Victims Identified in Deadly Elmore County Crash
Four people are dead, including an Elmore County Sheriff’s deputy, after a 2-vehicle crash. It happened on Firetower Road, about a mile north of Redland Road on Sunday night. Sheriff Bill Franklin says 51-year-old deputy James Bart Hart, was on regular patrol after leaving the scene of a deer crash. According to Franklin, a second vehicle, a white 2003 Infinity G35 Infinity, was traveling on Firetower Road with four teens inside. That’s when the head-on collision happened. Franklin says the two-vehicle crash also claimed the lives of 16-year-old Austin Ryan Augustine and two passengers 16-year-old Dylan Adler Bieber and 16-year-old Hoyt Elliot Hardin both of Wetumpka. Sheriff Franklin says the lone survivor of the crash, the third Infinity passenger 16-year-old Nicholas Benjamin of Montgomery, was transported from the scene by medical helicopter to Baptist Medical Center South. He is suffering what appears to be serious injuries. Sheriff Franklin says Benjamin and Deputy Hart were the only occupants using seat belts during the crash. Alabama State Troopers and the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office continue to investigate the cause of the crash and say weather may have been a factor.
