A 22-year-old Pipe Creek man died at noon on Wednesday after his car crossed into oncoming traffic on Texas 46 near the Bandera-Kendall county line, slamming head-on into an SUV. Levi Timothy James was driving a Mazda Miata eastbound when the collision happened, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
James's car crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic and struck a Mitsubishi Outlander SUV, according to Sgt. Dila Hidalgo, a Texas DPS sergeant, as reported by the San Antonio Express-News. James was a resident of Pipe Creek, an unincorporated community in Bandera County. The driver of the Mitsubishi Outlander was taken to a hospital, but DPS did not identify that driver or release information about their injuries.
What Investigators Are Trying to Determine
Officials are investigating why James's car crossed into oncoming traffic, per Hidalgo. No further details about the cause have been released, and the newspaper's report does not include additional specifics on the exact crash site beyond its location near the Bandera-Kendall county line.
Wednesday's crash echoes a pattern on this stretch of highway. A fatal head-on crash occurred on State Highway 46 in Kendall County in March, when a black Chevrolet Cruze traveling westbound crossed over the center lines, for unknown reasons, and collided head-on with a gray Ram 1500 pickup heading east, according to KSAT. The Cruze's driver, 21-year-old Jimmy Antonio Ruiz Morazan of Bandera, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the Ram's driver was treated by EMS and released. DPS said both drivers were the sole occupants of their vehicles.
A Highway With a Documented Crash History
Texas 46 has drawn scrutiny from state and county officials for years over its safety record. TxDOT data presented to commissioners showed 244 reported crashes, including six fatal crashes, along an roughly 11-mile stretch of the highway between Highway 16 in Bandera County and Interstate 10 near Boerne in Kendall County from 2021 through 2025, according to the Bandera Bulletin. Officials said crash investigations commonly pointed to unsafe speed, failure to control speed and driver inattention as contributing factors on the corridor.
Safety campaigners have cited a longer timeframe with starker numbers. They reported 550 total crashes on SH 46 West between 2016 and March 2026, along with 13 fatalities and 44 injuries, as detailed by Texas Public Radio. Of those 13 deaths, campaigners said 10 occurred in Kendall County and three in Bandera County, the station later reported.
Money Already Spent, More Projects Still Years Away
TxDOT has said it already spent $2 million on near-term safety improvements along the corridor, including pavement markings, warning signs, rumble strips and pavement repairs, per the same station's reporting. Preliminary 2025 data showed a 7% reduction in crashes compared with the prior year, though the agency's bigger fixes remain further out. TxDOT secured $7 million for intersection upgrades in Kendall and Bandera counties, including widening and dedicated left-turn lanes, but those projects are still in design and aren't expected to start until late 2027.
More recently, Kendall County commissioners approved $100,000 in September toward safety improvements at Webster's Curve on Texas 46 West. TxDOT has said the total cost of fixing that curve — including crash cushions, pavement widening and guard fences — comes to $630,000.
The corridor's toll predates this year's incidents. Three Bandera County residents were killed in October 2024 when a Ford F-250 traveling west on Texas 46 passed in a no-passing zone and hit an eastbound Toyota Corolla, DPS said at the time, according to the Express-News. That crash, like Wednesday's and March's, took place on the same stretch of highway now under review by state and county officials.
