By Andy Sevilla
She was described by family and friends as passionate, energetic, funny and incredibly intelligent.
A mechanical engineering junior at Texas A&M University, Sarah Anne Yager, 20, died in eastern Bastrop County after a collision involving two semi-trucks on Texas 21.
Texas Department of Public Safety [DPS] officials said the crash happened at about 2 p.m. on Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving.
A big rig traveling westbound on Texas 21 was approaching a stopped vehicle that was turning left onto a county road when the semi-truck swerved onto the eastbound lanes to keep from colliding into the turning vehicle, officials said.
Yager, who also was traveling westbound behind the big rig, swerved onto the eastbound lanes, much like the big rig did, in an effort to avoid crashing into the stopped vehicle.
That big rig then clipped another semi-truck traveling east on Texas 21, and Yager, who was following behind, then collided head on with the eastbound 18-wheeler, according to DPS.
Officials said the eastbound semi-truck dragged Yager’s vehicle for about a quarter-mile before it was able to come to a complete stop. Yager was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
“Our family was devastated to hear the tragic news. Such a beautiful young woman. My daughters are freshmen at A&M and have fond memories riding the bus home to the Coves [of Cimarron] with Sarah [Yager]. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Our deepest condolences,” Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe said of Yager in the funeral homes’ online guestbook.
Yager grew up in Buda and graduated from Hays High School in 2012. She led her high school as valedictorian, and also was the school’s band president her senior year. Yager also served as president of the National Honor Society.
“All of Hays CISD is sharing in mourning with the Yager family,” a school district spokesman said in a statement. “… She was much loved in our school district and the community of which she has been a part her entire life. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Yagers during this difficult time.”
Doug Ragsdale, a retired teacher from Hays High School who taught Yager in biology during her freshman and senior years, remembers her as warm and compassionate and describes her death as “a terrible loss.”
“Whenever she walked into a room, the whole room lit up,” he said in a phone interview. “She was always happy and always smiling. She had a great sense of humor. Obviously of great intelligence.”
Several friends of Yager and her family have shared warm memories and offered well wishes in Yager’s online guestbook.
“The Yagers were our next-door neighbors during Sarah’s [Yager’s] early childhood, and I have fond memories of her writing ‘notes’ to my son Peter (she pronounced it ‘Peeper’) and tossing them over the fence between our yards. I loved seeing Sarah and [her sister] Emily arrive at my front door with their red wagon of GS [girl scout] cookies. James, Cheryl, and Emily, I now think of Sarah and of you every single day,” Marjie Kelley wrote.
A visitation with family and friends will be held from 5-8 p.m. Friday at the Thomason Funeral Home in San Marcos. Funeral services are scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. at her home church, First Baptist Church, in San Marcos. Burial will follow at 4 p.m. at Little River Cemetery in Milam County.
