I was hurt near Cincinnati Street or UTEP in El Paso. What should I know?
- Texas Attorney
- Yale B.A. · University of Houston Law Center J.D.
- Habla español
- Updated October 1, 2026
Crashes around the Cincinnati Street entertainment district often involve drunk drivers, pedestrians and rideshare pickups, and each one changes who pays. A bar that kept serving an obviously intoxicated customer can be responsible under Texas dram shop law. If a City of El Paso vehicle or Sun Metro bus was involved, sworn notice to the mayor is due within 90 days. Bar and business video is often kept only for days.
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A few blocks where El Paso goes out at night
The Cincinnati Entertainment District sits in Kern Place, near UTEP, and its bars and restaurants draw students from UTEP, El Paso Community College and New Mexico State, along with everyone else out on a weekend night. The city has spent money on the district over the years — wider sidewalks and lighting, and a parking benefit district created in 2018 that uses meter revenue for security and other improvements — and TxDOT has added pedestrian crossings, raised medians and signals on nearby Mesa Street.
Places like this produce a particular set of injuries: people hit crossing at night, crashes involving drivers who had been drinking, and collisions around rideshare pickups at closing time. Each of those changes who can be responsible and which insurance pays.
When the driver had been drinking
A driver who was drunk is responsible for what they caused, and in Texas that can include punitive damages. But the driver may not be the only one. Under the Texas dram shop law, a bar or restaurant can be liable if it kept serving someone who was obviously intoxicated to the point of being a danger, and that intoxication caused the crash.
That claim is built from evidence that disappears fast: how long the driver was there, what was on the tab or the card receipt, what staff saw, and security video that many businesses keep only for days. If you know or suspect where the driver had been drinking, that is important information.
Hit while walking
A driver must yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk when the pedestrian has the right of way, and every driver owes due care to people on foot. Late-night crashes often come down to lighting, speed, where the crossing was and whether the driver braked. If you were hit while walking, your own auto policy — or one belonging to someone in your household — may cover you through personal injury protection and uninsured motorist coverage, even though you were not in a car.
Rideshare pickups
If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft, or by one, the insurance that applies depends on what the driver’s app showed at that moment. During a ride, Texas requires $1,000,000 in coverage. With the app on but no ride, the minimum is much lower. Screenshot the trip in the app as soon as you can.
Students
Many students are still covered on a parent’s auto policy. Depending on where the student is considered to live, that policy’s personal injury protection or medical payments coverage and its uninsured motorist coverage may apply even to a student living away from home. Students from out of state or from Mexico have the same rights after a crash in El Paso as anyone else.
City vehicles and Sun Metro
If a City of El Paso vehicle or a Sun Metro bus was involved, the clock is much shorter than two years. The city requires written, sworn notice to the mayor within 90 days, or six months for good cause.
Authority: Tex. Alco. Bev. Code §§ 2.01–2.03 (dram shop) · City of El Paso: filing a claim · KTSM: pedestrian improvements near the Cincinnati district
Your next steps, and ours
Get evaluated; say how it happened
On foot, in a rideshare, or in a car. Night-time pedestrian injuries are often worse than they look.
Call Jimmy
713-600-6233Bar and business video is often kept only for days, and a City or Sun Metro claim needs sworn notice within 90 days. Calling now lets us move on both.
Save the trip; note the bar
Screenshot the rideshare trip in the app. Write down where the driver had been drinking, if you know, and who saw it.
We find every source of coverage
The driver, a bar under dram shop law, the rideshare policy, and your own or a parent's PIP and uninsured motorist coverage.
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