A pickup truck driver was killed in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, November 2, when his truck slammed into a stationary 18-wheeler inside an active construction zone on northbound Interstate 35W near Burleson, Texas, according to the Burleson Police Department. The crash closed all northbound lanes of one of the Dallas–Fort Worth area's main freight corridors for the morning response.
Source: DFW Scanner, reporting Burleson Police Department, November 2, 2026
Burleson police and fire crews responded at approximately 4:22 a.m. to a major crash in the 1700 block of northbound I-35W near Bethesda Road, also known as County Road 522, in Johnson County, just south of Fort Worth. Officers found a pickup truck with extensive front-end damage that had collided with a stationary 18-wheeler. The adult male driver of the pickup was found unresponsive, and emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. The occupant of the tractor-trailer was not injured.
Inside a single-lane construction zone
Preliminary information from investigators indicates the crash happened approximately one mile into an active construction zone, where northbound traffic had been restricted to a single lane marked out with traffic cones. Investigators believe the driver's-side front portion of the pickup struck the passenger-side rear portion of the tractor and part of the attached trailer — a glancing, offset impact into the back corner of a stopped big rig, rather than a square rear-end collision. Traffic reporting on the incident, summarised by the Wooley Law Firm's news service, likewise records the collision on northbound I-35W at Bethesda Road being confirmed as a fatal, critical incident in the pre-dawn hours, with significant restrictions on the northbound roadway while crews worked.
Source: Wooley Law Firm news summary, November 2, 2026
Closures and the morning diversion
As a result of the crash, all northbound I-35W traffic was diverted onto the frontage road at Bethesda Road, and the northbound entrance ramp at Bethesda Road was also closed while emergency personnel responded and investigators processed the scene. For early-morning commuters and freight drivers heading north toward Fort Worth and Dallas, the diversion funnelled interstate traffic onto the frontage road at the start of the Monday rush.
The identity of the man who died is being withheld pending confirmation that his next of kin have been notified, police said. The circumstances of the crash remain under investigation, and investigators have made no determination about contributing factors — including why the tractor-trailer was stationary in or beside the single open lane, or what led the pickup into it.
Why stopped trucks in work zones are a deadly risk
Interstate 35W is the western half of the I-35 split through the Fort Worth area and a heavily used trucking corridor between Fort Worth, Burleson and the distribution warehouses of southern Tarrant and Johnson counties — a route Punjabi and other immigrant truckers in Texas drive daily, often in exactly these pre-dawn hours. Work zones compress that traffic: lanes narrow, cones replace shoulders, and a truck that stops — for a queue, a breakdown or road work itself — can sit directly in the only lane left open, with following drivers getting their first clear view of its trailer only seconds before impact, especially in darkness.
That is the pattern investigators are now working through on I-35W: a single open lane, a stationary tractor-trailer, and a pickup that struck its rear corner. Until the investigation is complete, police have not said whether speed, visibility, fatigue, the work-zone layout or any other factor played a role, and no blame has been assigned to either driver.
Burleson police say the circumstances remain under investigation and no determination on contributing factors has been made. The driver's name will be released only after his family has been notified.
What happens next
Burleson police investigators will complete their reconstruction of the crash, including the position of the stationary tractor-trailer in the work zone and the pickup's path through the coned single lane, before any findings on cause are released. The dead driver's identity is expected to be made public once next-of-kin notification is confirmed. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the name and the investigators' findings are released.