I Thought, 'I'm going to die'

Student recovering in intensive care after on-campus accident Sunday

By Dana Parker McClain

Cassandra Cross thought she was dreaming.

As she walked away from the library Sunday evening, she saw the truck backing out of the metered parking spot, but it didn’t stop there. The black Chevy Silverado jumped the curb, knocked down the handicapped parking sign and continued accelerating in her direction. Students fled from the truck’s path, but Cross was caught.

“ I looked and he was coming right towards me and I thought ‘I’m going to die,’” Cross said from her hospital bed in the intensive care unit of University Medical Center.

Cross doesn’t remember much after that.

“ I tried to run the other way,” she said. “As soon as I looked over my shoulder to see how far I’d gotten, I don’t remember anything else besides people around me.”

Brian O’Rourke was one of the witnesses to the accident.

O’Rourke said he was walking out of the library when he saw the truck backing up about 20 feet away.

The truck kept accelerating backward, hit Cross, then proceeded to drag her, O’Rourke said.

The university police department’s daily incident report said that an object on the floorboard of the driver’s truck hit the accelerator and caused the vehicle to shoot back at high speed, hitting Cross.

Cross suffered numerous injuries from the accident including a broken hip and shoulder, a shattered pelvis and a fractured vertebrae, her brother Jonathan Cross said Tuesday.

Still, Cross and her family remain hopeful.

“ It says in first Corinthians that God will never put you through anything you can’t handle. I’m kind of blessed that this happened to me because apparently I trust in God enough to know that I can handle it,” she said.

Cross’s biggest concerns at this point are getting through surgery Thursday and getting back to school so that she can graduate in the spring.

“ I’m very determined to graduate,” she said.

Cross, a liberal studies major, said she hopes to attend California State University L.A. in the fall to work toward another bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology, followed by graduate studies on the East Coast.

“ I want to teach college,” she said. “This is just one of the first steps in a whole bunch of goals that I have.”

But Cross said she knows her life is going to change in many ways.

First, she will be confined to a wheelchair, at least for the time being. Second, she will have to find new housing, as her apartment is located on the second floor of a building with no elevators. Third, she will have to rely on others to drive her around and assist her with class work and note-taking.

Cross is still thankful for one thing.

Her life.

“ I’m a strong person,” she said. “I just can’t believe I’m alive.”