A 17-year-old motorcyclist is dead after a three-vehicle crash Thursday morning on State Highway 46 near Stoney Creek, just outside Smithson Valley High School in Spring Branch. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers responded around 9 a.m. to find the teen had been ejected from his motorcycle and thrown into the westbound bar ditch, where he was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to WOAI, the teen was riding a red Kawasaki Ninja westbound on SH 46 when he traveled between a Ford pickup and a Chevrolet Silverado, failed to control his speed, and struck both trucks before being thrown from the bike. The Comal County Sheriff's Office issued traffic advisories urging drivers to avoid the area while troopers worked the scene, as reported by KENS 5. DPS has notified the teen's next of kin but, per its policy, is not releasing the names of juveniles involved in traffic crashes, and no additional information was available from the agency as of Thursday.
A Maneuver Texas Law Explicitly Bans
The reported maneuver of riding between two pickup trucks touches directly on Texas Transportation Code § 545.0605, which makes motorcycle lane splitting and lane filtering — driving between lanes of traffic moving the same direction, or passing within the same lane — explicitly illegal statewide, according to Snellings Injury Law. Whether the teen was wearing a helmet remains an open question; under Transportation Code § 661.003, all motorcycle riders and passengers under 21 are required to wear a DOT-approved helmet, with no exemption available for minor riders.
It's also unclear whether the teen held a valid Class M motorcycle license. Texas requires applicants aged 15 to 17 to complete 32 hours of classroom driver education, finish an approved motorcycle safety course, pass a DPS riding skills test, and provide proof of high school enrollment or a diploma before they can legally operate a motorcycle, per the Texas Department of Public Safety. DPS's investigation into the crash remains ongoing, and it has not said whether the teen met those requirements.
A Corridor Already Marked by Fatal Crashes
State Highway 46 has been the site of repeated deadly wrecks this year. In April, a single-vehicle rollover near Bulverde killed two people, and in January a crash near South Cranes Mill Road left a 60-year-old driver dead, KENS 5 reported. The highway, along with US 281, has been described as the central growth spine of Comal County, where rapid residential expansion and heavy gravel truck traffic have created elevated hazards, according to an October 2025 site-selection analysis from Texas Hill Country Commercial Real Estate Analysis.
Comal County commissioners signed a resolution in January backing a TxDOT plan for a $39 million overpass at SH 46 and FM 3159 in the Bulverde/Spring Branch area to address dangerous intersections along the corridor, per My Canyon Lake. Regional traffic analyses built on TxDOT data show Bexar and Comal counties consistently rank among the top Texas counties for motorcycle crashes and severe rider injuries, according to Angel Reyes & Associates.
Motorcyclists Face Outsized Risk Statewide
The teen's death adds to a grim statewide tally. TxDOT records show 557 motorcyclists were killed and 2,468 seriously injured on Texas roads in 2025, with motorcycle fatalities accounting for roughly 15 percent of all traffic deaths statewide. The agency has also reported that nearly two motorcyclists die on Texas roads every day on average, with 30 to 37 percent of fatal motorcycle collisions occurring at intersections.
The crash is the latest in a string of fatal motorcycle collisions Hoodline has tracked across the San Antonio region, including a West Side crash that killed a rider in August. DPS has not said what, if anything, will change along the SH 46 corridor as its investigation into Thursday's crash continues.
