FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – A high school student in Fort Bend was hit and killed by a dump truck after she left school Wednesday afternoon.
Bailey Cooper's classmates at Foster High School spent the day mourning the loss of their friend.
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"She just lit up the room whenever she walked in, always had a smile on her face, she was an amazing girl," said Blythe Hope, Cooper's friend.
"God broke the mold when he made her because there is no one else like Bailey," said Nemmo Thomas.
Crowds of people gathered at her parking spot Thursday morning to remember the vivacious girl who was taken too soon.
"Her laugh made everybody laugh, no others laughed like that," said Thomas. "Her presence in a room, it doesn't just light up, it makes fireworks."
The 17-year-old swim team captain was leaving school after a swim practice around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday. Investigators say she had just pulled out from Foster High School on FM 723 when she veered into the oncoming lane and hit a Mack dump truck.
"She came over into the southbound lane and they hit head on," said Sgt. Carl Currie, of the Texas Highway Patrol.
Police said Cooper was killed instantly, but the driver of the dump truck was not injured.
"I saw her minutes before it happened," said Suzanne White, the victim's classmate. "Whenever I found out about it, I was like I just saw her."
"She will be missed so much at Foster High School. Foster High School is a better place because of Bailey Cooper," said Gene Tomas, Foster's High School Principal.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation. Family and friends will hold a vigil for her Thursday night in her parking spot at Foster High School in Fort Bend County.