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<td width="343" valign="bottom"><p class="date"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="date" --><a href="default.html">02/11/04• Vol.
128, No. 9</a><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></p></td>
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<p><a href="i.jsp">I thought , 'I'm going to die'</a></p>
<p><a href="expo.jsp">Expo Egg-citement</a></p>
<p><a href="budget.jsp">Budget cuts do not change provost's goals</a></p>
<p><a href="deadline.jsp">Deadline to vote in next election looms</a></p>
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<h1>I Thought, 'I'm going to die'</h1>
<p><strong><font size="3">Student recovering in intensive care after on-campus accident Sunday</font></strong></p>
<p><strong><font size="2">By Dana Parker McClain</font></strong></p>
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<p align="justify">Cassandra Cross and brother Jonathan Cross</p>
<p class="byline">-Photo courtesy of cross Family</p>
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<p>Cassandra Cross thought she was dreaming.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p> “
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.</p>
<p> Cross doesn’t remember much after that.</p>
<p> “
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.”</p>
<p> Brian O’Rourke was one of the witnesses to the accident.</p>
<p> O’Rourke said he was walking out of the library when he saw the
truck backing up about 20 feet away.</p>
<p> The truck kept accelerating backward, hit Cross, then proceeded to
drag her, O’Rourke said.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p> Still, Cross and her family remain hopeful.</p>
<p> “
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.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p> “
I’m very determined to graduate,” she said.</p>
<p> 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. </p>
<p> “
I want to teach college,” she said. “This is just one of
the first steps in a whole bunch of goals that I have.”</p>
<p> But Cross said she knows her life is going to change in many ways.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p> Cross is still thankful for one thing. </p>
<p> Her life.</p>
<p> “
I’m a strong person,” she said. “I just can’t
believe I’m alive.”</p>
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