Jose Reyes, Cook Springs, AL: Struck and killed on I-20 after surviving initial midnight highway crash

A late-night highway accident turned fatal on Interstate 20 in St. Clair County, Alabama, after a young man survived an initial vehicle crash only to be struck while standing in the roadway. State troopers reported that 21-year-old Jose Daniel Hernandez Reyes of Lithia Springs, Georgia, died at the scene shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 20, 2026.

The sequence of events began just after 12:00 a.m. near the 152-mile marker inside the Cook Springs city limits. Reyes and a companion had been riding along Interstate 20 when their vehicle was involved in an earlier wreck along the darkened stretch of highway.

Following that first collision, both occupants stepped out of their damaged vehicle and onto the active traffic lanes. Standing in the roadway in the middle of the night left them directly exposed to oncoming traffic moving through the Cook Springs area.

Around 12:02 a.m., a 2025 Toyota Camry driven by a Georgia resident approached the scene and struck Reyes where he stood on the pavement. The impact killed the 21-year-old immediately before emergency responders could render aid.

The momentum of the Toyota Camry did not stop with the initial collision. After hitting Reyes, the sedan slammed into an unoccupied 2014 Nissan Sentra that was sitting motionless in the travel lane.

The sedan then struck the second pedestrian, 22-year-old Jennisfer Vanessa Vasquez, who was also from Lithia Springs, Georgia. Paramedics treated Vasquez at the site before transporting her to UAB Hospital in Birmingham for further medical care.

Local authorities closed off the section of Interstate 20 for several hours while emergency crews cleared the wreckage and gathered evidence. Troopers with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Highway Patrol Division are continuing their investigation into the cause of both collisions.

Reyes lived in Lithia Springs, a town located just west of Atlanta in Douglas County, Georgia. Relatives and friends are now dealing with the sudden loss of a young man whose life ended on a quiet stretch of Alabama highway.