{"id":337342,"date":"2026-06-15T19:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/337342\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:23:16","slug":"is-it-legal-to-drive-around-flooded-road-barricades-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/337342\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it legal to drive around flooded road barricades in Texas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the National Weather Service, nearly 1 to 5 inches of rain had fallen<\/a> in parts of Central Texas by Monday morning. Flash flood warnings for Travis, Hays and Williamson counties had expired by midmorning, but a flood watch remained in effect for much of the region through 7 p.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The storm\u2019s main impact in Austin appeared to be flooding at low-water crossings<\/a> and other flood-prone roads. More than 100 water crossings in the Austin area were closed Monday morning, and officials continued to urge drivers not to cross flooded roads.<\/p>\n

But while officials are warning people to avoid flooded roads, some drivers might feel emboldened to drive around barricades. Is that legal? Here\u2019s what Texas law says.<\/p>\n

Not only are people at risk of putting themselves in danger by ignoring barricades, but they also could face penalties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Texas Transportation Code<\/a>, it is a misdemeanor to disobey traffic warning signs or drive around barricades on a roadway. If the sign or barricade was placed because water is over part of a road, street or highway, the offense is a Class B misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

The penalty can depend on the circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Texas drivers might assume road conditions are safe after a storm or feel confident in their driving skills, drivers who attempt to go around barriers often get stuck in flooded low-water crossings or active construction sites.<\/p>\n

“[Flooding] can cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles, even heavy pickup trucks and SUVs,” TxDOT said. “That\u2019s a major reason why most flood-related deaths in Texas happen in vehicles.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agency shared these safety tips for Texas drivers:\u00a0<\/p>\n

-Austin American-Statesman reporter Dante Motley contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the National Weather Service, nearly 1 to 5 inches of rain had fallen in parts of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,85656],"class_list":["post-337342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-marley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}