I-45 at Tidwell crash injures two Thursday early morning

A crash with injuries shut down I-45 at Tidwell Road at 2:24 AM Thursday morning, August 13, 2026. Responding officers worked the scene in clear conditions as traffic diverted around the incident.

Two people were hurt in the collision. Specific lane closures and clearance timing weren't immediately available, but crews were on scene to manage the flow and address the injuries.

This crash marks another incident at a corridor with a heavy crash history. Over the past 30 days, the I-45 and Tidwell area has seen 49 total incidents, including 32 classified as major, according to LocalTrafficAccidents.com data. In the past year, the same location logged 216 total incidents with 121 major and 3 fatal.

The timing of this early-morning crash is notable because most crashes at this intersection fall outside the typical weekday commute rush. The single busiest hour here is 2–3 PM, when eight crashes occurred over the data window—far more than the overnight period. Mondays carry the heaviest incident load over 90 days, with 18 crashes recorded.

Across Harris County in the past month, 17,690 incidents were reported, including 14 fatal crashes. State crash records from the Texas Department of Transportation show that "Failed To Control Speed" remains the leading contributing factor at this corridor, cited in 539 crashes since January 2020. Hit-and-runs account for 13.2 percent of incidents here—356 of 2,699 vehicles involved in crashes over that same period.

Authorities cleared the scene and traffic resumed normal operations on the northbound and southbound sides. If you're heading through this area, expect residual delays as traffic flow normalizes.

**Update (10:25 AM CT):** The major crash at I-45 & Tidwell Rd, first reported at 2:24 AM, has cleared after more than 8 hours. All lanes have reopened and normal traffic flow has resumed in the area.