A 39-year-old motorcyclist died Monday night after going over a barricade along the Finesilver Curve, the elevated ramp connecting Interstate 35 South to Interstate 10 West just north of downtown San Antonio. Police at the scene said the rider was pronounced dead at the location near Camaron Street, and the ramp was closed for hours as investigators worked the crash.
The crash happened just before 7:30 p.m. Monday, according to KSAT, which reported that San Antonio police said the motorcyclist went over the barricade along the curve. Officers asked drivers headed from I-35 South to I-10 West to seek alternate routes and expect delays while the ramp remained shut down. SAPD said witnesses are assisting with the ongoing investigation, though no further details on how the crash unfolded have been released.
The death marks the second fatal motorcycle ejection over a barrier on an elevated San Antonio freeway ramp in just two days. On September 6, a 19-year-old motorcyclist died after striking a concrete wall on an elevated I-35/US-281 flyover and falling into a parking lot below, a crash Hoodline previously covered in which police attributed high speed as a primary factor.
A Curve With a Notorious History
The Finesilver Curve takes its name from the historic Finesilver Building, where the Finesilver Manufacturing Co. once produced work clothing for decades, with the elevated connector ramp passing roughly 30 feet above the building's street-level entrance, according to KSAT. The curve's elevated design dates to the 1994 completion of the “Downtown Y” highway project, a reconstruction of the interchange linking I-35 and I-10 north of downtown, as detailed by the San Antonio Express-News.
The ramp has long been known for a specific hazard: commercial truck rollovers. Texas Department of Transportation officials have reported that an average of one commercial big rig per month overturns on the tightly angled, 25-mph advisory curve, per the same Express-News reporting. The curve's worst disaster came in December 1999, when a tanker truck crashed and spilled roughly 4,500 gallons of hydrochloric acid, triggering the evacuation of thousands across a 3-square-mile area and sending 11 people to hospitals — an incident that led state officials to ban hazardous material transport on the ramp.
Rollovers have continued in recent memory. On June 4, an 18-wheeler overturned on the Finesilver Curve and spilled oil across the roadway, with San Antonio police citing the 64-year-old driver for operating at an unsafe speed, according to the Texas Injury Report. Earlier in the year, on January 16, an 18-wheeler hauling live honeybees flipped on the curve, shutting down the connector ramp for several hours during the morning commute, as reported by MySA.
Motorcycle Safety Concerns Mount Citywide
Monday's fatal ejection adds to a grim regional pattern. San Antonio ranked second among all Texas cities for motorcycle crash volume in 2025, recording 48 motorcyclist deaths and 948 motorcycle crashes locally, according to Texas Public Radio, prompting TxDOT to launch targeted awareness initiatives along the I-35 corridor. Single-vehicle collisions account for roughly 25 percent of all motorcycle crashes in the city, with about two-thirds of those wrecks attributed to rider control loss on curved ramps or turns.
Texas Transportation Code § 545.351 requires drivers to operate at a speed that is reasonable and prudent for existing roadway conditions, regardless of posted regulatory or advisory speed limits — a standard that applies on curves like the Finesilver, where advisory plaques indicate safe recommended speeds based on the roadway's geometry. It remains unclear whether investigators will determine that speed, mechanical failure, or the ramp's design played a role in Monday's crash. SAPD's investigation into the fatal wreck is ongoing, and no cause has yet been publicly attributed.
With two fatal barrier ejections on elevated San Antonio freeway ramps in the span of 48 hours, questions remain about whether TxDOT will revisit barrier heights or other safety measures on the city's elevated flyovers. For now, the ramp from I-35 South to I-10 West has reopened, but the investigation into what sent the 39-year-old rider over the barricade continues.
