BELLINGHAM — A South Korean college student was fatally struck in a hit-and-run crash the day he arrived in the United States, and the driver has been charged with vehicular homicide.
Un Kyu Choi, 25, one of about 25 students enrolled in an eight-week American Culture and English Language program at Western Washington University, died of head injuries Thursday from a crash three days earlier, police said.
A traditional Korean memorial for friends and well-wishers to grieve was established in the Viking Union on campus Thursday night.
Choi, who previously attended Korea University in Seoul, was struck by a 2000 Chevrolet van Monday night as he was walking in a concrete bicycle lane across the street from Sehome High School.
Police Sgt. David W. Richards said Choi and other exchange students had taken a bus to Sehome Village, where he made a telephone call to his parents in Korea. Rather than waiting for a bus back to campus, Choi and a friend began walking back to their living quarters.
“When they got to the point where the trail goes into the woods — it’s night, it’s dark, they’ve only been here (in the United States) for a couple hours — they walked down closer to the road,” where the accident occurred, Richards said.
According to a police report, the driver, Ashley E. Wick, 20, stopped momentarily and then left the scene. She was arrested Monday night on charges of felony hit-and-run and vehicular assault, and the latter charge was amended to vehicular homicide following Choi’s death.
Investigators wrote in court documents that when she was arrested her blood alcohol level registered nearly .10, over the legal limit of .08, and that 18 pills of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, were gone from a vial of 30 she obtained with a prescription earlier in the day.
Wick remained in custody Friday morning, according an online jail roster. Her arraignment is set for Jan. 18.
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Information from: The Bellingham Herald, http://www.bellinghamherald.com
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