Texas auto minimums: what 30/60/25 covers and what it doesn't

Texas law requires every driver to show they can pay for the accidents they cause, and almost everyone does that with a liability policy of at least 30/60/25 (Texas Transportation Code, Sec. 601.051). Those three numbers are the floor, not a recommendation, and the floor was set in 2011 when cars and hospital bills cost a lot less. If you carry only the minimum, you’re legal. You’re also one bad afternoon away from a bill the policy won’t pay.

Here’s what the numbers mean, where they run out, and two coverages you probably have without realizing it.

What 30/60/25 actually means

The Texas Transportation Code sets the minimum liability limits at “$30,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person in one collision,” “$60,000 for bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in one collision,” and “$25,000 for damage to or destruction of property of others in one collision” (Texas Transportation Code, Sec. 601.072).

Limit	Amount	What it pays for
Bodily injury, per person	$30,000	Medical bills and related losses for one person you injure
Bodily injury, per accident	$60,000	Total for everyone you injure in one crash
Property damage	$25,000	The other driver’s car and anything else you hit

The important word is “others.” Liability coverage pays the people you hurt and the property you damage. It pays nothing toward your own car, your own medical bills, or your own lost wages. Those come from other parts of the policy.

Where the minimums run out

Suppose you rear-end a two-year-old pickup worth $48,000 on I-35 and total it. The numbers here are made up to show the math. Your property damage limit is $25,000. The other $23,000 is yours to pay.

Now add injuries. The driver and passenger each go to the ER, and one needs surgery. Bills come in at $45,000 for one and $20,000 for the other, $65,000 total. Your per-person limit caps the first claim at $30,000. The second claim is under the per-person limit, and the two together ($50,000) are under the $60,000 per-accident cap. So the policy pays $50,000 of the $65,000, and you owe the rest.

Between the truck and the injuries, that’s $38,000 out of your own pocket from one ordinary crash. If it goes to a lawsuit, the number can be much larger. Anything the policy doesn’t cover is your personal responsibility, and a judgment for the difference can follow you for years.

Raising liability limits is the fix. For many drivers, going from 30/60/25 to 100/300/100 adds less to the premium than they expect, but it varies by carrier and driver. Ask for the quote at both levels and compare.

UM/UIM: the coverage for when the other driver has nothing

Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage pays your bills when “you’re hit by someone who didn’t have insurance or didn’t have enough to pay your medical and car repair bills,” and it also covers hit-and-run (TDI, 2025). If the other driver is carrying the state minimum and you’re badly hurt, this is the coverage that can fill the gap between their $30,000 and your bills, up to your own UM/UIM limit.

Texas law requires insurers to include it on every auto policy. The coverage “does not apply if any insured named in the insurance policy rejects the coverage in writing” (Texas Insurance Code, Sec. 1952.101). The rejection carries forward, too. Once you sign it with a carrier, the coverage stays off your renewals with that insurer or its affiliates unless you ask in writing to add it back.

So if you ever signed a stack of forms at a quote desk to shave a few dollars, it’s worth checking whether UM/UIM was one of the things you signed away. Pull your declarations page and look for it.

PIP: the coverage that pays you, no matter who’s at fault

Personal injury protection pays “your and your passengers’ medical bills. But it also pays for things like lost wages and other nonmedical costs” (TDI, 2025). It pays regardless of who caused the crash, and the insurer has to pay within 30 days of getting satisfactory proof of the claim (Texas Insurance Code, Sec. 1952.156).

Like UM/UIM, PIP is on every Texas policy by default. An insurer may not issue an auto policy “unless the insurer provides personal injury protection coverage,” and the coverage “does not apply if any insured named in the insurance policy rejects the coverage in writing” (Texas Insurance Code, Sec. 1952.152). The law only requires the insurer to provide up to $2,500 per person, so $2,500 is the basic PIP limit you’ll usually see (Texas Insurance Code, Sec. 1952.153). You can usually buy more, and it’s worth asking what higher limits cost.

$2,500 doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the difference between a co-pay you can cover and one you can’t in the week after a crash. And because it pays lost wages, it matters most for people who don’t get paid when they can’t work.

The rejection-in-writing rule, in plain terms

The rule works in your favor. Both UM/UIM and PIP are on unless they were taken off, and taking them off requires a written rejection from a named insured on the policy. That can be you or anyone else named on it, so a spouse’s signature counts. That means:

• If you never signed a rejection, you have them, even if you didn’t ask for them.
• If a quote looks unusually cheap, check whether the agent removed these coverages to get the number down.
• If you rejected them years ago, you can add them back with a written request.

What to do next

1. Find your declarations page and confirm three things: your liability limits, whether UM/UIM is listed, and whether PIP is listed and at what amount.
2. Price your policy at 100/300/100 and compare it with what you pay now. The difference is often smaller than the exposure it removes.
3. If UM/UIM or PIP is missing, ask your carrier in writing to add it.
4. An independent agent can quote the same limits across several carriers, since the cost of higher liability can vary quite a bit from one company to another.