The GvilleTX Newsroom has been unable to confirm a report that a serious crash closed the southbound lanes of U.S. 377 at Hawkins Home Boulevard early Friday, and the public records that name that intersection place it in Benbrook, in the Fort Worth area, rather than in Gainesville or Cooke County.
The account that prompted this review described a wreck shortly after 3:30 a.m. Friday, said all southbound lanes were shut and traffic was routed onto the service road, and reported that the highway later reopened. None of those details matched a primary incident record the newsroom was able to retrieve.
The Texas Department of Transportation's Fort Worth District keeps a running list of active highway incidents for the region, and it is the agency's public channel for real-time closures and crashes. When the newsroom checked that list, it held no entry for a crash or lane closure at U.S. 377 and Hawkins Home Boulevard. A blank feed does not prove that nothing happened, since entries are added and cleared as conditions change and a short-lived record could since have dropped off. Without one, the reported time, the closure, the service-road detour, and the reopening remain unverified.
Public records reviewed for this report place Hawkins Home Boulevard at U.S. 377 in Benbrook, a city in the Fort Worth area, rather than along the section of highway that runs through Gainesville. The City of Benbrook's public notices document TxDOT work on U.S. 377 inside the city and reference the traffic signals at Hawkins Home Boulevard. A separate project file kept by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation lists the same U.S. 377 and Hawkins Home Boulevard site under a Benbrook, Texas 76126 address.
State crews have worked that corridor before. Benbrook's records point to earlier TxDOT mobility and safety projects on U.S. 377, including resurfacing that ran from Tiger Trail to RM 2871 and signal improvements at the Hawkins Home Boulevard crossing. Both lie well south of Gainesville.
Because the records reviewed for this report do not establish that the crash took place, the newsroom is not reporting the accident, the lane closure, the diversion, or the reopening as verified facts.
The newsroom will update this report if a primary source sets out the details of the reported closure, whether that is a law enforcement crash report, a TxDOT incident entry, or an official statement from an agency with jurisdiction. Anyone with firsthand knowledge of a crash on U.S. 377 is asked to contact the newsroom so the account can be checked against the record.
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