Shreya Dixit

Shreya’s Story Vijay and Rekha Dixit are on a mission. They want to make sure that no parent or family ever has to endure the pain and suffering they have lived with since November 1, 2007.

While anxiously waiting for their youngest daughter Shreya to return home to Minneapolis from the University of Wisconsin, Madison for a weekend visit, they got that dreaded phone call no parent ever wants to receive – Shreya had been killed in a automobile crash.

“The earth fell out from underneath us. It just didn’t seem real,” says Shreya’s father Vijay Dixit. What made Shreya’s death even more tragic for her family and friends was learning that the crash that took Shreya’s life could have easily been prevented.

“Shreya was in the passenger seat and the girl who was driving was reaching around for something and that’s when she lost control of the car,” recalls Shreya’s older sister Nayha Dixit. “It was really hard to hear that in one split second of carelessness my sister was taken.”

As it turns out, crashes like the one that took Shreya’s life are all too common. According to a recent National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration study, driver distraction is to blame for nearly 80 percent of all traffic crashes[1]. That statistic, along with a strong desire to make the roads safer, lead Shreya’s family and friends to establish a foundation they named in her honor: TheShreya R. Dixit Memorial Foundation.

[1] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Crash Avoidance Research Technical Publications: The Impact of Driver Inattention on Near-Crash/Crash Risk: An Analysis of 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study Data April, 2006