Two interstates cross this county, and one of them carries a segment ranked among the worst in Texas for truck delay. The crash numbers follow.
Of all the counties ringing Bexar, Guadalupe recorded the most commercial motor vehicle crashes in 2024 — 423, ahead of Comal at 205, Atascosa at 129, and Medina and Wilson at 78 each.
The reason is geography. Both I-10 and I-35 cross Guadalupe County, carrying the San Antonio–Houston freight run and the Laredo–Austin–Dallas corridor through the same jurisdiction. TxDOT and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute rank the I-35 segment through Guadalupe County 73rd most congested in Texas and 42nd worst in the state for truck delay.
Add to that some of the fastest residential growth in the region — Schertz, Cibolo and the Seguin corridor — and you have heavy freight moving through communities that were rural a decade ago. Cases are filed in Seguin, about forty minutes from our office.
I-35 through Guadalupe County carries long-haul freight moving north from the Laredo border crossings — where TxDOT recorded more than 3.3 million northbound commercial vehicle crossings in 2024, more than six of every ten trucks entering Texas from Mexico. These are through-loads: interstate carriers, sometimes cross-border operations, frequently with a broker or drayage company in the chain.
I-10 carries the San Antonio–Houston run, including petrochemical and port-related traffic. Carriers hauling oil or hazardous materials must carry $1,000,000 in minimum coverage under 49 C.F.R. § 387.9 rather than the $750,000 general-freight floor.
And then there is the local layer that a corridor-only description misses: aggregate and construction hauling serving the growth in Schertz, Cibolo and Seguin, agricultural traffic on the farm-to-market roads, and oilfield equipment moving between the Eagle Ford counties and the I-10 corridor. Much of that is intrastate, which matters more than it sounds.
Federal hours-of-service rules cap property-carrying drivers at 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window after 10 consecutive hours off. Texas has adopted its own intrastate rule under 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 4.12: an intrastate driver may drive up to 12 hours after 8 consecutive hours off, and may not drive after 15 hours on duty.
Texas adopts the federal safety regulations for intrastate carriers through 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 4.11, applying to vehicles over 26,000 pounds actual or rated gross weight. So the same records exist — records of duty status, driver qualification file, maintenance and inspection records, accident register — but the fatigue analysis produces a different answer depending on whether the load crossed a state line.
Determining which regime applied is not a technicality. It can be the difference between a violation and a lawful trip, and it is one of the first things worth establishing in a Guadalupe County case where local and through traffic mix.
A through-load unit is back on the road within days. Six months is the federal floor for the driver’s records of duty status, and heavy-truck ECM data has no required retention at all.
This determines which hours-of-service regime applied — the federal 11/14 or the Texas 12/15 — and therefore whether the driving was lawful.
Motor carrier, shipper, broker, lessor and maintenance contractor. Cross-border and drayage loads frequently involve several.
Scene documentation, TxDOT camera footage where it exists, and nearby commercial cameras — most of which overwrite within weeks.
Generally where the crash occurred or where a defendant resides. A collision on I-10 or I-35 within Guadalupe County usually means the district court in Seguin. Where multiple defendants sit in different counties, venue can be contested, and it is worth analyzing rather than assuming. We handle the filing and the travel either way.
It matters a great deal to the fatigue analysis. Federal rules allow 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window; the Texas intrastate rule under 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 4.12 allows 12 hours of driving and bars driving after 15 hours on duty. The same set of logs can be a violation under one regime and lawful under the other, so establishing which applied is an early priority.
Yes, if it meets the weight thresholds. Texas adopts the federal safety regulations for intrastate vehicles over 26,000 pounds actual or rated gross weight, which brings in the record-keeping, driver qualification and maintenance requirements. Construction and aggregate hauling serving the growth around Schertz, Cibolo and Seguin generates a real share of these cases.
Quickly. A driver’s records of duty status are protected for six months under 49 C.F.R. § 395.8(k)(1) and no longer. Maintenance records need only be kept one year, and six months after the vehicle leaves the carrier’s control. Heavy-truck engine control module data has no federal retention requirement at all and can be overwritten by further driving.
Seguin is about forty minutes from our office and we can be there quickly. Call (210) 832-9090.