A driver who pulled over on I-35W to help occupants of an earlier crash was struck and killed by a passing car early Friday morning in Fort Worth, shutting down both directions of the freeway for hours near the I-20 interchange.
Fort Worth police say South Division officers were dispatched around 2:30 a.m. Friday to the 4700 block of South Freeway after reports of a major accident, according to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Officers found that the incident began with an initial crash involving a vehicle on the highway, and that another motorist had stopped to help the occupants of that vehicle. That second driver was then struck by another car passing through the scene and died there.
The crash occurred on I-35W just north of I-20, closing portions of the northbound and southbound lanes for hours as investigators worked the scene, the station reported. It is a fatal incident on a stretch of freeway.
A Familiar and Deadly Stretch of Freeway
A Familiar and Deadly Stretch of Freeway The I-35W and I-20 interchange in south Fort Worth has seen serious crashes. In April, a six-vehicle late-night collision near the same junction killed one person and sent several others to the hospital, forcing an extended overnight closure, as Hoodline previously reported. That pileup unfolded along a corridor a November 2025 analysis by Mercury Insurance, using federal traffic safety data, found had seen a 2,660 percent increase in the average number of people involved in fatal crashes on I-35W in Tarrant County between 2014-2018 and 2019-2023.
Friday's death involved a motorist who stopped to help at an earlier crash. The incident illustrates the risks present at crash scenes on busy freeways.
What Texas Law Says About Stopping to Help
Texas law offers legal protection in some circumstances to people who administer emergency care. Under Section 74.151 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a person who administers emergency care in good faith and without expectation of payment is shielded from civil liability for damages, so long as the person's actions do not amount to willful or wanton negligence, according to FindLaw. The provision applies to qualifying emergency care rather than simply to stopping at a crash.
But that legal shield does not guard against the physical dangers of standing in live freeway lanes. Texas Crime Report advises motorists involved in breakdowns to move safely off the roadway, activate hazard lights, and stay with the vehicle when possible, according to a report from Texas Crime Report.
Fatal Crashes Remain a Persistent Problem
The danger is borne out in the numbers. Fort Worth logged 12,865 total traffic crashes in 2024, an average of roughly 35 collisions a day, resulting in 116 deaths, according to data cited by Varghese Summersett. Tarrant County as a whole recorded 189 fatal crashes and 201 traffic deaths in 2024, per the Texas Department of Transportation.
Regionally, the trend has been improving. Fatal crashes across the Dallas-Fort Worth area fell about 14 percent between 2023 and 2025, dropping from 804 fatal crashes and 859 deaths in 2023 to 691 fatal crashes and 734 deaths in 2025, according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Statewide, a reportable crash happens somewhere in the state every 57 seconds.
The available account does not identify the drivers involved in Friday's crash or provide further details about how the incident unfolded.
