The Moment You’re In
If you are reading this page, someone you love was on I-20 that Friday afternoon, or you were. A wrong-way pickup came through the eastbound lanes two miles east of Big Spring, and in the seconds that followed, three people were dead, thirteen teenagers were hurt, and a community was shattered. You may be sitting in a hospital waiting room in Lubbock where your child was flown. You may be at a kitchen table in Andrews, staring at a phone that rang with news no parent is ready for. You may be the spouse of someone who did not come home.
We are writing this page for you — the person at 2 a.m. who does not know what happens next, what the law allows, what the insurance company is already doing, or whether the fact that the wrong-way driver is dead means there is no case at all. That last question is the one we hear most, and the answer is the one most families never get in time: there is a case, but the path to it is not obvious, and the clock on the evidence is already running.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We take wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases in Texas. Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court. Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like you — before he crossed to this side of the table. Everything we know about how the other side operates, we learned from the inside. Now we use it for you.
What Happened on I-20 Near Big Spring — and Why It Changes Everything
At 4:02 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, two buses carrying the Andrews High School Mustangs Band were headed east on Interstate 20, two miles east of Big Spring in Howard County. A 2016 Ford F-350 pickup, driven by a 59-year-old man from Midland, was traveling the wrong way in those same lanes. A semi truck ahead of the buses swerved. A couple in a vehicle roughly 200 yards ahead of the buses barely got out of the way. The pickup passed them — and then it struck the lead band bus head-on. The lead bus driver swerved to try to avoid it. The impact was devastating. The pickup careened into the second bus.
Three people on the buses were killed. The wrong-way pickup driver was also killed. Thirteen band members were injured. Eleven were treated at Scenic Mountain Medical Center in Big Spring. Two were airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock — the nearest Level I trauma center, more than a hundred miles north.
“Something is not right when a guy is traveling the wrong way on an interstate.”
That quote came from someone who drove up on the wreck — a hospital executive who knew the bus driver personally and recognized, in plain language, what every wrong-way crash case comes down to: this was not an accident in the ordinary sense. Wrong-way driving on an interstate is not a momentary lapse. It is a catastrophic failure of someone’s judgment, someone’s perception, or someone’s body — and the law treats it differently because of that.
The physics tell the rest. I-20 through Howard County is a 75-mile-per-hour rural interstate. A 2016 Ford F-350 is a heavy, full-size pickup — a vehicle that can weigh 7,000 to 9,000 pounds empty. A school bus weighs 25,000 to 33,000 pounds. When two vehicles close on each other at highway speeds in opposite directions, the closing speed can exceed 140 miles per hour. The kinetic energy — the destructive force that has to go somewhere when metal stops — does not rise linearly with speed. It rises with the square of speed. Double the speed, and the energy quadruples. A head-on collision at those closing speeds is not a crash that a human body walks away from. It is a catastrophe that the vehicle’s structure, the seatbelts, and the emergency response can only try to mitigate.
This is why the injuries span the full severity spectrum: two teenagers were hurt badly enough to need a helicopter to a trauma center, while eleven others were treated at the local hospital. The two who were flown had injuries that exceeded what Scenic Mountain Medical Center could handle — likely traumatic brain injuries, spinal damage, internal organ rupture, or fractures requiring orthopedic trauma surgery. The flight itself is medicine: every minute in the air is a minute of advanced life support, and every minute saved is brain tissue preserved.
When the Wrong-Way Driver Is Dead: Who Pays for Three Lives and Thirteen Injuries
The first thing every family asks is the question the insurance company hopes you never get answered: the driver who caused this is dead — can anyone still be held responsible?
Yes. But the map of who pays is more complex than in an ordinary crash, and the insurance company’s first move is to point at the dead driver and hope you walk away.
Here is the defendant structure — the stack of entities and policies that may owe compensation — in a wrong-way collision where the at-fault driver is deceased:
The at-fault driver’s estate and his auto insurance. When a negligent driver dies in the crash he caused, his liability does not die with him. His estate stands in his place, and more importantly, his auto insurance policy remains in force. The policy limits — whatever they are — are the first layer of recovery. If he carried only Texas’s minimum liability coverage, that pool is small, and it has to be shared among every injured person and every family who lost someone. In a crash with three deaths and thirteen injuries, minimum coverage is a drop in an ocean. If he carried higher limits, there is more — but the insurer will fight to pay as little as possible, as slowly as possible, and to every claimant at once, pitting families against each other for a limited pool.
The wrong-way driver’s UM/UIM exposure — and yours. If the at-fault driver’s insurance is inadequate — and in a mass-casualty crash it almost always is — the next source of recovery is uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. In Texas, insurers are required to offer UM/UIM coverage unless the policyholder rejected it in writing. That coverage can come from the auto insurance policies of the victims’ families, and in some circumstances from the insurance on the buses themselves. UM/UIM is not a windfall — it is coverage you paid for, precisely for the day the other driver’s insurance is not enough. The insurer who sold you that coverage will often try to treat your UM/UIM claim as if it is adversarial, which is one of the cruelest plays in the industry: your own insurance company, fighting you for the coverage you bought.
The bus owner and operator. Who owned the buses? Who maintained them? Who employed the driver? If the buses were owned and operated by a school district — Andrews ISD, for example — then the Texas Tort Claims Act governs claims against that governmental entity, with specific notice deadlines and damage caps that are shorter and lower than ordinary negligence rules. If the buses were owned by a charter company, different rules apply, and the company’s commercial insurance tower may be far larger. The lead bus driver, Marc Boswell, was described as a math teacher and the football team’s statistician — a school employee, not a professional commercial driver. That fact matters: it tells us who the employer was, and it tells us whether the bus operation triggers governmental immunity rules or ordinary commercial liability. The common-carrier duty also applies here. Texas law holds common carriers — buses that carry passengers for a fee or as part of their operation — to the highest degree of care consistent with the practical operation of the business. That is a higher standard than ordinary negligence, and it means the bus operator’s duty to its passengers was not just “reasonable care” but the utmost care the law recognizes.
The vehicle manufacturer. The 2016 Ford F-350 was the at-fault vehicle. The manufacturer of that pickup — Ford Motor Company, a tier-mega automaker — is a potential defendant if the evidence shows that a design choice, a manufacturing defect, or a missing safety technology contributed to the crash or to the severity of the harm. The product-liability analysis in a wrong-way crash is complex: the primary cause is the driver’s conduct, not the vehicle’s design. But advanced safety technologies — automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane departure prevention — exist on many 2016-model-year vehicles, and whether the F-350 was equipped with them, whether they functioned, and whether a different design could have prevented or mitigated the collision are questions that require forensic investigation. Under the crashworthiness doctrine — the principle that a manufacturer has a duty to design a vehicle that protects occupants in a foreseeable collision — the analysis extends to whether the vehicle’s structure performed as it should have. This is not a theory we assert lightly. It is a theory we investigate with engineers, and it is one that can add a deep-pocket defendant with coverage far beyond any individual driver’s auto policy.
The coverage tower. Understanding who pays means understanding the layers. A personal auto policy is the first rung. UM/UIM is the second. A commercial bus policy — if one exists — is a third. An excess or umbrella policy sits above. And a manufacturer’s corporate insurance or self-insured retention is a fourth layer entirely. Each layer has its own adjuster, its own defense counsel, and its own strategy for paying as little as possible. In a mass-casualty event, the allocation of limited insurance among multiple claimants is itself a battleground — and the families who move first, with counsel, often recover more than those who wait.
Texas Law After a Wrong-Way Collision: Your Rights, Your Deadline, Your Recovery
Texas law gives families real power after a wrong-way crash — but it also gives them deadlines that are unforgiving, and the insurance company knows every one of them.
The two-year statute of limitations. Texas’s statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death gives you two years from the date of the crash — or the date of death — to file a lawsuit. This is not a soft deadline. Miss it, and the case is over, no matter how strong the evidence is. Two years sounds like a long time when you are standing in a hospital hallway. It is not. Medical treatment takes months. Evidence disappears faster than anyone expects. Insurance adjusters string families along with promises of a settlement that never comes, and by the time the family realizes the promise was empty, the deadline has passed. The date of the crash was the day the clock started — and it is already ticking.
If a governmental entity is involved — the six-month notice trap. If the buses were owned or operated by a school district or another governmental unit, the Texas Tort Claims Act requires written notice of the claim within six months of the incident. Six months. That is not the deadline to file a lawsuit — it is the deadline to give formal notice, a procedural step that most families do not even know exists. Miss it, and the governmental entity can argue the claim is barred entirely. This is the kind of deadline that kills cases before they start, and it is the kind of thing an adjuster hopes you never learn about.
Modified comparative fault — the 51 percent bar. Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule. If you were partly at fault for the crash, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault — but only up to a point. If you are found to be 51 percent or more at fault, you cannot recover anything. In a wrong-way collision, the at-fault driver bears the overwhelming majority of fault — wrong-way driving on an interstate is about as clear-cut as negligence gets. But the defense will look for any angle to pin percentage points on the victims: Were the bus headlights on? Was the bus driver speeding? Could the bus driver have avoided the pickup? Every percentage point they can pin on the victims is money off the recovery, which is why the defense works so hard to find fault on the other side.
Wrongful death and survival — two separate claims. Texas law treats a death as two distinct causes of action. A wrongful death claim belongs to the surviving family — the spouse, children, and parents of the person who died. It compensates the family for what they lost: the financial support the deceased would have provided, the care and guidance, the companionship and society, and the mental anguish of the loss. A survival claim belongs to the estate of the deceased person. It compensates what the deceased person suffered between the injury and death — pain, fear, medical expenses, funeral costs. These are separate claims with separate beneficiaries and separate damage calculations, and both must be pursued. A family that files only the wrongful death claim leaves money on the table — the pain and suffering the deceased experienced before death, which can be substantial in a crash where death was not instantaneous.
Exemplary damages. Texas allows punitive damages — called exemplary damages — in cases of gross negligence. Wrong-way driving on an interstate at highway speeds, without a seatbelt, may meet that standard. If the driver was intoxicated, if he was experiencing a known medical episode and drove anyway, or if the facts show a conscious disregard for the safety of others, exemplary damages may be available. Against the at-fault driver’s estate, exemplary damages are capped by statute. Against a corporate defendant — a manufacturer, a bus company — the analysis is different and the exposure can be far larger.
The Evidence That Is Already Dying — and What We Do About It
This is the section that decides whether a case is built on proof or on hope. Every wrong-way collision case lives or dies on evidence that exists right now, today, and that is being erased on a schedule the insurance company knows and most families do not.
The event data recorder — the black box — in the Ford F-350. Since 2012, federal regulations require that passenger vehicles and light trucks capture crash data: speed in the seconds before impact, brake application, throttle position, steering input, seatbelt status, and airbag deployment timing. The 2016 F-350 almost certainly has an EDR. That recorder captured the pickup’s speed, whether the driver ever hit the brakes, and whether the seatbelt was buckled in the final seconds. But EDR data is fragile. If the vehicle is moved, if the airbag control module is replaced, if the battery is reconnected or disconnected, the data can be corrupted or overwritten. The vehicle is evidence — and it must be preserved before it is repaired, sold for salvage, or crushed. A preservation letter demanding the vehicle be held and the EDR imaged goes out the day you call us.
The EDR data in the buses. If the buses were late-model vehicles, they may also carry event data recorders. The bus EDRs would show the bus’s speed, whether the driver braked or swerved, and the exact moment of impact — data that either confirms the bus driver’s attempt to avoid the collision or reveals something the defense does not want surfaced. School bus EDR data is governed by the same federal standards and the same preservation urgency.
The crash scene — and its clock. The Texas Department of Public Safety completed its crash report (the CR-3), and that report is a public record. But the physical scene — skid marks, gouge marks in the pavement, debris patterns, fluid trails, the final resting positions of the vehicles — is ephemeral. The highway was cleaned and reopened. The tire marks faded. The only permanent record of the scene is what DPS documented, what witnesses photographed, and what any dashcam or surveillance camera captured. That footage, if it exists, is on its own clock: business security systems overwrite in days to weeks, and dashcam footage from passing vehicles is gone unless someone saved it.
Toxicology and the autopsy. The wrong-way driver was killed. An autopsy may have been performed, and toxicology screens may reveal whether alcohol, drugs, or a medical condition caused or contributed to the wrong-way driving. That report is a public record in Texas, but it takes time to complete — and it is the single most important document for determining whether this was gross negligence, an intoxication case, or a medical event. If the driver had a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit, the case for exemplary damages strengthens dramatically. If a medical event caused the wrong-way driving — a stroke, a seizure, a diabetic episode — the liability analysis shifts, potentially toward the driver’s physician or the driver’s own knowledge of a condition that made driving dangerous.
Cell phone records. Was the wrong-way driver on his phone in the minutes before the crash? Was he texting, calling, or using an app? Cell phone records establish distraction, and they are obtainable through subpoena — but they must be preserved. Carriers retain text message content for limited periods (often 90 days or less) and call detail records for longer. The preservation demand to the carrier goes out early.
The witness statements. The couple who was 200 yards ahead of the buses saw the semi swerve, saw the pickup pass them, and saw the collision in their rearview mirror. The semi truck driver saw the wrong-way pickup before anyone else. Other drivers on I-20 at 4:02 p.m. may have witnessed the approach. These witnesses’ memories degrade quickly. A statement taken in the first week is far more detailed and reliable than one taken six months later. The insurance company’s investigators are already talking to witnesses — and their questions are framed to build the defense’s narrative, not yours.
The post-crash drug and alcohol testing. If the buses were commercial vehicles, federal regulations may have required post-accident testing of the bus driver. The results — or the absence of testing — are evidence. The testing windows are tight: under FMCSA rules, alcohol testing must be attempted within 8 hours and controlled-substance testing within 32 hours, or the employer must document in writing why it was not done. Whether these rules applied depends on whether the buses were commercial vehicles subject to federal regulation or school buses operated under a different framework.
The clock on all of it. Here is the hard truth: the evidence that proves your case is dying on multiple clocks right now. EDR data can be overwritten or destroyed. Surveillance footage overwrites in days. The crash scene is already gone. Witness memories are fading. Cell phone records are aging out. Toxicology results are pending. The insurance company knows every one of these clocks, and their strategy is often to let them run — because every day you wait is a day the evidence gets weaker. The preservation letter — the formal demand that evidence be frozen — is the single most important document in the first 72 hours, and it goes out the day you call.
The Medicine of a Highway-Speed Head-On Collision
A head-on collision at interstate speed produces injury patterns that are different from every other kind of crash — and the medicine of those injuries is the foundation of what the case is worth.
The physics of the body in a head-on crash. When two vehicles collide head-on at highway speeds, the occupants’ bodies experience a change in velocity — what crash investigators call delta-V — that is violent and instantaneous. The seatbelt catches the torso, but the head continues forward, then snaps back. The brain, floating in cerebrospinal fluid, strikes the inside of the skull — first on the side facing the impact, then on the opposite side. That is a coup-contrecoup brain injury, and it can happen even when the head never strikes a surface. The rapid deceleration also tears the brain’s white-matter tracts — the wiring that connects one region to another — in a process called diffuse axonal injury. This microscopic tearing is invisible on a standard CT scan, which is why a “clean” ER scan does not mean the brain is fine.
Traumatic brain injury — the invisible catastrophe. Among the thirteen injured band members, the two who were flown to Lubbock likely had the most severe injuries, and traumatic brain injury is a leading candidate. A “mild” traumatic brain injury — the word “mild” is a triage term, not a description of the life that follows — can come with a perfectly normal initial scan and still produce headaches, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, personality changes, and emotional dysregulation that last for months, years, or permanently. At least one in seven people with a so-called mild TBI never fully recovers. For a teenager whose brain is still developing, the long-term consequences can be profound — and they may not be apparent until the student returns to school and cannot perform at the level they did before the crash. Brain injury cases require neuropsychological testing, advanced imaging (diffusion tensor imaging and susceptibility-weighted MRI), and the testimony of people who knew the person before — teachers, coaches, parents — to prove the deficit is new.
Spinal and orthopedic injuries. The forces in a head-on collision compress the spine, fracture bones, and tear ligaments. Compression fractures of the thoracic and lumbar spine are common in frontal impacts. The seatbelt itself, while life-saving, concentrates force across the chest and abdomen and can produce rib fractures, sternal fractures, and internal organ injury. In teenagers whose bones are still growing, growth-plate fractures can affect future development. Orthopedic injuries that require surgical fixation — plates, screws, rods — come with a lifetime of hardware, potential revision surgeries, and accelerated arthritis in the affected joints.
Internal organ injury. The seatbelt, the steering column, the dashboard, and the rapid deceleration can rupture the spleen, lacerate the liver, tear the bowel, or cause a traumatic aortic injury. Internal bleeding can be slow and initially silent — which is why every crash patient with significant mechanism needs a CT scan of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis, not just the areas that hurt. The two patients flown to Lubbock may have had internal injuries that required emergency surgery — and the time between injury and surgery is a factor in both survival and long-term outcome.
The psychological injury. Thirteen teenagers watched their bus driver die. They felt the impact. They smelled the fuel and the smoke. They were separated from their parents and taken to a hospital they did not know. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a medical diagnosis with defined criteria, and it is the most common psychological injury after a severe motor-vehicle crash. For adolescents, the mental-health impact can be as disabling as the physical injuries — affecting sleep, school performance, social relationships, and future driving ability. These injuries are real, they are diagnosable, and they are compensable. The defense will call them “subjective” — the counter is the medical literature, the validated screening instruments, and the treating clinician’s testimony.
The trauma-flight distance — Big Spring to Lubbock. Scenic Mountain Medical Center in Big Spring is a community hospital. It is not a trauma center. The nearest Level I trauma center is University Medical Center in Lubbock, roughly 100 miles north by air. That flight — 45 to 60 minutes by helicopter — is time during which a critically injured patient is in advanced life support, but it is also time during which the injuries are progressing. The golden hour of trauma care is the concept that survival drops sharply after the first hour. For the two patients who were flown, that helicopter ride was the difference between life and death — and the fact that Big Spring does not have a closer trauma center is a geographic reality that shaped the medical outcome, and therefore the damages.
The long arc. A teenager who leaves the hospital with a broken arm and a concussion may seem “recovered” in six weeks. The concussion symptoms may persist for months. The arm may heal with a permanent loss of range of motion. The PTSD may surface weeks later, when the nightmares start. The medical timeline of a crash injury is not the hospital stay — it is the years that follow, and a case that settles before the full extent of the injuries is known is a case that settles for a fraction of what it is worth.
The Money: Insurance Coverage, Damages, and What a Case Like This Is Worth
This is the section where we are most honest, because honesty about money is what separates a protector from a salesman. We cannot tell you what your specific case is worth without reviewing the facts — but we can tell you how the number is built, where the money comes from, and what the insurance company will try to do to shrink it.
The at-fault driver’s auto insurance. Texas requires drivers to carry minimum liability coverage of $30,000 per injured person and $60,000 per accident. Some drivers carry more — $100,000, $300,000, $500,000, or higher. In a crash with three deaths and thirteen injuries, even a $500,000 policy is a fraction of the total loss. The at-fault driver’s insurer will place all claimants in a single pool and force them to share it — which means the families who act first and have the strongest representation often recover a larger share. If the driver carried only minimum coverage, the pool is $60,000 total for all bodily injury claims — an amount that could be exhausted by a single ICU stay.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. This is the coverage most families do not think about until they need it — and then it becomes the most important policy on the table. UM/UIM coverage steps in when the at-fault driver’s insurance is inadequate or nonexistent. In Texas, insurers must offer UM/UIM unless you rejected it in writing. The families of the injured band members may have UM/UIM coverage on their own auto policies that can stack on top of the at-fault driver’s limits. The bus insurance may also carry UM/UIM or med-pay provisions. Every policy that might apply must be identified and read — because the insurance company will not volunteer coverage that you do not ask for.
The bus insurance. If the buses were owned by a school district, the district’s liability is governed by the Texas Tort Claims Act, which caps damages against governmental units. If the buses were insured through a commercial policy — as many school transportation operations are — the commercial policy limits may be far higher, potentially $1 million, $5 million, or more, depending on the fleet coverage. If a charter company owned the buses, the commercial general liability and auto liability towers could be substantial. Identifying the bus insurance is its own investigation, and it is one the insurance company will not help you with.
The manufacturer’s coverage. If the evidence supports a product-liability claim against Ford Motor Company as the manufacturer of the F-350, the coverage picture changes entirely. A tier-mega automaker does not rely on a $30,000 auto policy. Ford carries layered commercial insurance, self-insured retentions, and excess towers that are measured in the tens or hundreds of millions. A viable product-liability theory does not just add a defendant — it adds a coverage tier that dwarfs every other policy in the case.
How the number is built. A wrongful death claim compensates the family for: lost financial support (what the deceased would have earned and contributed to the family over their expected lifetime), lost care and maintenance (the value of the services the deceased provided — childcare, household management, emotional support), lost companionship and society, mental anguish, and (in cases of gross negligence) exemplary damages. A survival claim compensates the estate for: the deceased’s pain and suffering between injury and death, medical expenses incurred before death, and funeral costs. For the injured survivors, the damages include: past and future medical expenses, past and future lost earnings and earning capacity, physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, and future medical care — including a life-care plan if the injuries are catastrophic.
What a catastrophic injury costs. A severe traumatic brain injury can require a lifetime of care — rehabilitation, neuropsychological therapy, medication, assisted living, lost earning capacity — that runs into the millions. A spinal cord injury’s lifetime cost, depending on severity and age at injury, can exceed $3 million to $6 million in medical and living expenses alone, before a single lost paycheck is counted. The firm has recovered $5 million-plus in a brain-injury settlement, $3.8 million-plus in an amputation settlement, and $2.5 million-plus in a truck-crash recovery. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes — but those numbers tell you the scale at which these cases operate when the evidence is preserved and the fight is waged correctly.
The mass-casualty allocation problem. In a crash with sixteen victims and a limited insurance pool, the question is not just “what is my case worth” but “what share of the available coverage can I recover?” The at-fault driver’s insurer will try to settle with multiple claimants simultaneously, offering each family a fraction of the policy limits and requiring a release that extinguishes all future claims. Families who accept early offers without understanding the full extent of their injuries or the full scope of available coverage often receive pennies on the dollar. The allocation of coverage among claimants is a negotiation, and it is one where experienced counsel can make a dramatic difference.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook — and How to Counter Every Move
Lupe Peña sat in the rooms where these decisions were made. He knows the playbook from the inside. Here are the plays the insurance company is running right now — and the counter to each one.
Play 1: The friendly “just checking in” call. Within days of the crash, an adjuster will call. The voice will be warm, concerned, sympathetic. The purpose is to get you talking — on a recorded line — about how you are feeling, what you remember, and what happened. Every word you say is being transcribed and cataloged for use against you later. If you say “I’m doing okay,” that becomes “the plaintiff reported she was fine three days after the crash.” If you describe the collision in your own words, any inconsistency with the police report becomes a credibility attack at trial.
The counter: Do not give a recorded statement. You are not required to. The adjuster is not your friend — they are a professional whose job is to reduce what the company pays. Say: “I am not prepared to give a recorded statement. I will have my attorney contact you.” Then call us.
Play 2: The fast check with a release. A check may arrive quickly — sometimes within weeks — with a release form that, if signed, extinguishes your right to sue for the rest of your life. The amount will seem meaningful in the moment, especially when medical bills are piling up. It is almost always a fraction of what the case is worth. The insurer sends it before the full extent of your injuries is known, because once you sign, they never have to pay another dime — even if your child’s concussion turns out to be a permanent brain injury.
The counter: Never sign a release without having an attorney read it. A check that arrives in the first month is designed to close your case before you know what you have lost. What you should not say to an insurance adjuster is only half the battle — what you should not sign is the other half.
Play 3: The medical authorization form. The adjuster will ask you to sign a medical authorization so they can “verify your injuries.” The form they send is often broad — authorizing release of your entire medical history, not just the records related to the crash. Once they have your full medical file, they will mine it for pre-existing conditions to argue your injuries were not caused by the collision. A headache you had three years ago becomes “pre-existing condition.” A prior back injury becomes “degenerative, not traumatic.”
The counter: Do not sign a blanket medical authorization. Provide only the records related to the crash — and let your attorney control what is produced and when.
Play 4: The social media surveillance. The insurance company is monitoring the social media accounts of every injured person and every grieving family. A photograph of a teenager smiling at a birthday party becomes “evidence” that the brain injury is not real. A post about a family outing becomes proof that the “mental anguish” is exaggerated. Investigators may also conduct in-person surveillance — filming the injured person in public, waiting for a moment that looks like normal function.
The counter: Set every social media account to private. Do not post about the crash, the injuries, the recovery, or the legal case. Do not discuss the case in public. Assume you are being watched, because you may be.
Play 5: The “he was not wearing a seatbelt” argument. The wrong-way driver was reportedly not wearing a seatbelt. The insurance company for the at-fault driver may try to use this fact to reduce the driver’s own share of fault — or, in a more perverse move, to argue that the bus passengers’ injuries were worsened by their own failure to use available restraints. On a school bus, the question of whether seatbelts were present and used is a factual question that requires investigation — and if the buses lacked seatbelts that should have been present under safety standards, that is a separate liability theory against the bus owner.
The counter: The failure of the at-fault driver to wear a seatbelt is evidence of his own negligence, not a defense against the harm he caused. The injuries to the bus passengers were caused by his wrong-way driving, not by anything they did or did not do. Comparative-fault arguments in a wrong-way crash are defense theater — but they must be answered seriously, because every percentage point is money.
Play 6: The delay. The most powerful play in the insurance industry is the clock. They know your medical bills are mounting. They know you may be missing work. They know the financial pressure of a catastrophic injury is crushing. They stall — requesting more documentation, asking for additional examinations, sending form letters that go nowhere — hoping the financial pressure forces you to accept a low offer. Meanwhile, the real clock — the statute of limitations — is ticking, and the evidence is dying.
The counter: Do not wait. The day you call a lawyer is the day the insurance company’s delay strategy stops working. The preservation letter goes out. The evidence is frozen. The insurer knows the case is being built, not drifted toward. How contingency fees work means it costs you nothing to have that pressure applied from day one.
How a Wrong-Way Collision Case Is Actually Built
Here is the chronological walk — the way a case moves from the day of the crash to the day a family receives compensation — told by people who have run it.
Week one: preservation. The preservation letter goes out to every entity that holds evidence — the at-fault driver’s insurance company (demanding the vehicle and EDR be preserved), the bus owner (demanding the buses, their maintenance records, and their EDR data be held), the Texas Department of Public Safety (demanding the crash report and all investigative materials), any business near the crash scene with surveillance cameras, and the cell phone carriers. Every letter is a formal demand that evidence be frozen. Every letter that goes out creates a legal consequence if the evidence disappears — a spoliation claim that can result in an adverse-inference instruction, telling the jury they may assume the lost evidence was as bad for the defense as the plaintiff says.
Weeks two through eight: investigation. The crash report is obtained and analyzed. The vehicles are inspected — by a forensic engineer if the case warrants it — and the EDR data is downloaded using specialized crash-data-retrieval equipment. The scene is mapped, the vehicles are photographed, and the physical evidence is documented. The autopsy and toxicology reports for the at-fault driver are obtained. The bus maintenance records and driver qualification files are subpoenaed. Cell phone records are obtained through subpoena. Every witness who was identified in the crash report is located and interviewed — by our investigator, not the insurance company’s.
Months two through six: medical development. The injured victims continue treatment. We track every medical record, every imaging study, every specialist consultation. For catastrophic injuries, a life-care planner is retained to project the lifetime cost of medical care, rehabilitation, equipment, and support. A forensic economist is retained to calculate the present value of lost earnings and earning capacity. For brain injuries, neuropsychological testing is arranged to document the cognitive deficits. For psychological injuries, a treating therapist or psychiatrist documents the diagnosis and treatment plan. The full extent of the injuries is not known for months — and settling before that picture is complete is the most common mistake families make.
Months six through twelve: discovery and depositions. If the case is in litigation, written discovery is served — interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission. The defense produces documents. Depositions are taken — of the insurance adjuster, of the bus company’s safety director, of the responding officers, of the medical providers, of the defense’s expert witnesses. The depositions are where the defense’s narrative is tested under oath, and where the plaintiff’s proof is locked in.
Year one through two: resolution. Most cases resolve through settlement or mediation before trial. Some go to trial. The timeline depends on the court’s docket, the complexity of the case, and the willingness of the defense to acknowledge what the evidence proves. Throughout, the decision to settle or try is the family’s — made with full information about the evidence, the risks, and the value.
The First 72 Hours: What to Do, What to Refuse, What to Preserve
If you are reading this in the days after the crash, here is what matters right now.
Medical care first — and why symptoms lie. If you or your child was in the crash and has not been evaluated by a physician, go. Today. Not next week. Some of the most serious injuries — traumatic brain injuries, internal bleeding, spinal damage — do not produce immediate symptoms. Adrenaline masks pain. A teenager who says “I’m fine” may have a brain bleed that does not manifest until hours later. The medical record from the day of the crash is also evidence — it documents the injury at its freshest, before the defense can argue it came from something else.
Do not give a recorded statement. Not to the at-fault driver’s insurance company. Not to your own insurance company without counsel. Not to anyone who calls and says they “just need to ask a few questions.” Every word is being recorded and cataloged.
Do not sign anything. Not a release. Not a medical authorization. Not a settlement offer. Not a letter from the insurance company. Not a document from the bus company or the school district. If someone puts a document in front of you and tells you it is routine, do not sign it until an attorney has read it.
Do not post on social media. Not about the crash. Not about your injuries. Not about how you are feeling. Not a photograph. Not a comment on someone else’s post about the crash. Set your accounts to private. Assume everything you post will be shown to a jury.
Preserve everything you can. Photograph the injuries — bruises, lacerations, casts — and keep taking photographs as they heal. Save every medical document, every bill, every discharge instruction. If your child’s teacher or coach has mentioned changes in performance or behavior since the crash, write it down. If you have the crash report, keep a copy. If there are photographs from the scene, save them. If the bus company or school has sent you any correspondence, keep it.
When someone has died: the personal representative. Before a wrongful death lawsuit can be filed, the court appoints a personal representative — the person authorized to bring the family’s claim. If the deceased left a will, the executor named in the will typically serves. If there is no will, the court appoints an administrator. This is a procedural step, but it is one that must be done correctly and early — because the statute of limitations does not pause while the family grieves. We handle this appointment as part of the representation.
Call us. The call is free. The consultation is free. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The day you call is the day the preservation letter goes out, the evidence starts being frozen, and the insurance company’s delay strategy stops working. Contact us or call 1-888-ATTY-911. We answer 24 hours a day, seven days a week — not with an answering service, but with live staff who know what you are going through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still sue if the wrong-way driver was killed in the crash?
Yes. The at-fault driver’s death does not extinguish his liability. His estate stands in his place, and his auto insurance policy remains in force. The policy limits are the first layer of recovery. If those limits are inadequate — and in a mass-casualty crash they almost always are — additional sources of recovery may include your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, the bus insurance, and potentially a product-liability claim against the vehicle manufacturer. The fact that the driver is dead makes the case more complex, not impossible.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit in Texas?
Texas’s statute of limitations gives you two years from the date of the crash — or the date of death — to file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. If a governmental entity such as a school district may be a defendant, a separate notice deadline of six months applies under the Texas Tort Claims Act. These deadlines are not flexible. Missing them ends the case permanently, no matter how strong the evidence is.
What if the wrong-way driver only had minimum insurance?
Texas requires minimum liability coverage of $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. In a crash with three deaths and thirteen injuries, that pool is catastrophically inadequate. But minimum insurance is not the end of the road. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage — which you may have on your own auto policy and which may exist on the bus policy — steps in when the at-fault driver’s insurance is not enough. Identifying every source of coverage is one of the most important things we do in the first weeks of a case.
My child was treated at the hospital and released. Is the case over?
No — and this is one of the most dangerous assumptions a family can make. A teenager who is released from the emergency department with a “mild” concussion and some bruises may seem fine. But brain injuries can worsen over days, and the cognitive and emotional effects may not surface until the student returns to school and cannot concentrate, cannot remember, or cannot control their emotions the way they did before. The medical timeline of a crash injury is not the hospital stay — it is the months and years that follow. Do not settle the case until the full extent of the injuries is known.
The insurance company already offered us a check. Should we take it?
Almost certainly not — not without having an attorney review it. Early offers are designed to close your case before you know the full value. The insurer sends a check in the first weeks because they know that once you sign the release, they never have to pay again — even if your child’s injuries turn out to be permanent. The check feels meaningful when medical bills are mounting. It is almost always a fraction of what the case is worth. Have the offer reviewed before you sign anything.
Do I need a lawyer if the crash was clearly the other driver’s fault?
Fault is not the question in a wrong-way crash — it is obvious. The questions are: How much insurance is available? What is the full extent of the injuries? What is the case worth? And how do you make sure the available coverage is allocated fairly among all the victims? In a mass-casualty crash with limited insurance, the families who have experienced counsel recover more than those who do not — not because the lawyer manufactures the claim, but because the lawyer identifies coverage the insurer will not volunteer, preserves evidence before it disappears, and prevents the family from accepting a fraction of what the case is worth.
What if the bus was owned by the school district?
If the buses were owned and operated by a school district, the Texas Tort Claims Act governs claims against that governmental entity. The Act requires written notice within six months of the incident — a deadline most families do not know about — and caps the damages that can be recovered. The caps are real, but they do not eliminate the case. They do mean that the notice deadline is shorter and the procedural requirements are stricter, which makes early legal help even more critical.
Was the wrong-way driver suicidal?
The question of whether the driver intended to harm himself was raised by a witness at the scene. That is a question the investigation must answer — through the autopsy, the toxicology, the driver’s medical and mental-health history, and his cell phone and computer records. If the driver was suicidal, the case for gross negligence — and potentially exemplary damages — strengthens. If a medical event caused the wrong-way driving, the liability analysis shifts. Either way, the answer is in the evidence, and the evidence is on a clock.
How much does it cost to hire Attorney911?
Nothing upfront. We work on contingency — we do not get paid unless we win your case. Our fee is 33.33 percent of the recovery before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. The consultation is free. The call is free. The preservation letter goes out at our expense. You do not write us a check. We only get paid if you do.
Do you speak Spanish?
Yes. Lupe Peña is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. Our staff is bilingual. If your family prays in Spanish, we speak your language. Hablamos Español.
Why People Call Attorney911
Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — which means he asks the right questions, in the right order, and he does not stop until the story is told completely. He is admitted to the State Bar of Texas (Bar #24007597, licensed November 6, 1998) and the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He hates losing more than he likes winning, and the difference shows in every case.
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. He knows how the reserve is set in the first 48 hours — before the real injuries are diagnosed. He knows how the recorded-statement call is engineered to get you to say “I’m feeling okay.” He knows how the quick check arrives with a release printed on the back before the MRI results do. He knows all of it because he used to do it — and now he uses that knowledge for injured families. Lupe is admitted to the State Bar of Texas (Bar #24084332, licensed December 6, 2012) and the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas. He is a third-generation Texan, and he conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
The firm has recovered more than $50 million for clients. That figure includes a $5 million-plus brain-injury settlement, a $3.8 million-plus amputation settlement, and a $2.5 million-plus truck-crash recovery. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes — but those numbers tell you the scale at which we operate and the level of fight we bring.
We are based in Houston with offices in Austin and Beaumont, and we take wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases across Texas — including Howard County and the West Texas communities along I-20. The call is free. The consultation is free. We do not get paid unless we win your case.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. We answer 24 hours a day, seven days a week — live, not a machine.
This page is legal information, not legal advice. Every case is different. Contacting the firm is free and confidential. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.