An 82-year-old Opelika man has died nearly a week after the SUV he was riding in was struck by a pickup truck near Waverly, Alabama, according to Alabama State Troopers. Robert Stewart died on August 29, days after the two-vehicle crash at the intersection of U.S. Highway 280 and Seals Street left the SUV overturned and sent him to a Georgia trauma center for treatment.
Stewart was a passenger in the SUV, which his wife, 81-year-old Frances Stewart, was driving when it was hit by a pickup truck driven by 35-year-old Auburn resident James Graves, as reported by WAKA Action 8 News. The crash happened on August 23 near the rural tri-county junction where Chambers, Lee, and Tallapoosa counties meet, roughly two miles west of central Waverly, according to Land.com.
The force of the impact caused the SUV to overturn, per the station's report. Robert Stewart was flown by medical helicopter to Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown Campus in Columbus, Georgia — a Level II Trauma Center that handles severe multi-system trauma cases across 21 counties in west Georgia and east Alabama, according to ApolloMD. Local emergency response coverage captured the helicopter landing directly on U.S. 280 at Seals Street to airlift him out, per Colin Scroggins CNAW.
Wife Taken to Opelika Hospital, Passenger Later Dies
Frances Stewart was taken by ground transport to East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, the main hospital serving Lee and Chambers counties for regional traffic injuries, according to the City of Opelika. She survived the crash, though the extent of her injuries was not detailed in the report.
Robert Stewart did not survive. The same account states that he died from his injuries on August 29, nearly a week after the wreck. Details on the circumstances of Graves's pickup truck striking the Stewarts' SUV, including which vehicle had the right-of-way, have not been released.
Right-of-Way Rules and What Comes Next
Alabama law lays out clear rules for who must yield at intersections like the one at U.S. 280 and Seals Street. Under Alabama Code § 32-5A-110, when two vehicles approach or enter an intersection at roughly the same time, the driver on the left must yield to the driver on the right, according to Justia. A separate statute, Alabama Code § 32-5A-111, requires drivers turning left within an intersection to yield to any approaching vehicle that poses an immediate hazard.
It remains unclear which statute, if any, applies to the Seals Street crash, since no findings on fault have been made public. The full official Alabama Uniform Traffic Crash Report, which includes crash diagrams and investigative findings from Highway Patrol troopers, typically takes seven to 10 business days to become available through the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency portal, according to the Fob James Law Firm.
A Highway With a History of Deadly Wrecks
U.S. 280, once known as the “Florida Short Route,” was fully widened into a continuous four-lane divided highway across Alabama in 2006, an upgrade meant to cut down on the head-on and fatal wrecks that had plagued its narrower two-lane stretches, per Wikipedia. Despite that overhaul, rural highway crashes remain a persistent problem across the state.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has identified failure to yield, speeding, and failure to wear seat belts as leading contributing factors in fatal rural crashes statewide, including in Chambers County, during recent safety enforcement campaigns. The agency also reported a 66 percent drop in statewide roadway traffic fatalities during major 2026 holiday enforcement periods compared to 2025, crediting increased trooper patrols on rural high-speed corridors, according to The Trussville Tribune.
