A man is dead after his Kia Forte slammed into the driver's side of a crane truck on a South Side San Antonio highway, according to police. The crash happened just before 5:30 p.m. Sunday near Interstate 35 and Division Avenue, sending the driver to the hospital in critical condition before he later died from his injuries.
Police told WOAI that the Kia Forte crashed into the side of the crane truck, though the cause of the collision has not been established. Investigators have not said whether speed, a lane change, or another factor led the sedan into the truck's path, and the case remains under investigation.
A Familiar and Deadly Stretch of Highway
This isn't the first time this exact stretch of I-35 near Division Avenue has turned deadly. In April, an 18-wheeler struck and killed a man in his 30s who had walked onto the northbound lanes at the same South Side location, underscoring how heavy commercial vehicles have repeatedly factored into fatal incidents along this corridor.
The interchange has a long history of highway trouble beyond fatal crashes. Jackknifed 18-wheelers forced I-35 traffic to divert through the Division Avenue exit ramps back in May 2017, according to MySA, and the surrounding roadway has also dealt with infrastructure failures, including a 2017 water-main break that opened a five-foot-deep sinkhole on the 700 block of Division Avenue near I-35 South.
Texas Leads the Nation in Truck-Related Deaths
The South Side crash lands squarely within a much larger statewide pattern. Commercial motor vehicles were involved in 39,393 crashes across Texas in 2024 alone, resulting in 608 fatalities and 1,601 suspected serious injuries, according to figures from the Texas Department of Transportation. Bexar County itself recorded 2,684 commercial vehicle collisions and 18 fatalities in 2024, ranking third among all 254 Texas counties behind only Harris and Dallas counties, per data compiled by the Estes Law Firm.
State transportation officials project commercial trucking traffic across Texas highways will grow by 22 percent by 2030 as the state's economy and population keep expanding, a trend documented by the Texas Tribune. That growth, paired with the industrial haulers and heavy equipment that regularly move through South Side arterial routes like Division Avenue, points toward a corridor likely to see even more truck traffic in the years ahead.
Recurring Pattern on This Corridor
Sunday's crash is only the latest in a string of serious wrecks involving heavy vehicles on San Antonio's I-35 corridor this year. Hoodline previously reported on a driver who died in July after rear-ending a stopped 18-wheeler near O'Connor Road, part of a pattern in which collisions between passenger vehicles and heavy commercial trucks have repeatedly produced severe, often fatal outcomes on this stretch of highway.
Statewide, traffic fatalities actually dropped to 3,809 in 2025, an 8 percent decrease from the year before, according to data cited by Angel Reyes & Associates, though the total remains above pre-pandemic levels. San Antonio operates under a citywide Vision Zero framework aimed at eliminating roadway deaths altogether, but incidents like Sunday's crash suggest the goal remains a distant one for this particular stretch of I-35.
Investigators have not released the identity of the man who died, and it remains unclear whether mechanical issues, visibility, or driver error contributed to the crash. Under Texas law, officers investigating a crash resulting in death must submit a formal written report to the state within 10 days, a process that will likely shape whatever additional details emerge about exactly how the Kia Forte ended up crashing into the truck's side.
