Houston work zone crash statistics, 2024-2025

Work zone crashes killed 40 people in 2025 in the six counties of the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Houston District, up from 21 in 2024. The district totals are Texas Mobility Outlook’s sums of TxDOT’s county rows; TxDOT does not publish a district figure.^1,2

Statewide, TxDOT counted 28,089 work zone crashes and 203 deaths in 2025.³ Seven of the people killed were roadside workers, and TxDOT reported more than 1,800 active work zones across the state.⁴

Work zone crashes and deaths in Houston-area counties

Deaths rose in every one of the six counties, while crashes fell in five of them. The district’s work zone crashes dropped 10.6%, from 4,875 to 4,358, but fatal crashes went from 18 to 40 (computed from TxDOT’s county rows).^1,2

The Houston District’s share of Texas work zone deaths doubled, from 9.7% in 2024 to 19.7% in 2025. Harris County alone went from 10 deaths to 14. Montgomery County went from 2 to 8 and Galveston County from 4 to 8.

These are small numbers. A county with two deaths one year and eight the next can move a regional total sharply, and TxDOT’s county table does not say which roads or projects the crashes occurred on.

Texas work zone crashes in 2024 and 2025

Texas work zone crashes were nearly flat, at 28,089 in 2025 against 27,971 in 2024. Deaths fell 6.5%, from 217 to 203, and serious injuries fell from 823 to 774.^3,5 Work zone crashes accounted for 203 of the 3,769 traffic deaths in Texas in 2025, or 5.4% (computed).⁶

Most of the deaths happen on roads that TxDOT’s table labels on-system. In 2025, those roads had 22,951 of the work zone crashes (81.7%) and 187 of the deaths (92.1%), Texas Mobility Outlook’s arithmetic from the statewide table.³ TxDOT says most people killed in work zone crashes are drivers and their passengers, not workers.⁴

How Harris County compares with other large Texas counties

Harris County had 14 work zone deaths in 2025, more than Travis (12), Bexar (9) or Tarrant (6) and two fewer than Dallas (16).¹ Its crash count stands out in the other direction. Harris County had 19.9% of all reportable crashes in Texas in 2025 but 5.4% of work zone crashes (computed).^3,8

A crash enters these tables only when the investigating officer records it as occurring in or related to a construction or maintenance zone.⁹ The share depends on how much road work is under way in a county and on how crashes are coded, and the tables do not separate the two. Texas Mobility Outlook has not tested either explanation. County crash totals are on Harris County crash statistics.

What TxDOT says about how work zone crashes happen

TxDOT’s work zone releases for 2025 and 2026 say rear-end collisions are the most common type of work zone crash. Both note that traffic fines double in work zones when workers are present.^4,7

Texas’s Move Over or Slow Down law requires drivers approaching a vehicle stopped on the roadside with flashing lights to move over a lane or slow to 20 mph below the posted limit. TxDOT’s 2026 release says the law covers TxDOT vehicles, emergency and law enforcement vehicles, tow trucks and utility vehicles.⁴

Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 5% of fatal crashes involving large trucks in 2024 occurred in work zones.¹⁰ TxDOT’s county tables do not separate commercial vehicles; the leading causes of truck crashes covers what federal research shows.

How much of Houston’s freeway network was under construction in 2024

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and TxDOT said about half of the 100 most congested road segments in Texas were under construction in 2024.¹¹ TTI’s report counts 43 of the 100 with at least two months of construction in 2024, down from 46 in 2023.¹²

Three of the five most congested segments in the state, all in Houston, were marked as under construction during 2024.¹²

On Beltway 8 North from the Hardy Toll Rd to Old Humble Rd, construction closed the center lanes across the segment in 2024 and funneled traffic into one lane on either side. TTI says that may explain the segment’s jump from No. 186 to No. 31.¹² Statewide, TxDOT said in November 2025 that it had $60 billion of active construction projects.¹³ Houston’s largest current projects are tracked on Houston highway projects.

What a finished project shows: I-45 from NASA 1 to FM 518

TxDOT lists I-45 from NASA 1 to FM 518 as a completed Texas Clear Lanes project, built from 2017 to 2023 for $99.8 million.¹⁴ TTI compared 2017 and 2024 on the matching top 100 segment. Traffic, measured in vehicle miles traveled, rose 9% while annual hours of delay fell 26%. The segment ranked No. 51 in 2025, against a highest earlier rank of No. 25.¹²

TTI estimates the change saves $199 a year for a commuter who drives the corridor in both directions five days a week. It labels the project’s benefit to this segment as indirect, from an improvement near the segment.¹² TTI measures congestion, not crashes, and Texas Mobility Outlook has not compared crash counts on the segment before and after construction. The I-45 corridor guide covers the freeway’s crash data and its larger rebuild north of downtown.

Limits of the work zone data

• County, not corridor. TxDOT’s published work zone tables have no road or project detail. Linking deaths to a specific freeway or contract requires a custom query of TxDOT’s Crash Records Information System (CRIS).
• The district figure is computed. TxDOT publishes county rows only. The Houston District totals here add Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Montgomery and Waller counties.
• Counts can change. The 2025 tables reflect reports processed as of April 7, 2026, and the 2024 tables as of April 9, 2025. TxDOT updates earlier years as late reports arrive.
• Statewide context. For all traffic deaths in Texas, see Texas traffic fatalities, 2015-2025.