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On the campus’s east side, the Bonfire Memorial is a 170-foot ring on the site where a huge bonfire was erected each fall before the football game with rival Texas. Sixteen-foot granite portals honor the 12 persons who died there in 1999 when the log pile collapsed. It’s a moving tribute that not only honors those 12 but also the students injured that year and those killed in previous bonfire accidents.

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Nice article in the Kansas City Star, but isn't this a pretty glaring mistake? I thought I had heard and read on numerous occasions that no one had been killed on Bonfire before '99?

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/travel/13936065.htm?source=rss&channel=kansascity_travel

That is actually correct in the article. There were one or two deaths prior to '99. As far as I know there were a few killed when a log truck wrecked. I dont know the year of that though. If anybody does please post.

i know of only the one accident at cut site that prompted the rules about riding in the backs of trucks. I think it was somewere in the 90-94, because i think my oldest cousin was up here when it happend.

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Proudest member of the Fightin Texas Aggie class of 08 Beat the h*** outa tu A-A-A-A-A!!!!. May bonfire forever burn in our hearts.....and may the Twelfth Man ever burn it in memory and in hope for the future.

Band.studentbonfire.org

In the early 90's students were riding in the bed of a pickup truck on the way to cut. The truck ran off the road and rolled over killing one of the passengers. In the mid 80's someone was killed while riding on the fender of a tractor. The person fell off and was run over by the tractor. I believe there was one more from the 50's but am not too sure

According to Irwin Tang's The Texas Aggie Bonfire: Tradition and Tragedy at Texas A&M, three deaths are attributable to Bonfire activities during the period prior to the 1999 collapse.

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• "In 1955, the first Aggie died while doing Bonfire work. James Edward Sarran . . . and Robert Long had been on all-night guard duty at the west end of the campus. They were standing behind a parked truck that had brought them coffee when another truck rushed toward them. Sarran pushed Long out of the way of the oncoming truck but was mortally wounded in the process. . . . Sarran never regained consciousness and died on November 24, 1955." (Note: The author explains that the two students were standing guard duty because of fears sabotage of the Bonfire by University of Texas students.)

• "On November 6, 1981, Wiley Keith Jopling was riding a tractor to the cutting site at Granada Ranch, northeast of Bryan. Joping was sitting on the tractor's left fender when the tractor hit a bump. The bump knocked him forward, off the fender, and he was crushed beneath the tractor's wheels. He was pronounced dead twenty minutes later at St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan. . . . As a result of the accident, Head Redpot Art Free and the Bonfire Committee instated a policy that no one was allowed to sit on the fenders of tractors, only on the rear bumpers."

• "Returning from the cut on September 22, 1996, a Ford Ranger truck carrying ten students--eight in its bed--was headed south on Highway 6. A witness reported the vehicle was traveling at an 'extremely high rate of speed,' according to the police report. The driver, Sarah Marie Fullen, lost control of the vehicle as it ran off the left side of the road, crossed back over the highway, and rolled over at least twice before smashing into a highway sign. Nineteen year-old Greg White, a civil engineering major from Austin, was killed. Several others were seriously injured, including two others who were in critical condition before recovering. After the accident, students were not allowed to ride in truck beds to or from the cut site."

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[This message has been edited by DualAG (edited 2/26/2006 6:24p).]

nmind
____________________________________________________________
Proudest member of the Fightin Texas Aggie class of 08 Beat the h*** outa tu A-A-A-A-A!!!!. May bonfire forever burn in our hearts.....and may the Twelfth Man ever burn it in memory and in hope for the future.

Band.studentbonfire.org

[This message has been edited by Ag_of_08 (edited 2/26/2006 9:09p).]

[This message has been edited by Ag_of_08 (edited 2/26/2006 9:09p).]

If you look at the blocks on the walk to the ring at the Memorial, you'll see their names.

Scott Coker '92

Those were great woods in 96-97, but having cutsite 45 minutes away was never a good idea.

If memory serves, there's also a plaque on the first floor McInnis breezeway honoring Wiley K. Jopling.

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After the accident, students were not allowed to ride in truck beds to or from the cut site."

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I guess we threw that rule right out the window....

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If memory serves, there's also a plaque on the first floor McInnis breezeway honoring Wiley K. Jopling.

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There is.

For some reason I thought he was killed log surfing behind a tractor at stack.