A 22-year-old motorcyclist was killed late Wednesday night after being thrown from his bike and struck by multiple vehicles on Interstate 35 South in New Braunfels, shutting down a stretch of the highway for roughly five and a half hours. The crash happened around 10:30 p.m. in the 2400 block of I-35 South, and the rider was pronounced dead at the scene.
The wreck occurred on the southbound main lanes near the Schmidt Avenue overpass, according to KENS 5. As reported by WOAI, the motorcyclist was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, and next of kin have since been notified of his death.
Both the New Braunfels Police Department and New Braunfels Fire Department responded to the scene, and the police department's traffic unit is handling the investigation, which remains ongoing per the same WOAI report. No criminal charges are expected against the drivers involved, the outlet noted, though the exact sequence of events that led to the rider being ejected from his motorcycle has not been detailed.
A Dangerous Stretch of Highway
The intersection where the crash unfolded is no quiet backroad. The stretch of I-35 near Schmidt Avenue carries an estimated 125,000 vehicles a day on the main freeway alone, with another 6,000 vehicles passing through on Schmidt Avenue itself, according to real estate data published on LoopNet. That volume of traffic on the main lanes raises the odds of secondary collisions once a rider or vehicle is down on the roadway.
This isn't the first fatal wreck at this exact location. A fatal single-vehicle car crash previously happened in the same 2500 block of I-35 South near Schmidt Avenue back in September 2024, according to MySA. More broadly, analysis from The Bettersworth Law Firm has identified I-35 as the second-deadliest highway corridor in Texas, with nearly 650 fatal collisions recorded statewide between 2018 and 2022.
Helmet Laws and a Growing City's Traffic Burden
Under Texas Transportation Code § 661.003, as published by FindLaw, helmet use is mandatory only for motorcycle operators and passengers under age 21 — riders 21 and older can legally forgo headgear if they meet certain safety course or health insurance requirements. The 22-year-old killed Wednesday night fell outside that mandatory age bracket but was wearing a helmet anyway.
New Braunfels' explosive growth has only added more vehicles to this corridor. The city's population reached approximately 122,492 residents by July 2025, a 31.7% surge over five years that has pushed more commuter traffic onto I-35, per U.S. Census Bureau figures cited in earlier Hoodline reporting. Business Loop I-35, which runs along Schmidt Avenue and Elliott Knox Boulevard between Exits 186 and 190, spans 4.49 miles and serves as a key connector for that expanding traffic base, according to Interstate Guide.
Part of a Troubling Regional Pattern
Statewide, motorcycle fatalities have remained stubbornly high. The Texas Department of Transportation recorded 557 motorcyclist deaths and 2,468 serious injuries across Texas in 2025, following 581 deaths in 2024 and 599 in 2023. Regionally, the San Antonio and New Braunfels area saw 48 motorcyclists killed and 218 seriously injured across 948 total motorcycle crashes in 2025, according to Texas Public Radio data cited in Hoodline's recent coverage of a separate San Antonio motorcycle crash.
Wednesday's fatality also echoes a crash from earlier this year. A 20-year-old motorcyclist died in May after losing control on a curve along Schuenemann Road just north of New Braunfels, Hoodline reported at the time. Investigators have not released further details on what caused this week's rider to lose control before being struck on the interstate's main lanes.
