SEARCY, Ark. (KTHV) - New details have been released surrounding the death of Harding student Nicholas Smith and injury of two of his fellow students.
Nicholas Smith, 21, and two of his university friends were traveling on Interstate 71 just outside Louisville, Ky. headed to Syracuse, N.Y., when their vehicle was crushed between two semi-trucks around 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning. Smith died of his injuries shortly after the crash, one passenger was airlifted to a Louisville hospital where he underwent surgery and is now in recovery, and the other passenger was treated and released.
Eleven university students were caravanning in four separate cars to the Wetzel Road Church of Christ in Syracuse on a mission trip, where Smith was expected to become a summer intern.
Family and friends, as well as Harding University administrators, traveled to Louisville to show support to the family.
"All through the day on Saturday, there was a steady stream of people who came to the hospital with offers to help in any way that was needed," said Harding President Bruce McLarty. "At least four different church congregations were represented, and two nearby Harding-trained ministers, Conrad Moorer and Larry Sawyer, spent the day helping the family walk through the long hours of the day. Numerous times during that difficult day, I heard people say, 'The body of Christ is here today.'"
For anyone that would like to donate to the family, the Buford (Georgia) Church of Christ has set up the Nicholas Smith Family Fund.
"They left Searcy full of purpose, love, joy and hope. Nothing that happened on that Kentucky highway can take those things away from them," McLarty added. "Their hope in Christ is even more real to all of us today than it was two days ago."
