A major crash brought northbound traffic on IH-45 to a crawl Thursday evening at the SH 249/Mount Houston Road interchange. The collision occurred at 5:37 PM on February 19, 2026, according to TranStar traffic data. The incident blocked multiple lanes during peak commute hours, creating significant backups across the northbound stretch and affecting thousands of drivers heading out of the urban core.
Commuters faced substantial delays as the crash unfolded during one of the busiest travel windows of the day. The northbound lanes backed up for miles, with delays extending south toward downtown Houston. Drivers seeking alternatives had several options: the Hardy Toll Road running parallel to IH-45 provided a quicker passage for northbound traffic, while taking surface streets through the Greens area or diverting east on SH 249 toward The Woodlands offered other workarounds. The eastbound FM 1960 corridor also absorbed spillover traffic from the main freeway.
This section of IH-45 North near Mount Houston Road sits in an increasingly congested area serving both regular commuters and through traffic headed toward The Woodlands and points beyond. The interchange itself represents a major junction where significant traffic volume converges daily. With commercial development and residential growth continuing in the surrounding neighborhoods, the corridor has become a critical chokepoint during morning and evening peaks.
Northbound IH-45 remained significantly impacted as recovery efforts continued following the crash. The incident's severity meant delays persisted well into the evening commute period, affecting not just the immediate area but also backup on connecting routes including the feeder roads and parallel arteries. Drivers heading through the Mount Houston area faced extended travel times, with some commutes stretching 15-20 minutes longer than normal during the affected period.
In the month preceding this crash, 6 incidents had been documented here.
30 more crashes have been documented at this location since this incident. 29 have been logged as major collisions.
The location's crash rate has climbed since this incident.
Some of those crashes occurred within days of each other.
That total ranks this location among the highest-incident corridors in the county.
Data through May 30, 2026.
IH-45 North Northbound at SH 249/ Mount Houston Rd
Harris County, Texas
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.