Omaha man, 18, identified as motorist killed in crash near Waverly

An 18-year-old Omaha man died in a crash Friday morning after his vehicle crossed the center line and collided head-on with a semi-truck near Waverly, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office.

Harrison F. Miller was pronounced dead at the scene along U.S. 6 near 162nd Street, about a mile northeast of Waverly, where authorities responded to the crash at about 10:45 a.m. 

Miller, a graduate of Elkhorn South High School, was a freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studying criminology and criminal justice.  

He was driving east on U.S. 6 in a 2017 Volkswagen Jetta when the car crossed the center line and collided with a westbound Mack semi with a trailer, Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said.

The collision sent both vehicles off the highway, the Jetta coming to rest in a ditch just south of the road, while the semi veered to the north and rolled, Houchin said. 

Rescue crews from Lincoln, Waverly, Southeast Rural and Greenwood extricated the semi’s driver — 47-year-old John Tran of Lincoln — who was taken by ambulance to a Lincoln hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He was in serious-but-stable condition Friday, Houchin said. 

Investigators determined Miller was wearing a seat belt and the Volkswagen’s airbags did deploy, according to a sheriff’s office news release. Deputies don’t suspect that alcohol or drugs played a role in the crash.

The collision forced authorities to close U.S. 6 from Waverly Road to 176th Street for much of Friday afternoon. It had reopened by 3 p.m.

The crash remains under investigation.