Shaw Cowart is a trusted personal injury law firm serving Austin and Central Texas. Their legal team has extensive experience handling car accident cases, fighting to secure compensation that reflects the full extent of their clients' medical bills, property damage, and pain and suffering.
Specialization: Personal injury lawyers, car accidents, truck accidents, wrongful death, 18-wheeler accidents.
Why choose them? Shaw Cowart offers a complimentary initial consultation, and their attorneys are recognized for aggressively advocating for their clients' rights throughout the Austin area.
Austin has transformed from a laid-back college town into a booming metropolis, and its roads have struggled to keep pace. More drivers, more congestion, and more construction zones have turned everyday commutes into obstacle courses where accidents happen constantly. Understanding what causes car wrecks in Austin is critical for protecting yourself on the road and for building a strong legal case if you are injured. Austin car accident lawyers at Shaw Cowart have investigated thousands of crashes across Central Texas and have identified the dangerous patterns that drive the city's accident statistics year after year.
Whether your wreck happened on I-35 during rush hour, in a rainstorm on MoPac, or at a busy intersection along Lamar Boulevard, the cause of the accident directly impacts your legal rights and the compensation you can pursue. Experienced car accident attorneys in Austin at Shaw Cowart dig deep into the facts of every case to determine what went wrong and who is responsible. Their car wreck lawyers use that evidence to build claims that hold negligent drivers fully accountable.
If you have been hurt in an Austin car wreck, understanding the cause matters.The Austin car accident lawyers at Shaw Cowart will investigate your crash thoroughly and pursue maximum compensation.
Distracted driving is the leading cause of car accidents in Austin and across Texas. Texting, scrolling social media, adjusting GPS, eating, and talking on the phone all pull a driver's attention from the road at critical moments. Austin's hands-free ordinance bans handheld device use while driving, but enforcement is challenging and violations are rampant. A driver who glances at their phone for five seconds at 55 miles per hour covers the length of a football field without looking at the road.
Proving the other driver was distracted strengthens your claim significantly. Cell phone records, app usage data, text message timestamps, and witness testimony provide evidence of distraction. Lawyers at Shaw Cowart know how to obtain this evidence through legal discovery and use it effectively against the other driver's insurance company.
Austin's congestion frustrates drivers, and that frustration manifests as speeding and aggressive behavior. Tailgating, weaving through traffic, cutting off other drivers, and running yellow lights are all disturbingly common on MoPac, Highway 183, and Loop 360. Speed reduces a driver's ability to react, increases stopping distance, and exponentially increases the force of impact. When an aggressive driver causes a crash, the evidence of their behavior — witness observations, dashcam footage, and speed estimates from accident reconstruction — builds a strong liability case.
The massive I-35 expansion project has been a fixture of Austin driving for years, and the construction zones it creates are a major source of car accidents. Narrowed lanes, concrete barriers, shifted exits, reduced speed limits that many drivers ignore, and confusing detours all increase the risk of collisions. Drivers unfamiliar with the changing layout make sudden lane changes, miss exits, and stop unexpectedly, creating chain-reaction crashes in heavy traffic. Texas law imposes enhanced penalties for violations in construction zones, and negligence in a work zone may carry extra weight with a jury.
Austin's vibrant bar scene along Sixth Street, Rainey Street, and throughout the city makes drunk driving a persistent threat. Despite ride-sharing options, impaired drivers continue causing devastating crashes — particularly on weekend nights and during major events like SXSW, ACL, and F1 weekends. Alcohol impairs reaction time, judgment, and coordination, and crashes caused by drunk drivers tend to be more severe because the impaired driver often fails to brake before impact. Victims of drunk driving accidents may be entitled to punitive damages in addition to compensatory damages.
Austin drivers are notoriously unprepared for bad weather. Flash flooding during heavy rains, ice on bridges and overpasses during winter storms, and fog along Hill Country corridors all create hazardous conditions. Many drivers fail to reduce speed or increase following distance, leading to hydroplaning, loss-of-control crashes, and multi-vehicle pileups. While weather increases risk, it does not excuse negligent driving. Motorists have a legal duty to adjust their behavior for conditions.
Intersection accidents are a major source of serious injuries in Austin. Drivers who run red lights, blow through stop signs, or fail to yield during left turns cause violent T-bone collisions that strike the most vulnerable part of the other vehicle. Austin's growth has overwhelmed many intersections, increasing the frequency of these wrecks. Traffic camera footage and witness testimony are critical to establishing fault in these cases.
If you have been injured in an Austin car accident caused by any of these factors, Shaw Cowart's car wreck lawyers are ready to investigate and fight for full compensation. Contact the firm today for a free consultation.
