San Antonio police were called out for a welfare check just before 7 a.m. Saturday and instead found a man dead underneath a vehicle at an auto shop on Broadway. Officers arrived near Broadway Tire & Automotive at 3600 Broadway to discover the man had apparently climbed underneath the vehicle before he died, according to investigators on scene.
Police were dispatched at approximately 6:44 a.m. for the welfare check, and it was there that they found the man deceased beneath the vehicle, as reported by KENS 5. Investigators said the man appeared to have climbed under the vehicle before he was found, though officers have not said how long he may have been there or what he was doing underneath it. Broadway Tire & Automotive operates as an established repair facility along the busy Broadway corridor, offering routine tire and mechanical service, according to a SimpleTire listing for the business.
Cause of Death Still Under Investigation
No official cause of death has been released. Unattended deaths and non-hospital fatalities in San Antonio are referred to the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office, which performs autopsies and forensic analysis to determine the official cause and manner of death, per county procedure. Police have not said whether the man was an employee, a customer, or someone unconnected to the shop, and that detail remains an open question pending further investigation.
Investigators have not indicated what led the man to be underneath the vehicle in the first place. Among the possibilities authorities may examine is whether a mechanical failure was involved — a scenario Occupational Safety and Health Administration fatality reports have documented before, describing cases where people positioned under elevated vehicles suffered fatal crushing injuries after hydraulic jacks slipped or tipped without secondary jack stands in place. Federal OSHA standards under 29 CFR 1910.244 require portable jacks to carry marked weight capacities and call for rated jack stands or cribbing before anyone works beneath a raised vehicle.
A Known Hazard in Off-Hours Vehicle Access
Working or crawling beneath a vehicle without proper support has proven fatal in other cases nationwide. Police departments in multiple jurisdictions have reported past incidents in which people trying to saw off catalytic converters underneath raised vehicles were crushed to death when improvised jacking systems collapsed overnight, according to a report from FOX 7 Austin. Texas lawmakers responded to a wave of such thefts by passing Senate Bill 224, known as the Deputy Darren Almendarez Act, in 2023. The law, codified under Texas Penal Code Section 31.21, made unauthorized possession or theft of catalytic converters a state jail felony and created a legal presumption of unlawful possession for anyone caught holding multiple unattached converters, according to legislative records tracked by LegiScan.
There is no indication from police that theft or any criminal activity was involved in Saturday's death, and investigators have not offered a theory on what the man was doing under the vehicle. National labor data underscores how dangerous auto repair environments can be regardless of intent. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded 99 fatal occupational injuries in the automotive repair and maintenance sector in 2024, including 51 deaths specifically within general automotive repair businesses. In 2020, the agency separately found that 67 automotive technicians and repairers died from workplace injuries, with 15 of those deaths caused by being struck or crushed by falling equipment or objects.
Part of a Busy Stretch for Bexar County Public Safety
Saturday's discovery adds to a string of fatal incidents San Antonio police and Bexar County authorities have responded to in recent months. Hoodline previously reported on a man found dead under a Loop 1604 bridge on the Northeast Side in February, and on a fatal pre-dawn vehicle death investigation on the West Side in May. Bexar County recorded 190 motor vehicle-related fatalities in 2025, ranking fourth among all Texas counties in total traffic and vehicle fatalities, according to Texas Department of Transportation crash data.
San Antonio police have not released the man's identity pending notification of his family, and no further details about the circumstances of his death have been made public. The investigation remains active, and officials have not said when autopsy or toxicology results might be available from the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office.
