The stories behind campus

Pick a CSU student at random and chances are that they will have

an interesting story to tell. Some of our fellow students stories

may be crazy, some may be idiotic and some should probably never be

spoken out loud.

Kristine Burrows, a CSU junior majoring in technical journalism,

has a wild story that happened to her two years ago on a road trip

to Las Vegas.

Bags packed and fake ID in pocket, Kristine and her two friends

were off for what they hoped to be the best New Year’s Eve of their

lives. The road was long and the gas expensive as they cruised down

I-70 in route to Sin City.

Finally, after about five hours, the girls, in Burrows’ little

Honda Civic hatchback, had crossed the Colorado border into Utah

and were on a straightaway. Trying to get herself pumped for the

long drive ahead, Burrows put “Here I Go Again On My Own” by White

Snake in the CD player and the girls began to rock out.

“And then…Boom!” Burrows said. “It came out of nowhere.”

They had been hit by another car. Burrows said she was in the

left lane and a semi was in the right. The anonymous car had hit

them on the left side of Burrows car while he was trying to pass

her in the shoulder.

“I heard the back windshield shatter and we started to spin out

of control,” Burrows said.

They continued to spin in front of the semi and onto the side of

the road.

“I thought for sure we were going to roll,” Burrows said. “But

luckily the land on the side of the road was really muddy from the

snow out there, so instead we finally just sunk.”

When the girls looked up, they saw a young man get out of the

car that hit them and start to run out into the middle of nowhere.

Simultaneously, a cluster of sirens and flashing blue and red

lights jumped on the scene.

“They caught him while he was running through the snow, he had

been on a high-speed chase from the highway patrol for stealing a

car,” Burrows said.

Fortunately, all of the girls walked away with minor bumps and

bruises. However, there would be no trip to Vegas; the car was

totaled.

The state patrol took the girls to Salt Lake City where they

paid for them to stay at a Holiday Inn. Two of the girls’ mothers

flew in the next day to take the three girls home.

“When all of this happened I was really mad,” Burrows said. “But

now I just look at it as now I have a really good story to

tell.”