A major crash closed lanes on US 59 North at Exit 131 in Harris County at 5:44 AM on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. The incident occurred on a freeway corridor that has recorded 44 incidents in the past 30 days, according to LocalTrafficAccidents.com data.
The crash represents part of an extreme incident concentration at this location. Over the past 90 days, the US 59 North and Exit 131 corridor has logged 108 total incidents, including 67 classified as major. In the 12-month period ending May 12, the corridor recorded 114 incidents with 72 marked as major.
Tuesday is the highest-incident day at this location within the 90-day window, with 23 recorded incidents. The current incident adds to that pattern. While the peak crash hour at this corridor typically occurs between 1 PM and 2 PM—accounting for 9 incidents in 90 days—40 percent of all crashes here occur during rush hour periods, indicating significant collision risk extends beyond traditional peak commute windows.
Weather conditions at the time of the crash were clear, with temperatures at 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
The incident occurred during an off-peak hour, consistent with the corridor's dominant incident time pattern. This indicates that crashes at this location are not confined to traditional morning or evening rush periods. The distribution of incidents across the day and the elevated frequency during off-peak hours suggest the collision risk at US 59 North and Exit 131 is broadly distributed rather than concentrated in predictable commute windows.
Harris County recorded 19,011 total incidents over the 30-day period that includes this crash, with 30 fatalities countywide during the same timeframe. The US 59 North and Exit 131 corridor represents a concentrated area of incident activity within the county's broader traffic pattern.
The major crash designation indicates significant impact to traffic flow. Specific lane closure details and incident resolution time were not provided in preliminary data.
LTA data reflects incident patterns specific to geographic locations and time windows, providing the real-time collision intelligence that informs public awareness of high-incident corridors across the 13-county Houston-Galveston region.
**Update (1:45 PM CT):** The major crash at United States Highway 59 N & Exit 131, first reported at 5:44 AM, has cleared after more than 8 hours. All lanes have reopened and normal traffic flow has resumed in the area.
The location had seen 43 crashes in the 30 days leading up to this incident.
In the days and weeks following this crash, the location recorded 8 more incidents. The breakdown includes 3 major collisions.
Incidents have arrived less frequently at this location since.
A run of crashes occurred over a span of days.
The combined count places this stretch in the most active category in the area.
Counts run through May 26, 2026.
This report was produced by LTA's editor-designed production system under the executive editorial direction of Dennis R. Mundy, Executive Editor. The system combines our proprietary data pipeline with AI-assisted drafting to deliver verified incident coverage to LTA's editorial standards.