San Antonio driver Isaiah Flores says debris in highway lanes has led him to make repeated evasive moves on Interstate 35. In a report by KSAT, he described encountering items including ladders, furniture and car parts. Other drivers told the station they had seen debris on area highways; those accounts document what drivers say they encountered, but do not establish how often debris appears or how long it takes to remove.
Near misses are not captured by crash-report thresholds
That distinction matters when assessing the safety picture. TxDOT requires crash reports when a crash involves an injury or death, or apparent property damage of at least $1,000. Those records therefore would not capture debris that a driver avoids without a reportable crash, and cannot by themselves show the full extent of hazards drivers describe. For broader context only, the California Office of Traffic Safety, citing an AAA Foundation for Safety study, reported that road debris was associated with more than 200,000 crashes, 39,000 injuries and 500 deaths nationally from 2011 through 2014. That historical estimate is not evidence of a local trend in San Antonio.
TxDOT told KSAT it contracts for weekly sweeping and debris removal in the San Antonio region, supplements that with spot sweeping as needed, and conducts two litter pickups a month. The agency also cited a maintenance area of more than 11,000 lane miles. Those figures describe the scale and schedule of maintenance, not how quickly a particular piece of debris is cleared or how many hazards remain on the roads.
How to report a road hazard
TxDOT says drivers can report debris through its online road-issue reporting page. For road conditions requiring immediate attention, the agency directs drivers to call 800-558-9368 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday. Flores also urged people hauling cargo to secure it properly. The available accounts and agency maintenance figures underscore the concern, but do not establish the scale of the debris problem or the response time for individual reports.
