Our View: Tragedy will always be there
Tragedy is never welcome and rarely expected. They say it can happen to anyone, but how can anybody expect to be that someone? Students, faculty and administration at USU certainly didn’t expect for people they knew to be part of a tragedy only miles from Logan on Sept. 26, 2005.
A university van with 10 students and a faculty member rolled four times after a tire blew, just outside of Tremonton on their way back from a field trip. The men were all in the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences; many were freshmen. The faculty member was beloved by many in his department. Two students survived the accident, though one had severe brain damage and cannot live life the same way ever again.
Nobody knew this would happen. Nobody expected the tragedy.
The week before the crash took place, tractors had been placed around campus to kick-off CAAS week for that year. The men who had driven and parked those tractors for all to see were in the van that next Monday. They have stood as a memorial every CAAS week since.
The accident happened 10 years ago this Saturday.
We could all do lots of things to keep tragedy from happening: driving, walking at night, riding a bike, crossing streets, walking up or down stairs, swimming, a million other things. But what kind of living would that be?
Tragedy will always happen. It will always be there and can almost never be expected. But that doesn’t mean that we live in a way that limits our growth, that limits us. The men in that crash didn’t limit their living, and they lived. Two of them still continue to live fully.
Robbie Petersen was the student who survived and was able to recover fully from his injuries. He came back to USU a few years after the crash and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in agricultural systems technology and a minor in agriculture business. He finished school and was able to move on in his life. But I’m sure he will never forget, and was shaped and changed by a huge tragedy.
Tragedy is there. But if we live fully, it won’t bring regret.