What started as a routine call about a reckless driver quickly turned into one of the more chaotic scenes Central Texas highways have seen in recent memory. On Wednesday morning, a garbage truck driver led law enforcement on a chase stretching more than 30 miles along Interstate 35, barreling through multiple counties before eventually being stopped in Austin.
The Hays County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed the arrest of the driver, identified as Devante Dunn. By the time it was all over, six vehicles had been struck, four people were injured, and nearly every major law enforcement agency between New Braunfels and Austin had been pulled into the pursuit.
The whole ordeal kicked off around 8 a.m. when someone called in a reckless driver operating a trash truck on Farm-to-Market Road 306. When a Comal County Sheriff’s Office deputy tried to make a routine traffic stop, Dunn ran a red light and hit another vehicle. That was just the opening act.
From there, the chase snaked northbound through the heart of Texas’s busiest stretch of interstate, passing landmarks like Center Point Road in San Marcos, the McCarty Lane exit, and the Seguin exit. If you have ever sat in I-35 traffic and wondered how things could possibly get worse, Wednesday provided a pretty convincing answer.
The Chase by the Numbers
The scale of this incident is genuinely hard to wrap your head around. Dunn managed to rack up an impressive and alarming series of events before law enforcement was able to bring the truck to a halt. After the initial collision at the red light, deputies deployed stop sticks, which successfully deflated both front and rear left tires on the truck’s left side. Even that did not stop Dunn, who continued driving and struck yet another vehicle before jumping a curb and heading north on the interstate frontage road.
At one point near the 213-mile marker, Dunn briefly exited the truck, apparently reconsidered, and climbed back in to keep going. It was only after the truck ultimately slammed into a wall in Austin that the chase ended. Even then, Dunn fled on foot before being captured and taken into custody.
Six vehicles struck. Four people injured. A multi-county law enforcement response. And a brief, bizarre pit stop where the driver apparently thought about calling it quits and then decided not to.
A Long List of Charges and an Uncooperative Suspect
Dunn now faces a significant pile of legal trouble. The charges include evading arrest with a vehicle, evading arrest on foot, four counts of aggravated assault, four counts of collision with injury, driving while intoxicated, and driving while license invalid. That is a combination of charges that will keep attorneys busy for quite some time.
As of Wednesday, Dunn did not have an attorney listed. Authorities were also unable to release a booking photo because, according to the Comal County Public Information Office, Dunn was not cooperating with jail staff. It is worth noting that the decision to not cooperate after a 30-mile chase involving a garbage truck is a bold strategic choice.
The response required coordination across multiple agencies, including the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Kyle Police Department, the Austin Police Department, the San Marcos Police Department, and the New Braunfels Police Department.
What We Can Learn From This Incident
High-speed chases involving large commercial vehicles are extraordinarily dangerous for everyone on the road. A garbage truck, unlike a sedan, weighs tens of thousands of pounds and takes much longer to stop, even with functional tires. The fact that only four people were injured, while serious, could easily have been far worse given the vehicle involved and the densely trafficked stretch of highway.
This incident raises broader questions about how law enforcement manages pursuits involving commercial vehicles. Stop sticks, which worked to deflate tires here, are one of the key tools in a pursuit toolkit, but damaged tires alone clearly were not enough to stop the truck immediately. Agencies in Texas and across the country continue to refine their pursuit policies to weigh the risk of continued chasing against the risk of letting a dangerous driver remain on the road.
For everyday drivers, the incident is a reminder that I-35, already one of the most congested and accident-prone corridors in the country, can turn unpredictable fast. Staying aware, maintaining distance from erratic drivers, and reporting dangerous behavior to 911 early, as the original caller did Wednesday morning, remains one of the most effective tools the public has in situations like these.