A major crash at Smith Street and Congress Street early Saturday morning adds to one of Houston's most collision-prone intersections. The crash happened at 1:29 AM on October 3, 2026.
This intersection has become a consistent flashpoint for crashes. According to LTA data, 62 crashes have occurred here over the past 30 days alone—17 of them major incidents. Over the past 90 days, the location has logged 344 total crashes, including 131 major ones and one fatal. The pattern extends further back: TxDOT CRIS public crash records document 2,295 crashes within about a quarter-mile of this intersection since January 2020, with 8 fatalities.
Contributing factors as recorded by the investigating officer, per TxDOT CRIS, show "Disregard Stop And Go Signal" as the leading factor, cited in 533 crashes at the corridor. Hit-and-run incidents account for 9.2% of all crashes here—438 cases out of thousands of vehicles involved over the past six years.
While this intersection sees crashes throughout the day and night, the timing pattern shows the single busiest hour is 5–6 PM, though collisions occur at varied times rather than concentrating in one window. Thursdays emerge as the highest-incident day over the past 90 days, with 43 recorded crashes. Conditions were clear at the time of Saturday's crash, with temperatures around 77 degrees.
Responding officers cleared the scene. Harris County overall recorded 13,397 incidents in the past 30 days, including 8 fatalities, placing this single intersection among the region's most active crash sites relative to its size.
Sources: TxDOT Crash Records Information System and Local Traffic Accidents database. Counts through October 3, 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.