The death of professional boxer Hannah Rapp has drawn renewed attention to the dangers cyclists face on Texas roads, and to whether cities like Houston are doing enough to protect people traveling outside a vehicle.
Rapp, 26, was killed while riding her bicycle on FM 159 near Bryan, approximately 80 miles northwest of Houston on July 18, 2026. According to authorities, Rapp and another cyclist were traveling along a rural road when a driver passed them at a “high rate of speed,” stopped, shifted into reverse, and struck Rapp. Some reports mention that a cyclist “raised his arms and yelled toward the vehicle” as a response to the vehicle’s high rate of speed.
The 31-year-old driver has been charged with manslaughter and was initially held on a $250,000 bond. The charge remains an allegation, and the criminal case has not yet been resolved. Authorities have not publicly established a motive for the reported actions.
Rapp had recently challenged for a World Boxing Council featherweight title. Originally from Indiana, she graduated from Purdue University and moved to Texas in 2024, where she worked as a fire and life safety inspector at Texas A&M University.
Although the collision happened outside Houston, it raises a familiar question for cyclists and pedestrians throughout the region: Are Texas roads designed and enforced in a way that treats people outside vehicles as equal road users? This article explores that question and provides statistics on pedestrian and cyclist accidents in Houston and around Texas for 2024 and 2025.
On This Page
- Cyclists Continue to Be Killed and Seriously Injured Across Texas
- Houston’s Streets Remain Especially Dangerous
- Cyclists Have Legal Rights, but Protection Is Inconsistent
- Street Design Shows How Houston Treats Cyclists and Pedestrians
- Drivers Must Treat Cyclists as Road Users
- Contact an Attorney for Cyclist Injuries in Houston
Cyclists Continue to Be Killed and Seriously Injured Across Texas
In theory, Texas law generally gives cyclists the same rights and responsibilities as motorists. In practice, however, cyclists remain exposed to inattentive drivers, high vehicle speeds, unsafe passing, and roads with little or no protected bicycle infrastructure.
In 2024, Texas recorded:
- 2,761 crashes involving bicycles
- 80 cyclist deaths
- 429 serious cyclist injuries
The Texas Department of Transportation identified driver inattention, failure to yield, and speeding as some of the leading factors in crashes involving cyclists.
Pedestrians face an even greater threat. During the same year, Texas recorded 6,095 pedestrian crashes. Those collisions killed 772 people and seriously injured another 1,455. Although pedestrian crashes represented only about 1% of all reported traffic crashes, pedestrians accounted for approximately 19% of Texas roadway deaths.
More recent statewide figures remain incomplete. In a March 2026 safety update, TxDOT reported what it described as an “early 2025” snapshot containing 527 bicycle crashes and 1,372 pedestrian crashes. Those crashes resulted in a combined 186 deaths.
Houston’s Streets Remain Especially Dangerous
Houston has made public commitments to eliminate traffic deaths, but recent crash data demonstrate how far the city remains from that goal.
At least 345 people died on Houston roads in 2024, making it one of the deadliest years in the city’s recent history. These numbers dropped to 314 in 2025, but are far over the 209 traffic deaths Houston saw in 2018. In 2024, 44 pedestrians were killed on Houston interstates.
Preliminary 2025 figures show some improvement, but the numbers remain alarming. Houston recorded approximately 300 traffic deaths and 1,516 serious injuries during the year. These fatalities included 99 pedestrians and 10 cyclists.
Together, pedestrians and cyclists represented more than 36% of Houston’s traffic fatalities in 2025, even though they account for a much smaller percentage of trips. Harris County as a whole recorded 517 deaths and 2,758 serious injuries, according to the preliminary data.
For context, this menas that nearly two pedestrians were killed every week in Houston in 2025.
Cyclists Have Legal Rights, but Protection Is Inconsistent
Under the Texas Transportation Code Chapter 551, a person operating a bicycle generally has the same rights and duties as a motorist. Cyclists are permitted to use Texas roadways unless a specific law or traffic-control device says otherwise.
Houston also has a “vulnerable road user” ordinance intended to protect cyclists, pedestrians, roadway workers, and others. Drivers are generally required to leave at least three feet of space when passing in a passenger vehicle and at least six feet when operating a larger commercial vehicle. The ordinance also prohibits drivers from intimidating, harassing, or throwing objects at vulnerable road users.
Pedestrians similarly have the right of way in qualifying crosswalk situations. Texas law requires drivers to stop and yield when a pedestrian is within a crosswalk under circumstances covered by the statute. Drivers may not pass another vehicle that has stopped to allow a pedestrian to cross.
The larger problem is that legal rights do not automatically produce safe streets.
An earlier Houston Chronicle investigation found that Houston police issued only 64 citations under the city’s safe-passing ordinance during its first nine years. Sparse enforcement can make this protection largely invisible to cyclists.
Street Design Shows How Houston Treats Cyclists and Pedestrians
Houston’s treatment of vulnerable road users is reflected not only in its laws, but also in the way its streets are built.
Many of the city’s most dangerous roads are wide, high-speed corridors designed primarily to move large numbers of vehicles. This means that most streets have long distances between marked crossings, poorly connected bike lanes and turn lanes that encourage higher rates of speed.
The city has installed measures such as enhanced crosswalks, flashing pedestrian beacons, speed humps and traffic signals that give pedestrians an earlier opportunity to enter an intersection.
At the same time, cyclist advocates have criticized changes to previously planned street redesigns and the removal or alteration of certain bicycle facilities. Recent disputes over protected lanes on Austin Street and in the Heights have increased concerns that Houston’s transportation policy is moving away from comprehensive street redesign and toward a primarily enforcement-based approach.
Enforcement is important, particularly when drivers speed, fail to yield, pass too closely, or deliberately threaten a cyclist. But police cannot be present for every interaction. A roadway that depends entirely on perfect driver behavior will continue to produce preventable cyclist injuries.
Drivers Must Treat Cyclists as Road Users
Cyclists are sometimes blamed for being difficult to see, traveling too slowly, or interfering with vehicle traffic. Those attitudes ignore the basic legal reality that cyclists are entitled to use most public roads.
A driver approaching a cyclist should slow down, allow adequate passing distance, change lanes when necessary, and wait until passing can be completed safely. Feeling delayed or inconvenienced does not justify following too closely, honking aggressively, swerving toward a bicycle, or attempting to force a cyclist off the road.
Rapp’s death involves unusually disturbing allegations, including the claim that the driver stopped and reversed over her. Most cycling crashes do not involve conduct that extreme. Nevertheless, ordinary behaviors like speeding and failing to yield continue to kill cyclists throughout Texas.
Contact an Attorney for Cyclist Injuries in Houston
Cyclists and pedestrians have the same right to use Houston’s streets as anyone else. The death of Hannah Rapp is one more example that Texas has a problem with respecting cyclists, and with road rage.
Hilda Sibrian has represented pedestrian and cyclist victims of reckless driving in Houston for over 22 years. If you or someone you love has been seriously injured or killed due to another person’s actions, you need to call an experienced Houston attorney as soon as possible. Our team is here to review your case, explain your legal options, and fight for the compensation you deserve.
The Law Offices of Hilda Sibrian serve all of Houston and Texas, including Sugar Land, Missouri City, La Porte, Beaumont, Pasadena, The Woodlands, The Heights, Bellaire, Kingwood, Baytown and of course Houston proper.
Call the Law Offices of Hilda Sibrian today for a free consultation, or fill out our online contact form.
