Issue date: 3/29/07 Section: Campus News

Five thousand.

This is the number of Americans that die each year as a result of tractor-trailer related accidents, according to the official Web site of Road Safe America, an organization dedicated to making highways safer.

For students and faculty at UW-Eau Claire, this statistic took on a chilling reality March 16 when junior Jason Buchmeier, a geography major from Mauston, died in a car accident en route to Florida.

According to a university press release, Buchmeier was killed when a tire separated from a tractor-trailer and hit the van he was riding in. The accident occurred on Interstate 75 in Georgia and resulted in the later death of a second Eau Claire student.

Twenty-three-year-old Steve Buchmeier Jr., Jason Buchmeier's older brother, described Jason as very likeable and outgoing.

"He was easy to talk to and very easy to get along with," Buchmeier Jr. said. "He was well-liked by everyone and he always had a smile on his face."

Buchmeier Jr. also spoke of his brother's passion for the outdoors, and said Jason worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The NRCS, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Web site, is an agency within the USDA aimed at conserving and improving natural resources.

Sophomore Ryan Wirth, one of the six passengers involved in the fatal accident, recalled one of his last interactions with Buchmeier.

Wirth, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the van, said he looked back at Jason several minutes before the accident occurred.

"I looked back at him, we made eye contact - he gave me a smile," Wirth recalled. Ten minutes later, Wirth said, the van was hit.

"I just thought, 'There's no way this can be happening,'" he said.

Wirth added Buchmeier's funeral attracted so many people that well-wishers had to sit in separate rooms of the church and listen to the funeral procession on the speaker system. Some people couldn't even get into the church and had to stand outside, he said.

Other students and friends who were unable to attend his funeral visited Buchmeier's grave site and held their own memorials.

Sophomore Cassie Houlihan and junior Katie Miller, for example, visited Buchmeier's grave on their way back to Eau Claire after spring break and held a memorial for their friend.

Houlihan, who used to be Buchmeier's neighbor, said the shock of Buchmeier's death has yet to sink in for her.

"It's still hard to believe that I can't go over to his house and hang out with him," she said. "It still really hasn't set in yet that he is gone.

"It's still shocking - I can't believe it happened."

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