🚨 LocalTrafficAccidents
HomeNews › Harris County
Major

IH-45 North Southbound crash at Richey Road; delays into mid-morning

September 15, 2026 at 07:53 AMBy Dennis R. Mundy, Executive Editor📍 Harris County

A major crash on IH-45 North Southbound at Richey Road brought traffic to a standstill Tuesday morning around 7:53 AM. Responding officers worked the scene as commuters heading south encountered significant delays.

This is the fifth incident at this location in the past 30 days, according to LocalTrafficAccidents.com data. Over the past 90 days, the corridor has seen 23 total incidents, with 15 classified as major. The pattern underscores the frequency of collisions at this stretch — 29 incidents across the past 12 months, with 19 rated major.

If you're headed southbound on IH-45 through this area, consider using the Hardy Toll Road, SH-249 to the northwest, or local routes via Airline Drive. Delays extended into mid-morning as crews cleared the roadway.

According to state crash records from the Texas Department of Transportation, this corridor has logged 1,337 crashes since January 2020 within about a quarter-mile. Contributing factors as recorded by the investigating officer, per TxDOT CRIS, show "Failed To Control Speed" as the leading factor, cited in 474 crashes at this location. The hit-and-run rate stands at 9.9 percent across all incidents here over the broader historical period.

Conditions at the time of the crash were clear — few clouds and 85 degrees — so weather was not a factor in this incident. Traffic should resume normal flow once the wreckage is removed and the roadway is fully reopened.

📊 Accident History at IH-45 North Southbound at Richey Rd

LTA incident record
Past 30 days5 incidents (5 major)
Past 90 days23 incidents (15 major)
Past 12 months29 incidents (19 major)
TxDOT crash record
Since January 20201,337 crashes, 3 fatal

Sources: TxDOT Crash Records Information System and Local Traffic Accidents database. Counts through September 15, 2026.

📍 Incident Location

IH-45 North Southbound at Richey Rd

Harris County, Texas

View on Google Maps →

How This Report Was Produced

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.

Read our full methodology →

More Coverage

Recent Houston Traffic News