Pecos sits at the center of the busiest oil play in the country, and its roads pay the price. The same highways that carry crude, water, sand, and crews to the Delaware Basin also carry a relentless stream of 18-wheelers through a town and a county that were never built to handle them. The result is some of the most dangerous driving conditions in Texas.

The numbers are stark. An estimated 15,000 trucks pass through Pecos every day, and Reeves County has earned a grim distinction as one of the deadliest counties in the nation for truck-involved crashes. The two-lane stretch of US-285 running north and south out of Pecos has a nickname locals use without irony: “Death Highway.”

This guide explains where crashes concentrate around Pecos, why oilfield traffic makes these roads so lethal, and what your options are if you or a family member is hurt in a wreck here.

Why the Roads Around Pecos Are So Deadly

In West Texas, a crash is far more likely to end in death than the same crash in a city — higher speeds, longer distances for EMS to reach the scene, and the sheer mass of fully loaded commercial trucks all stack the odds against survival. Truck-related collisions now make up roughly half of all motor vehicle crashes in the Permian Basin.

State officials know the corridor is overwhelmed. TxDOT has been working to fund a relief route — a project estimated at around $194 million — to move heavy traffic away from the heart of Pecos, and has launched safety projects along US-285 north and south of the city. Until that infrastructure is built, drivers are left sharing narrow, aging highways with thousands of trucks a day.

Where Crashes Cluster Around Pecos

Unlike a dense city, the danger around Pecos is concentrated less in stoplight intersections and more along a few overloaded corridors where passenger vehicles and commercial trucks are forced together at highway speed.

Dangerous Roads in and Around Pecos

• US-285 (“Death Highway”) — the two-lane stretches running north toward New Mexico and south toward Fort Stockton
• I-20 through Reeves County — heavy interstate truck traffic and high-speed merges
• The I-20 / US-285 interchange at Pecos, where interstate and oilfield traffic converge
• Business I-20 (3rd Street) through town, where truck routes meet local traffic
• FM and county roads feeding the oilfields, often unpaved-origin routes never engineered for this volume
• At-grade railroad crossings in and near Pecos, a repeated concern in recent local safety pleas

Many of these routes — including long sections from Pecos toward Sanderson — were originally mapped as unpaved “earth roads” and were never designed to carry heavy commercial traffic. Two-lane geometry, limited shoulders, and head-on exposure make even a momentary lapse catastrophic.

Why These Roads Produce Such Severe Crashes

On two-lane highways like US-285, the most common deadly crash is the head-on collision — a driver drifts, fatigues, or tries to pass and crosses the center line into oncoming traffic. When the oncoming vehicle is a loaded tanker or 18-wheeler, the size and weight mismatch is almost impossible to survive. Add high winds (which have triggered multi-vehicle pileups near Pecos), driver fatigue from long oilfield shifts, and tight delivery schedules, and the corridor becomes one of the most unforgiving in the state.

Your Rights After a Truck or Car Accident Near Pecos

Crashes involving commercial trucks are not like ordinary fender-benders, and they are not handled like them. A trucking company’s insurer and accident response team are often working the scene within hours, gathering evidence to limit what they pay. The driver’s logbook, the truck’s electronic control module (“black box”), maintenance records, and dispatch data can all be decisive — and all can be lost if no one moves quickly to preserve them.

Responsibility for an oilfield or commercial-truck crash often reaches well beyond the driver. The trucking company, the equipment owner, a staffing contractor, the shipper, and a maintenance provider may all share liability, and federal trucking regulations create obligations that an experienced lawyer can use to build your case. Identifying every responsible party also means identifying every available insurance policy — which can be the difference between a settlement that covers your losses and one that falls far short.

Texas law lets injured people pursue compensation for medical bills, future care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, disfigurement, and pain and suffering. In a fatal crash, surviving family members may bring a wrongful death claim. You should not navigate that against a billion-dollar trucking or energy company on your own.

McFarlane Law investigates the wreck, moves fast to preserve evidence, identifies every party that may be accountable, and fights the insurers — in court if necessary. There is no fee unless we win.