BILLINGSLEY, Alabama — Two men were killed and four other people were injured early on Friday, November 13, in a three-vehicle crash involving a tractor-trailer on U.S. Highway 82 in Autauga County, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), whose account was reported by WIAT (Alabama's 42) and CNAW2 News.
The crash happened at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Friday, November 13, on U.S. 82 near the 115-mile marker, approximately two miles west of Billingsley, troopers said. It was a morning-hour collision on a rural stretch of the east-west highway that crosses central Alabama.
How the crash unfolded, according to troopers
ALEA said Harrison R. Short, 20, of Auburn, was a passenger in a 2017 GMC Sierra when the vehicle struck a 2026 Kenworth W990 tractor-trailer driven by Terry R. Lenoir, 59, of Maplesville. Following that initial collision, the GMC Sierra was struck by a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado driven by Terrius R.M. Smith, 27, of Selma, according to the agency's account.
Short, who troopers said was not wearing a seat belt, sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. David L. Bethel, 50, of Jones, who was a passenger in the Chevrolet Silverado, also suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The injured: four people taken to one Montgomery hospital
The driver of the GMC, Joseph L. Whatley III, 19, of Mountain Brook, and a passenger, Gabriel Smith, 19, of Birmingham, were transported to Baptist South Medical Center in Montgomery for treatment, ALEA said. Another occupant of the Sierra, Elliot R. Young, 20, of Auburn, was airlifted to the same Montgomery hospital. Young was also reported not to have been wearing a seat belt.
Terrius R.M. Smith, the driver of the Chevrolet Silverado, was injured and was also transported to Baptist South Medical Center in Montgomery. Troopers said Smith was not wearing a seat belt. The condition of the four injured people has not been released in the reports published so far, and the driver of the Kenworth tractor-trailer was not listed among the injured in ALEA's account.
What investigators have — and have not — said
Troopers with ALEA's Highway Patrol Division continue to investigate the crash. The agency has released the sequence of the collisions, the vehicles and the people involved, but it has not announced a cause, has not said which movement first brought the GMC Sierra and the Kenworth together, and has not announced any charges. WIAT reported that no additional information was immediately available beyond the troopers' account.
In its account of this crash, ALEA specifically noted that Harrison Short, Elliot Young and Terrius Smith were not wearing seat belts. Two of the three died or were airlifted. The agency included the detail in its release, as it routinely does in fatal-crash reports, while the cause of the collision itself remains under investigation.
Why this corridor matters
U.S. 82 is one of the main east-west routes across central Alabama, carrying local traffic, farm and freight movement — including tractor-trailers like the Kenworth involved here — between Montgomery and communities to the west. A crash in the early morning hours involving a loaded highway corridor is exactly the kind of incident that closes lanes and diverts traffic for hours, though ALEA's released account did not give a reopening time for this scene.
For Punjabi and other long-haul truckers who run U.S. highways in the Southeast, the report is a reminder of how quickly a routine morning run can turn fatal when passenger vehicles and tractor-trailers collide — and of the detail investigators focus on first: the sequence of impacts, and who was belted and who was not.
What happens next
The ALEA Highway Patrol Division investigation continues. The next information expected in the case is the agency's fuller crash report, including any finding on cause and any decision on charges. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if ALEA releases those findings or the hospital conditions of the four injured people.