USC Lambda Chi Alpha held a vigil Monday to honor sophomore member Soren Dixon, who was killed in a car crash over the holiday break.
Dixon, also a member of the USC men’s club lacrosse team, made a lasting impression at USC, said his professors Laura Castañeda and Caroline Cicero.
Castañeda, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, shared a story of Dixon excelling in her and Cicero’s course, aging and the media, when interviewing two of his grandmothers on Zoom. Castañeda said she plans to share this video interview with the Dixon family.
“He did have a connection with the older people in his life and it really showed through in all of the work that he did,” Castañeda said.
Castañeda said she admired Dixon’s maturity, engagement and personality that she saw throughout her course.
“It’s just tragic that sometimes a death can happen at such a young age, too,” she said.
Cicero, a professor at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, said Dixon “always arrived with a smile” and “was a collegial member of our educational community, a hard-working student and an excellent communicator.”
The day before Thanksgiving, at around 3:10 a.m., Piedmont Police responded to an automatic collision alert, and found a grey Tesla Cybertruck engulfed in flames. Police said three of the four occupants died in the vehicle, one of them being Dixon, who was studying biological sciences at USC. Piedmont Police Captain Chris Monahan told Annenberg Media that the only survivor was transported to the hospital, and they are now in stable condition.
Following the incident, the Dixon family issued a statement requesting privacy during their grieving, distributed by the City of Piedmont.
“Soren lit up a room, made friends easily, smiled and laughed often, and had a unique ability to make everyone feel welcomed and valued,” the statement read. “His kind, gentle soul touched everyone around him.”
Monahan said the Piedmont Police Department had never responded to a comparable crash with Teslas or electric vehicles. Further, he said the city had not had a fatal collision for several decades.
“I have never seen anything like the way the Piedmont community has come together to mourn these tragic losses and to take care of each other in such a terribly sad time,” wrote Rachel Barton, a USC junior majoring in pop vocal performance and Piedmont native, in a statement to Annenberg Media.
“Piedmont is such a tight-knit community, and everyone is feeling incredibly impacted by this terrible accident,” she said.
California Highway Patrol, the primary investigation agency for fatal crashes, has not reached a conclusion regarding the cause of the crash.
“You can’t even imagine the pain and shock that these families are feeling,” Monahan said.
Before Piedmont’s annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot race, Mayor Jen Cavenaugh gave a speech regarding the crash.
“There is no playbook for how to deal with a day like today. But I do know that we will get through this in the community,” Cavenaugh said. “I know that when we are feeling hopeless the one thing we can do is reach out to help others.”
Community members also gathered in Piedmont Park on Friday for a vigil honoring the victims. In a public statement on November 30, Cavenaugh wrote, “I’m moved by the way our small community has come together to offer solace to these families, and to one another, during a time of unimaginable loss.”
According to Piedmont Exedra, Piedmont Unified School District Superintendent Jennifer Hawn issued an email statement regarding the accident on Wednesday. Dixon and the three victims of the crash graduated from Piedmont High School in 2023.
“Let us come together as a community to support one another, hold space for grief, and extend care for those impacted by this devastating loss,” Hawn wrote.
Moh El-Naggar, USC Dornsife’s interim dean, issued a statement on November 29 notifying the community of Dixon’s passing and encouraging students to seek grief counseling through USC Counseling and Mental Health at (213) 740-9355.