Dad Comes to Help 22-Year-Old Son with Car Issues, Only for Them to Be Both Fatally Struck on Highway

Dad Comes to Help 22-Year-Old Son with Car Issues, Only for Them to Be Both Fatally Struck on Highway https://ift.tt/bLEMs4V

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office identified the victims as Cornelius Dixon, 56, and Jamari Dixon, 22, both of Birmingham, Ala. 

A father and son were killed on I-65 in Birmingham, Ala., after they were struck by vehicles on Sept. 13, 2026
Credit: WBRC 6 News

NEED TO KNOW

• Authorities said a 56-year-old man and a 22-year-old man were killed on Interstate 65 in Birmingham, Ala., after they were struck by oncoming vehicles on Sunday, Sept. 13
• According to family members, Cornelius Dixon was helping his son Jamari, who was having mechanical issues with his car
• A vehicle first hit Cornelius as he tried to remove a wheel, and then an 18-wheeler struck Jamari

What started out as a father helping his son with car troubles on a highway turned tragic when both of them were fatally struck by oncoming vehicles. 

In an email to PEOPLE on Wednesday, Sept. 16, the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office identified the victims as Cornelius Leray Dixon, 56, and Jamari Tre’vionne Dixon, 22, both of Birmingham, Ala. 

According to the coroner’s office, the incident occurred late Sunday evening, Sept. 13, on Interstate 65 North between Finley Boulevard and 32nd Avenue N in Birmingham. They said that two men were struck by motor vehicles about a minute apart. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. 

Cornelius Dixon
Credit: Cornelius Dixon Sr./facebook

The coroner’s office said the Birmingham Police Department is investigating the circumstances behind the deaths. 

In an interview with Fox affiliate WBRC, Samuel Dixon said his brother Jamari was driving home on I-65, “when the axle broke on the back end of his car, and the tire went across the highway and hit the median.” That was when Jamari called his mother to tell her what happened. She then told Jamari’s father, Cornelius, who went on to check on Jamari.

Upon his arrival, Cornelius saw the wheel lying on the interstate and stepped into the roadway to remove it before it became a hazard to other drivers, according to Samuel.

The family later received a phone call from Jamari, who told his mother that his father was struck by a car. Then suddenly, the call stopped. 

“I get up there and think I see my brother off to the side of the road, but it’s actually one of the 18-wheelers that came through and hit my brother,” Samuel told WBRC about when he and the family arrived at the scene. “The second 18-wheeler came through and hit my brother and my dad again. That is when I noticed, up from where he was standing, his 18-wheeler was 100 feet from where my brother’s body was.”

Devonte Dixon said his brother Jamari stepped in to save their father, and that both men had thought about others first instead of themselves when they died. 

“I know just my dad thinking of other drivers, just having that much debris in the road and what kind of damage it would have caused,” Devonte told the outlet. “He was about two lanes out and almost made it back before the first car clipped him, and then the 18-wheeler came through and ended them both. He was out to try to save the next driver from their life, and just potential damage, period.”

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The coroner’s office said that the drivers of the vehicles that struck the men stayed at the scene and reported the incidents. PEOPLE contacted the Birmingham Police Department on Wednesday, but did not receive an immediate response.