Grief counselors are on hand today to help students and staff at Sumner-Fredericksburg School cope with the loss of a child in a school-owned vehicle. Nine-year-old Reegan Robertson was a passenger in an SUV driven by her mother, 34-year-old Taunya Robertson, that went out of control on Interstate 35 in Hamilton County Saturday morning.
According to the State Patrol, icy conditions caused by blowing snow may have been a factor in the accident. The vehicle entered a ditch and rolled several times. Reegan, who apparently was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown out of the vehicle and later died from her injuries. There were seven high school students in the vehicle, but they were not injured.
Taunya Roberston is the school’s speech team advisor, and the group was headed to speech contest in Ames when the accident happened. Reegan’s funeral will be held Wednesday in Sumner. She was the second nine-year-old child to die in an accident involving one of the school’s SUV’s in the last two months. On December 18th, nine-year-old Nikki Beaulieau of Fredericksburg died from injuries when a Sumner-Fredericksburg SUV hit a bridge southeast of Fredericksburg.