A woman was hospitalized in critical condition Saturday morning after running into the northbound lanes of Interstate 10 near Wurzbach Parkway on San Antonio's Northwest Side, where a chain-reaction crash sent a car careening into her path. Police say the pedestrian's dash into active freeway traffic set off a rapid sequence of events involving two vehicles before she was struck.
According to the WOAI report, the driver of a white Audi managed to stop in time to avoid hitting the woman as she ran into the roadway. A Toyota Camry following behind then rear-ended the Audi, veered onto the left shoulder, and struck the woman, leaving her critically injured. She was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, per the outlet's account attributed to the San Antonio Police Department.
Both drivers remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation, the station reports. As of the report, police said no charges would be filed against either driver in connection with the crash.
Freeway Foot Traffic Is Explicitly Prohibited
Pedestrians are prohibited from walking or running in the northbound lanes of I-10, WOAI notes, citing police. That prohibition is grounded in state law: under Texas Transportation Code § 545.065, the Texas Transportation Commission and local authorities have the statutory power to bar pedestrians, nonmotorized traffic, and low-powered cycles from limited-access highways like interstates. Separately, Texas Transportation Code § 545.062 requires drivers to maintain an assured clear distance behind the vehicle ahead of them, a standard that governs how fault gets sorted out when a lead driver brakes suddenly for an unexpected obstacle in the roadway.
The interchange where Saturday's crash occurred carries more than just interstate traffic. Wurzbach Parkway, which meets I-10 on San Antonio's Northwest Side, functions as a high-speed arterial corridor that passes near residential areas and the South Texas Medical Center, according to Ried Pecina Trial Lawyers, creating localized speed variances and merging hazards near the highway connectors.
Not the First Close Call on This Stretch of I-10
Saturday's crash echoes a fatal incident from earlier this year: Hoodline previously reported that a woman died crossing I-10's median near the Huebner exit on the Northwest Side after being struck while running across the interstate. In a separate case last November, a man was struck and killed on I-10 West near East Houston Street on the East Side after exiting a disabled vehicle and attempting to cross the main lanes on foot, according to Carabin Shaw. In that incident, the drivers involved also stayed at the scene and cooperated with police.
A Citywide Pattern on State-Managed Roads
These freeway incidents fit into a broader and troubling pattern for San Antonio. Roughly 60% of the city's pedestrian crashes occur on state-managed TxDOT roadways such as I-10, I-35, and U.S. 90 rather than on city-controlled streets, according to San Antonio Transportation Department data reported by KSAT, which limits how much the city's own Vision Zero safety initiatives can directly address the problem. In 2025, San Antonio recorded 54 pedestrian fatalities and four bicyclist deaths as overall traffic fatalities topped 133 citywide, the same department figures show.
The issue extends well beyond San Antonio's city limits. Statewide, Texas saw 6,095 pedestrian-involved crashes in 2024 that resulted in 772 pedestrian deaths and 1,455 serious injuries, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Pedestrians make up only about 1% of all traffic crashes in Texas but account for roughly 19% of all roadway deaths, TxDOT's analysis found, underscoring how freeway speeds magnify the danger when a person ends up in the road.
Regionally, the numbers have stayed stubbornly high for a decade. Pedestrian-involved crashes across the eight-county San Antonio metro area have topped 1,000 incidents annually every year from 2016 through 2025, with Bexar County accounting for 93% of that total, according to a San Antonio Express-News analysis of TxDOT crash records. The finding lands as San Antonio marks a decade since launching its Vision Zero commitment in 2015.
Where sidewalks are not provided, state law requires pedestrians walking along a roadway to use the left shoulder facing oncoming traffic, per Texas Transportation Code § 552.006 — but that rule assumes a walkway exists at all. Interstates like I-10 have no pedestrian infrastructure and bar foot traffic outright, leaving no legal path for someone on foot to safely navigate the corridor. Police have not said why the woman entered the northbound lanes Saturday, and that question remains unanswered as she remains hospitalized in critical condition.
