A woman walking on Interstate 69 in Splendora, in Montgomery County northeast of Houston, was struck and killed by a southbound 18-wheeler early on Sunday, November 15, 2026, the Splendora Police Department said, as reported by FOX 26 Houston. Police had received a call about a woman walking on the highway roughly half an hour before she was found dead, but officers could not find her on that first search.
The warning call, and the second call
Police told FOX 26 they were called at around 6:30 a.m. about a female pedestrian walking on Highway 69 and could not find her. Montgomery County Police Reporter put that first call at about 6:20 a.m. and said she had been reported walking in the main lanes of I-69 near FM 2090. The two sources differ by about ten minutes on the first call; both agree officers searched and did not locate her at that stage.
Shortly before 7 a.m., police said, another caller reported a woman lying in a turn lane along the highway. Montgomery County Police Reporter said East Montgomery County Fire was dispatched at 6:56 a.m., found her in the southbound-to-northbound U-turn lane at FM 2090, and medics pronounced her dead after CPR was started. Officers determined she was the same person reported in the first call.
The truck driver's account
The driver who struck her called police, returned to the scene and shared dashcam footage with officers, police told FOX 26. That cooperation — stopping, coming back and handing over video — is now a central piece of the evidence investigators are reviewing.
Montgomery County Police Reporter identified the driver as an 18-wheeler driver who told officers he was travelling southbound on the I-69 main lanes when a woman walked across the freeway in front of him. The local reporter said the truck had right-front damage and that the impact threw her off the overpass to the access road below. Those details come from the driver's account as reported at the scene, not from a completed investigation, and they have not been presented as final findings.
Confirmed: a woman was reported walking on I-69 near FM 2090 early Sunday; she was later found dead in the U-turn lane at FM 2090; the driver returned and gave police dashcam footage; prosecutors have declined charges for now. Not yet known: her name and age, the trucking company, and the exact time of impact — the sources give call and dispatch times, not a confirmed collision time.
No charges for now, investigation continues
Based on the initial investigation, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office decided not to file criminal charges at this time, police told FOX 26, and the crash is still under investigation by the Splendora Police Department. A decision not to file charges at this stage is not a final finding about civil responsibility, and it can be revisited if the completed investigation or new evidence changes the picture.
Why this stretch of highway matters
Interstate 69 — signed together with U.S. Highway 59 through this part of Texas — is one of the Houston area's main freight and travel corridors, carrying heavy truck traffic between Houston and East Texas through Montgomery County, including through the pre-dawn hours when this crash happened. For the many Punjabi and other long-haul truckers who run U.S. 59, the case is a stark reminder of the pedestrian risk on high-speed freeways before sunrise, when a person on foot in dark main lanes can be almost impossible to see in time.
What investigators will still examine
The open questions are the ones investigators typically work through in a truck-pedestrian death: why the woman was on the freeway and where she had come from, the lighting and visibility at I-69 and FM 2090 at that hour, the truck's speed and lane, and what the dashcam footage and the truck's onboard records show. Montgomery County Police Reporter said the highway was affected for just over two hours. Nothing reported so far suggests anyone acted improperly, and no allegation has been made against the driver.
What happens next
Police have not identified the woman; officers were working to reach her loved ones, and her name and age are expected to be released once family notification is complete. The trucking company and the driver have not been named in the sources reviewed. The Splendora Police Department's investigation will produce the official crash record, and the district attorney's charging decision will stand or be revisited on the completed file.