The city of Montgomery is hurting right now. Deep down, bone-aching kind of hurt that only comes when a community loses one of its own way too soon. Tevin Massey, a young man remembered by nearly everyone who knew him as the kind of person who lit up a room, is gone — taken by a two-vehicle crash that tore through the intersection of Ann Street and Interstate 85 on a Thursday afternoon that nobody in this town is ever going to forget.
First responders rushed to the scene after calls started flooding in about a serious collision near one of Montgomery’s busiest stretches of road. When emergency personnel arrived, the damage was already telling a grim story. Medical crews worked fast and hard, doing everything they possibly could. But it wasn’t enough. Tevin Massey didn’t make it. He succumbed to the injuries he sustained in that crash, and just like that, a light went out in Montgomery.
The details of what exactly caused the collision are still being pieced together. Investigators are out there right now going over everything — traffic flow, speed, road conditions, the whole nine yards. Authorities haven’t released a full breakdown yet, but the investigation is very much active and ongoing. Nobody is letting this one slide through the cracks.
What spread faster than any official report, though, was the grief. Word of Tevin’s passing moved through Montgomery like a wave, and it hit hard. People who knew him, people who grew up with him, people who just crossed his path once and never forgot it — they all came forward. The tributes poured in. Story after story painted the same picture of a man who showed up for people, who made you laugh when you needed it most, who carried loyalty like it was second nature to him.
His family is going through something no family should ever have to go through. Losing someone that suddenly, without warning, without a chance to say goodbye — that’s a kind of pain that doesn’t have words. Right now, they’re leaning into their faith and leaning on the people around them, holding each other up the best they can while they try to make sense of something that just doesn’t make sense.
This crash has also cracked open a bigger conversation in Montgomery about road safety at these kinds of heavy-traffic intersections. Ann Street and I-85 see a serious amount of daily movement, and residents are asking the hard questions about what more can be done to protect lives at crossroads like this one. It’s a conversation that’s long overdue.
But above all of that, above every policy discussion and investigation update, what Montgomery is really focused on right now is Tevin. His laugh. His energy. The way he made people feel when he walked into a room. His family and friends are carrying that with them every single day, and this community is carrying it right alongside them. Tevin Massey deserved more time, and Montgomery knows it
