Texas has not had a single day without a roadway death in nearly 26 years, and state officials say Harris County remains ground zero for one of the deadliest patterns behind that grim streak: drunk driving. More than 95,000 people have died on Texas roads since that streak began, and transportation officials are using a case from a Houston crosswalk to put a face on the numbers.
The streak dates back to November 7, 2000, according to Click2Houston, and will reach 26 years on November 7, 2026. Every year, the Texas Department of Transportation runs its “End the Streak” campaign to try to break it, urging drivers to slow down, put away distractions, watch for pedestrians, buckle up and never get behind the wheel impaired. TxDOT says the campaign is meant to remind drivers that every decision behind the wheel matters.
Danny Perez, TxDOT's public information officer, framed the stakes bluntly: dangerous driving does not always cost the driver who caused it. “They cause a crash and then it's the other person that dies,” Perez said, according to the same report. Harris County, TxDOT says, leads the state in DWI fatalities — even as alcohol-related fatal crashes in the county fell 28% between 2022 and 2025, per TxDOT crash data cited in the report.
A Houston Family's Loss Becomes a Cautionary Tale
The campaign's local urgency is tied to the death of 73-year-old Shuet Wong, who was killed while crossing Bellaire Boulevard at Ranchester Drive in November 2024, according to Click2Houston. Her daughter, Maybel Wong, said her mother was waiting for the walk signal before stepping into the street. A truck struck her just steps from reaching the median, and she was thrown 62 feet from the crosswalk — far enough that, as Maybel Wong recounted, the scuff marks on her mother's wallet cards bore witness to the impact.
Maybel Wong said the driver later told her they simply did not see her mother. It is a detail that underscores the campaign's central message: a split-second lapse in attention can be fatal, regardless of intent.
Axios has reported that Shuet Ling Wong, also 73, was struck on Bellaire Boulevard at Ranchester Drive, saying she was hit 60 feet west of the crosswalk there and had failed to yield the right-of-way. Axios separately reported that Houston police later amended their official crash report after surveillance video surfaced, assigning sole blame to the driver.
Why the Intersection Has a History
Whichever location proves accurate, the broader corridor has drawn safety scrutiny before. The advocacy group LINKHouston identified Bellaire Boulevard and Ranchester Drive in 2018 as the city's second most dangerous intersection, citing 10 pedestrian crashes, one bicyclist crash and one pedestrian death between 2013 and 2017, according to the Houston Chronicle. An 80-year-old woman was reportedly struck unconscious in a hit-and-run near the same crosswalk about three weeks before Wong's death, though she survived, the Chronicle reported.
Houston recorded 119 pedestrian deaths in 2024, nearly one every three days. Earlier IIHS research found tall trucks and SUVs were about 45% more likely than shorter vehicles to cause a pedestrian death in a collision — a statistic relevant to the kind of vehicle involved in Wong's crash.
Harris County's Outsized DWI Numbers
The county's DWI toll has long stood out statewide. TxDOT data for 2022 ranked Harris County first among all 254 Texas counties for drunken-driving-related crashes, according to YourConroeNews. That year, the county recorded 160 drunken-driving-related fatalities, or roughly 3.10 fatalities per 100,000 people, the outlet reported.
Officials are pairing the public awareness push with enforcement. Starting Saturday, TxDOT and the Texas Department of Public Safety plan to distribute educational brochures during traffic stops covering seat belts, speed and distracted driving, according to KTXS. The campaign's core advice for anyone planning to drink remains simple: arrange a designated driver, call a rideshare, or take public transportation instead of getting behind the wheel.
