A driver lost control along Rittiman Road near Thornwood early Friday, sending a vehicle through a chain-link fence and into a tree in a crash so violent that firefighters had to cut a woman free from the wreckage. Both the woman and the driver were rushed to the hospital in critical condition after the vehicle jumped a curb on San Antonio's Northeast Side.
Emergency crews were called to the scene shortly after 1:30 a.m. Friday, according to WOAI. The driver was found on the ground outside the vehicle, while the woman was trapped inside, the station reported. Crews worked to free her from the mangled car before both were taken to the hospital.
A Violent Sequence on a Busy Northeast Side Corridor
The crash unfolded at the intersection of Rittiman Road and Thornwood, where Rittiman functions as a four-lane commercial arterial linking Interstate 35 and Loop 410, crossing the smaller residential street of Thornwood, according to property records reviewed on LoopNet. The vehicle jumped a curb, tore through a chain-link fence, and slammed into a tree, per the same account from the station's reporting. That sequence of events left both occupants in critical condition, per WOAI.
The wreck adds to a troubling pattern on San Antonio's roads. The San Antonio Police Department investigated 39,080 total traffic crashes in 2024, including 162 fatal wrecks that killed 169 people and 579 crashes causing suspected serious injuries to 665 more, according to a Texas Department of Transportation crash summary. Bexar County recorded 190 traffic fatalities in 2025, ranking fourth among Texas counties behind Harris, Dallas, and Tarrant counties, according to an analysis by Angel Reyes & Associates of TxDOT crash data.
Rittiman Road's Reputation as a Crash Hot Spot
The Northeast Side corridor has drawn scrutiny before. TxDOT's 2025 crash records identified the stretch of Interstate 35 near O'Connor Road and Rittiman Road as the single most crash-prone highway segment in San Antonio, as reported by KSAT. San Antonio City Council took note of the corridor's problems in February 2025, accepting a $4.3 million federal grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to fund preliminary engineering for traffic flow and safety improvements along Rittiman Road, according to city council session records.
Friday's wreck is not the first violent crash Hoodline has covered along this stretch of the Northeast Side. In November, a 76-year-old woman was indicted in connection with a fatal 2023 hit-and-run on Rittiman Road, and in May, a driver fled after a fatal rollover on the city's North Side that also required extrication crews. In July, a young driver died in a pre-dawn SUV crash on I-35 near O'Connor Road, just miles from Friday's scene.
What Happens Next in the Investigation
Given the severity of the crash and the need for extrication, the case is likely to fall under the San Antonio Police Department's Traffic Investigations Division, which handles forensic scene analysis, evidence collection, and tire-mark measurements to reconstruct how crashes like this one unfold, according to the City of San Antonio's policies and procedures. Freeing a trapped occupant from a mangled vehicle typically requires heavy rescue equipment such as hydraulic rams, cutters, and spreaders, tools the San Antonio Fire Department deploys to pry open distorted vehicle frames, according to trade publication Fire Apparatus Magazine.
Because the crash caused critical injuries, officers are required under Texas Transportation Code § 550.062 to submit a written crash report to the state within 10 days, per TxDOT guidance. It remains unclear whether impairment, excessive speed, or roadway conditions contributed to the vehicle jumping the curb, and the current medical status of both the woman and the driver has not been reported. Texas law also allows officers to cite drivers for failing to control speed under § 545.351 even when a vehicle is traveling within the posted limit, a provision that could come into play once investigators determine what caused the driver to lose control.
