Harrison Short, a 20-year-old from Auburn, was killed Friday morning when the GMC Sierra he was riding in hit a tractor-trailer on Hwy. 82 in Autauga County and was then struck by a Chevrolet Silverado. The crash happened around 7:30 a.m. about two miles west of Billingsley.
Short died at the scene. David Bethel, 50, a passenger in the Silverado, was also pronounced dead there, bringing the death toll to two in a wreck that injured four other people.
The crash is now being read through the question that matters most in the first hours after a fatal collision: what set it in motion. The available facts do not say why the Sierra crossed into the tractor-trailer, whether speed played a role, or whether any other factor was involved before the impact chain began.
One detail that may matter later is already on the record: Short was allegedly not wearing a seat belt, and the Silverado driver reportedly was not wearing one either. The driver of the Silverado was taken to Baptist Medical Center South, while the driver and a passenger in the GMC were transported to the Montgomery hospital and another occupant in the Sierra was airlifted to Baptist Medical Center South.
For now, the crash stands as a sudden, fatal stretch of highway violence in central Alabama, with two people dead and four others hurt before investigators have answered the simplest question of all: why the first vehicle hit the truck.
