by JEN BIUNDO
With flowers and candles, embraces and tears, hundreds of friends and family members of Alyssa Marie Bargsley said their farewells Tuesday night in a vigil ceremony.
Her loved ones remembered her as a vivacious, fun-loving girl who could brighten up a room with her smile.
“No matter what was going on with Alyssa, she always smiled,” one friend recalled. She was always a positive person. She made everyone around her happy.”
Bargsley, 17, a Hays junior from Kyle, died Saturday night in Kingsland, Texas after falling out of a golf cart and striking her head on the pavement, said officials with the Llano County Department of Public Safety. Alcohol is believed to be a factor in the accident.
Hays CISD spokesperson Julie Jerome said students and staff at Hays High were mourning her loss, and district counselors were available throughout the week on campus.
“We are deeply saddened at the tragic loss of a member of the Hays High School family,” Jerome said. “Our deepest condolences go to Alyssa’s family and our hearts go out to the entire Hays community. We are doing everything we can to provide comfort and assistance to students and staff in this time of grief.”
According to the DPS accident report, at about 7 p.m. Bargsley’s friend was driving the golf cart down Laremie Lane, a paved street in Kingsland near Lake Buchanan. While swerving back and forth, the driver hit a bump in the road. Bargsley, who had been standing on the back of the vehicle, fell and struck her head. EMS workers responded in an emergency helicopter but Bargsley was pronounced dead at the helicopter landing zone.
DPS officials are awaiting the results of toxicology tests and could not immediately say if any charges would be brought against the driver, a freshman at Hays High School.
Friends and family of Alyssa Bargsley shared their grief at a candlelight vigil Tuesday night at Buda City Park. The Hays High School junior died in a golf cart accident this weekend. (Photo by Jen Biundo)
Carolyn Beck, a spokesperson for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, said the Llano County Sheriff’s Office called out a TABC agent to the scene after finding evidence that the victim had been drinking.
The TABC is conducting a source investigation to find out where the alcoholic beverages came from, Beck said. Providing alcohol to a minor is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
“Providing alcohol to a minor is one of the most serious laws we enforce with our agency,” Beck said. “It’s illegal, it’s dangerous, lots of bad things can happen when young people start drinking.”
Golf cart injuries and fatalities have become more common in recent years as golf carts have moved away from the putting green and onto paved roads, according to medical studies.
A 2008 article in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that golf cart injuries rose 132 percent from 1990 to 2006, with nearly 150,000 hurt in golf cart accidents in that time.
Nearly one-third of the injuries involved children, with half of those the result of falling off the golf cart or the cart overturning. Serious head injuries were most likely to occur in accidents that took place on paved streets.
A 2009 study published in the Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care suggested that 1,000 Americans are injured every month in golf cart accidents, with children between the ages of 10-18 being highest at risk.
The family will receive friends from 4-7 p.m. Wednesday at Harrell Funeral Home in Kyle, followed by recitation of the rosary. The funeral service will be 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Kyle with Father Howard Goertz officiating, followed by burial at Phillips Cemetery in Dripping Springs.
A barbeque fundraiser starting at 10 a.m. this Saturday will be held for the family at St. Anthony’s.
