Four Hospitalized, Three Critical After I-35 Pileup Near Tradewind Drive

A multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 35 near Tradewind and Fourwinds drives sent four people to the hospital Friday afternoon, with three of them listed in critical condition, according to preliminary reports from San Antonio police and fire crews. The wreck was reported around 1:40 p.m. on the Northeast Side, and three of four lanes remained shut down as of 3:30 p.m. while emergency crews worked the scene.

The San Antonio Fire Department said four people were involved in the crash, and KSAT reported the incident was first called in at roughly 1:45 p.m. Friday. The Texas Department of Transportation confirmed that three of the four highway lanes stayed closed as crews cleared wreckage, and San Antonio police say they are still investigating what caused the collision. No cause-of-crash determination or details about the people involved had been released as of Friday afternoon.

Emergency personnel urged drivers to avoid the area while the scene was active, according to a separate report from KENS 5, which cited the same preliminary police and fire accounts describing three of the four hospitalized victims as critical. The extended lane closures compounded what is typically one of the busier stretches of highway on the Northeast Side, even without a crash in the mix.

A Crash Inside a Massive Construction Zone

The wreck happened along the footprint of TxDOT's $3.5 billion I-35 Northeast Expansion project, an initiative building elevated express lanes meant to improve safety and ease congestion across 20 miles of the corridor, the station's report on the ongoing project noted. The agency expects the first stretch of those elevated NEX lanes to open in early 2027, meaning drivers in this section of I-35 will keep navigating active construction for months to come.

That construction sits atop a corridor already carrying an enormous volume of traffic. Interstate 35 through Northeast San Antonio moves roughly 200,000 vehicles a day and serves as a critical freight route for goods heading north from the Port of Laredo, according to KSAT, which reported that daily traffic is projected to climb to 400,000 vehicles in coming years. Federal highway officials toured the local NEX construction site in July, underscoring how closely watched the project has become.

A Corridor With a Troubled Safety History

Local transportation analyses have long flagged I-35 as one of San Antonio's primary crash corridors, pointing to high-speed merging, heavy commercial truck traffic and severe daily bottlenecks near major loop interchanges, per an assessment from KRW Lawyers. The stretch where I-35 meets Loop 410 in particular creates frequent rear-end crash risks tied to high-volume merging.

Regional crash data compiled by TxDOT and cited on social media by regional transit advocates found 73 fatal collisions along I-35 between Bexar and Williamson counties in 2022 alone, averaging one fatal crash every five days along the corridor. Bexar County logged 48,522 total motor vehicle crashes in 2024, an average of roughly 133 a day, making it the second-highest county for total crash volume in Texas behind Harris County, according to data compiled by ThatCarHitMe.com. That same dataset counted 205 fatal crashes and 773 suspected serious injury collisions countywide that year.

Within San Antonio's city limits specifically, drivers reported 39,805 crashes in 2024, resulting in 162 fatal crashes and 170 traffic deaths, per the same ThatCarHitMe.com data hub, which noted that the city accounts for more than 80% of all reported crashes in Bexar County. Statewide, Texas traffic fatalities fell to 3,809 in 2025, an 8% decline from the year before, though Bexar County still ranked fourth among Texas counties with 190 traffic fatalities, according to data compiled by Angel Reyes & Associates.

What Happens Next

Under Texas Transportation Code § 550.062, officers investigating a crash involving injury, death or at least $1,000 in apparent property damage must electronically file a formal Peace Officer's Crash Report with TxDOT within 10 days, according to FindLaw's summary of the statute. Those reports are kept in the state's records system for 10 years, giving investigators and the public an eventual paper trail even when initial details are scarce.

Drivers passing stationary emergency or TxDOT vehicles with flashing lights are separately required under Texas Transportation Code § 545.157 to move over a lane or slow to 20 mph below the posted limit, with fines of up to $2,000 if a driver causes a crash that injures a responder, per a breakdown from The Safer Driver. That statute applies to police, fire, EMS, tow trucks and highway maintenance crews alike — all of whom were likely present at Friday's scene.

Friday's crash adds to a string of serious wrecks Hoodline has tracked along this stretch of I-35 in 2026, including a fatal SUV crash near O'Connor in July and an April wreck that killed a Schertz driver inside the same NEX construction corridor. San Antonio police have not released the identities of those hospitalized Friday or said what caused the collision, and it remains unclear whether work zone conditions played any role.