Gail Delaughter / Houston Public Media
FILE: New sidewalk along Westheimer near Beltway 8.
A 73-year-old woman died early Friday morning after she was struck by a truck while walking on Westheimer Road, which was recently cited as one of the most dangerous stretches of pavement for pedestrians in the United States.
According to the Houston Police Department, the woman was hit by the driver of a white Dodge Ram truck traveling westbound near the 9500 block of Westheimer in the western part of the city. Police say witnesses at the scene reported seeing a second vehicle strike the pedestrian.
The driver of the white Dodge Ram stopped after the collision, according to police, but the driver of the other vehicle did not. The driver of the Dodge Ram did not show signs of intoxication, police said.
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HPD said the woman allegedly failed to yield the right of way before walking into the roadway, according to the department’s preliminary investigation. The woman’s identity had not yet been released as of Friday afternoon.
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The deadly crash happened two days after The Washington Post published an article examining the most deadly roads for pedestrians in the U.S. over the past several years.
According to The Post, Westheimer Road ranked first for the highest number of pedestrian deaths from 2021-2023 — a total of 19 across the three-year period. Another Houston road, FM 1960 in the northern part of the city, was tied for fourth nationally with 11 deaths during that span. Houston was the only city to appear more than once on the list and was the only Texas city on the list.
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The report did not include interstates and highways and used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Late last month, a Houston woman was convicted of manslaughter for crashing her Porsche into a man who was on a Westheimer Road sidewalk in 2023. The driver, Kristina Chambers, 34, was sentenced to 11 years and 14 days in prison on Oct. 27.