Next month will mark one year since Conner Smith was involved in a fatal car accident. On June 8, 2025, Smith accidentally ran over 77-year-old Dorthy Dobbins, who was walking in a crosswalk when Smith hit her. Dobbins passed away from injuries sustained in the accident.

Smith, who stayed onsite at the accident scene, had no signs of impairment. He was charged with a misdemeanor, although charges against him were subsequently dropped, at the request of Dobbins’ family. Still, the weight of his actions changed everything for him in the aftermath.

“I didn’t care,” Smith admits to People. “I didn’t care about my career or image or reputation or even how I would ever come back from this. I just really didn’t care because it just didn’t matter.”

With the clarity that comes almost a year since the accident, Smith reveals that everything about him changed in that one instant.

“In those moments, you see that every side of your life is on fire,” Smith says. “Obviously, I say that with the reality that anything in my world was secondary to the tragedy and what the family was going through.”

“It was no longer about how many tickets I sell or how many streams a song gets or about whether my songs are respected in the upper echelon of critical acclaim,” he adds.

Conner Smith Questions His Faith

A strong Christian, Smith admits he questioned his faith and the God he believed in after he accidentally killed Dobbins.

“Why would He allow this?” Smith remembers questioning. “It was such a fluke moment in life and such a tragedy. You can’t comprehend it. And those questions will linger. There are never going to be answers to why something that tragic would happen or why I was on that road in that second.”

Almost two months after the accident, Smith returned to the Grand Ole Opry to perform for the first time. He was joined by Grand Ole Opry member Steven Curtis Chapman, who tragically lost his own daughter, Marie Sue, in 2008, when his son accidentally ran over her at their family’s home. Smith used his time on the Opry stage to sing worship songs.

Smith credits his faith and his family, including his wife Leah, with helping him move past the accident.

“Tragedy is tragedy, and it plays on everyone differently,” Smith acknowledges. “But in terms of our marriage, the truth was that all this did was just solidifying and unifying it more than anything ever could. She is such a rock. This tragedy reminded me of every reason I chose her as my wife. She embodies peace.”

Although the accident forever changed Smith, he is emerging stronger, and with a clearer focus, in light of the fateful event.

“There’s no way of returning to be the same person you were before,” Smith concedes. “But the grace given to me and my family has been a gift to my life that I can never comprehend or ever be able to quantify.”

Conner Smith Looks Ahead to New Music

Smith is back to making music, albeit with an entirely different focus than he had before the accident. He just released a brand-new single, “Easy On The Eyes,” and is eager to release more in the near future.

“It makes me feel like I’m on a jet ski,” he hints. “The song sounds like a ham and cheese Hawaiian roll to me.”

While Smith may have initially wondered if he would make music again, he now knows that country music is where he belongs.

“I’ve been given this incredible opportunity and gift to be a part of country music and to write songs for a living and pay my mortgage because I have a gift for writing music,” Smith says. “And what matters is that I can do that in a way that’s honest, vulnerable, and can connect with people and can affect their day.”

Of course, Smith would give anything to turn back the hands of time. But instead, the 25-year-old is using the pain he endured and turning it into something meaningful.

“It was obviously the hardest year of our lives,” he says. “But on the other side of those moments, there’s this beauty of growth and of reprioritization of life and of what matters. That’s where I’m walking right now, and it’s such a beautiful place to be in.”

Smith is returning to touring this summer, joining Thomas Rhett on select dates on Rhett’s The Soundtrack to Life Tour.

Photo Credit: Stepanie Siau