Crystal Anderson's family has tragic reminder that speed kills

Crystal Anderson was afraid of driving on the freeway.

Family members say the 23-year-old woman often talked about how fast drivers in Utah sped down the freeway like their lives depended on it.

"And what did it buy them?" asked Byron Anderson, Crystal's cousin.

The cost was too much for Crystal's family, who lost their "baby girl" Tuesday morning when an accident on I-80 near the Salt Lake International Airport took her life.

Crystal was driving another cousin to the airport when her vehicle collided with a Dodge Neon that lost control in the snowy weather and then rolled over. Crystal, a massage therapist from Midvale, stepped out of her sport-utility vehicle to help the other vehicle's driver when a pickup truck also lost control in the snow and rear-ended her SUV, pinning her between the two vehicles and fatally injuring her.

"It was preventable," Byron Anderson, 37, said. "You're not just gambling with your life when you race down the road— there are other people out there, families, children. Is it really worth it to drive faster?"

The tragedy is still fresh in the Anderson family's thoughts as they said good-bye to their beloved daughter one last time when her body was released.

Crystal had only returned to Utah on Christmas after visiting her parents and siblings in Kirtland, N.M., which is where Crystal grew up and went to school. Her father is Navajo and her mother is from the Tohono O'odham tribe.

"The belief is that you're born from your mother, you inherit your mother's origin," Byron Anderson said. "In that way, Crystal was a gift to the Navajo tribe, on her father's side."

Although family was the most important thing to Crystal, she moved to Utah for school at the Utah School of Massage Therapy, graduating in 2005. She started working at the Sanctuary Day Spa and Salon in Fashion Place Mall, Murray, last May.

But it's her laugh that friends and family said they'll miss the most.

"Her laugh was so contagious. And now it's gone," said Crystal's coworker and friend, Stephanie Schow, as she broke down crying during a telephone conversation. "She was just a really good friend. She's going to be missed a lot."

Friends said when Crystal wasn't giving a massage during the evening shifts, she was out playing Ultimate Frisbee at Murray Park or watching movies at the dollar theater, including a new favorite of hers, "Zombieland."