases to settle for less than they are worth, and we do not drag cases out unnecessarily. We move as fast as the evidence and the medicine allow, and we keep you informed at every step.
What should I do right now?
If you or your loved one was injured in this crash or one like it, here is what to do today: (1) Keep all medical appointments and follow your doctors’ instructions. (2) Do not speak to the at-fault driver’s insurance company. (3) Do not sign anything from any insurance company without having it reviewed. (4) Do not post about the crash on social media. (5) Preserve the motorcycle, the helmet, and all protective gear. (6) Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. The consultation is free, the call is confidential, and there is no fee unless we win your case.
If You Are Reading This at 2 a.m.
We know who you are. You are the spouse who got the call from the hospital in Lubbock. You are the adult child who drove 140 miles to sit in a waiting room and ask a doctor what “serious bodily injury” actually means. You are the rider himself, lying in a bed, trying to make sense of how a Saturday night ride on Andrews Highway turned into this.
What we want you to understand is that the legal system gives you a window — but the window for evidence is narrower than the window for filing a lawsuit. The statute of limitations gives you two years. The surveillance cameras at that intersection may give you 30 days. The Honda Civic’s black box may give you until the vehicle is released from impound. The police body-camera footage may give you 90 days.
The day you call us is the day the preservation letters go out. That is not a marketing promise — it is a description of what we do in every serious injury case, on the day we are hired, because we have seen what happens when evidence disappears before anyone asks for it.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. The consultation is free. The call is confidential. We do not get paid unless we win your case. And if we are not the right fit for your case, we will tell you — honestly, and without pressure.
The road from this night to resolution is long. But it starts with a single phone call, and we answer 24 hours a day.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Contacting the firm is free and confidential. Hablamos Español.