Westheimer at Richmond ramp crash; 102 incidents in 30 days

A major crash shut down the eastbound exit ramp at Westheimer Road and the Richmond Street entrance to I-610 South early Saturday morning, jamming traffic during the pre-dawn hours.

The wreck happened at 5:20 AM on Saturday, July 18, 2026, at 2535 W I-610 FWY S near the Richmond entrance ramp. Responding officers cleared the road, but the incident added to an already troubling stretch of roadway.

This location has become a collision hotspot. According to LocalTrafficAccidents.com data, the Westheimer-Richmond corridor on I-610 South recorded 102 incidents in the past 30 days alone—57 of them major crashes like this one. Over the past 90 days, the same stretch has seen 268 total incidents, with 133 classified as major. Per LTA real-time data, crashes within one mile of this location totaled 351 in the 30 days before this incident.

The data shows this corridor's peak activity doesn't follow typical weekday rush patterns. Most crashes here fall outside the weekday commute peaks; the single busiest hour is 3-4 PM, when 21 crashes occurred over the tracking period. Notably, Saturdays are the corridor's highest-incident day with 42 crashes recorded over the past 90 days—making this morning's wreck fit a troubling weekend pattern.

Over the past 12 months, this same location has recorded 496 total incidents, including 222 major crashes and 5 fatalities. State crash records paint a broader picture: since January 2020, the corridor recorded 2,312 crashes per TxDOT CRIS public records, with 7 fatalities. The most common officer-recorded contributing factor across those crashes was "Failed To Control Speed," cited in 1,025 incidents.

Weather conditions at the time of Saturday's crash were overcast with temperatures around 80°F—conditions that typically don't elevate crash risk, though wet pavement from earlier rain or humidity can still affect traction on I-610's interchange surfaces.

By late Saturday morning, the incident had cleared and traffic returned to normal flow. Since this crash, LTA data shows 3 additional incidents within one mile of the location.