The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: News

BARDLEY

A night of fun ended in tragedy Saturday morning when seven University students were involved in a car accident that left one dead.

At about 2:30 a.m., Matthew Bickley, a freshman from Athens, lost control of his 2003 Ford Explorer SUV on Highway 316, flipping the vehicle "three or four times," according to a passenger.

Six in the car survived, but Tierra Bardley, a freshman from Marietta, died before paramedics were able to transport her to a hospital.

Bardley was seated in the back of the SUV and was not wearing a seat belt, said Jason Chauhan, a freshman from Jonesboro, who was next to her at the time. Bardley was ejected from the vehicle through the windshield.

"She landed about 30 feet away," Chauhan said in a telephone interview Sunday. "Neither of us were wearing seat belts."

The group had been returning from dinner in Atlanta after they attended UGA Night at Six Flags, he said, and everyone had been "cracking up, having fun" before they began to doze off.

"[Bickley] just lost control," he said. "[Bardley] died at the scene, I'm pretty sure."

Bickley, who declined to comment on the crash, said he was "upset this happened" and "[doesn't] know what to think."

"I loved her," he said.

The other students involved were Harold Garner, a freshman from Kennesaw; Jonathan Croy, a freshman from Kingsland; Lashon Leggett, a freshman from Warner Robins; and Salah Eltarhoni, a freshman from Marietta. All were Morris Hall residents except for Bardley, who lived at Russell Hall.

Chauhan said he had minor leg injuries but the other passengers were "fine."

Friends of Bardley rallied each other after word spread of her death. They made a Facebook group in her honor and held a memorial service at Morris Hall.

Nadia Heidari, a freshman from Marietta, said she knew Bardley since high school and has rarely gone one day without talking to her.

"She was one of my best friends," she said. "She was always a bright person."

Heidari gathered with friends from their hometown to mourn after Bardley's death was confirmed.

"We shared thoughts, the last things we said to her, how we wish we could have gotten to say, 'I love you,'" she said.

Morris Hall residents held a makeshift memorial service at the dormitory where many knew Bardley, said a resident.

"We were all gathered there," said Nissa Shams, a freshman and friend of Bardley who helped contact her parents the night she died.

"She had this ability to make an individual connection with everyone she met," Shams said. "She didn't even live in our hall and she made such an impact on the whole entire building."

Heidari said Bardley aspired to be a nurse, majored in French and was actively involved in humanitarian work.

"She truly, truly had a lot of potential to become something great," she said.

Funeral arrangements for Bardley have not yet been made.

"Tierra was one of the best people I know," Chauhan said. "We all loved her very much."

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