Berkeley Junior Killed in Car Crash
Another tragic death. Details from the Alameda Times-Star article:
A 20-year-old University of California, Berkeley psychology student Christine Dao was hit and killed by a man suspected of drunken driving on University Avenue early Thursday morning, police said.
UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said Dao was majoring in psychology and was in her junior year. In the past, Dao had participated in some campus Greek activities, but she was not an official member of a sorority, a university spokeswoman said Thursday.
Authorities said the driver, a 46-year-old Oakland man, was headed north on San Pablo Avenue when he apparently ran a red light and plowed into Dao’s car. Authorities said the driver did not attempt to stop or break.
Dao was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy revealed she died from multiple blunt trauma injuries, a coroner’s spokesman said.
For those people interested in leaving comments, many people have been doing so on her Facebook “wall” and I assume those comments will be passed on to Dao’s parents and/or siblings.
They ought to send the guy to Abu Ghraib and hang him up by his elbows. Appoint John Yoo as his attorney. Give him some blunt trauma on the house.
Comment by Anonymous — October 28, 2005 @ 9:35 am
why do our students keep getting killed by cars?
Comment by Anonymous — October 28, 2005 @ 9:49 am
Or guys with guns ouside of Davidson Hall
Comment by Anonymous — October 28, 2005 @ 12:12 pm
driver didn’t attempt to stop or “break”.
great. he decided to break someone else.
Comment by Bhanu Singh — October 28, 2005 @ 1:07 pm
Is it just me or do a lot of those wall postings seem really trite and almost inappropriate? Lots of them are acting as though she’s studying abroad for a year.
Comment by Anonymous — October 28, 2005 @ 2:45 pm
Wow…
Comment by Anonymous — October 28, 2005 @ 11:48 pm
Oh, they often don’t even cite those people. Even though I was always taught that you were in deep trouble if you hit a kid chasing a ball into the street, in Berkeley and locally there are tons of traffic incidents where someone is killed or maimed and they don’t even write a ticket, or write a ticket equivalent to a regular stop sign violation. For instance, someone hit a man in a wheelchair on Ashby where he went into the curb lane in order to avoid an impassable sidewalk, and he died, and she just said “I couldn’t see anything due to sun glare” and so they let her go. There are many equivalent examples.
Comment by cc — October 29, 2005 @ 9:49 am
well he can be prosecuted by the state for drunk driving, if indeed that is the case…
also the girl’s family might try a civil suit against this guy..
Comment by obbb — October 29, 2005 @ 5:51 pm
Yes, it’s up in the air what penalty they would impose on the driver. However, I think that it would be easy to invoke outrage about this, given that the Bay Area has a lot of bicycle organizations (e.g., Critical Mass, Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley) who have a strong interest in having the police and prosecutors take the threat of hit&run drivers seriously.
Comment by jonp — October 29, 2005 @ 8:48 pm
I knew her and she was an amazing and kind person…. This guy needs to be arrested NOW (i’ve read that he hasn’t even been arrested yet! ridiculous) & charged with dui, manslaughter, & hit&run. He better pray for himself
Comment by anonymous — October 29, 2005 @ 9:06 pm
she’s one of the best people u will ever meet in this world. always positive and always loyal. words can’t describe how much we miss her.
Comment by ed lam — October 29, 2005 @ 10:42 pm
hold on now.. do we even know for sure this was a DUI and not just a horrible accident? dont lynch this guy yet.
Comment by obbb — October 29, 2005 @ 10:56 pm
I believe the Daily Planet or the police department said that it was DWI, so he will be charged because of intolerance of drunk driving. As far as regular motorcycle/bicycle victims, it seems like there is a tacit policy of requiring a much higher bar than normal to write a citation. Here is an article describing the death of Fred Lupke where the driver wasn’t ticketed because he wasn’t supposed to be in the parking lane - yet what if someone was walking to the door of a car to get in?? http://www.berkeleydaily.org/article.cfm?archiveDate=10-03-03&storyID=17499
, and just yesterday, someone on a list was describing seeing an elderly man who was slowly cycling down the sidewalk on telegraph going through the crosswalk with a walk signal to the sidwalk on the other side, and someone making a red turn hit him because she didn’t look at all, and they said it was 100% his fault and wouldn’t cite. While only kids under 16 and police can ride on sidewalks, this means they probably wouldn’t cite if a child was hit in the crosswalk.
Comment by cc — October 30, 2005 @ 1:49 pm
DUI or not this guys was STILL speeding!!!! That’s illegal and he should be punished and tortured for what he did to our Christine.
Comment by Felicia — October 31, 2005 @ 9:42 am
He should be housed in a jail cell with a metronome under the floor board.
Comment by McMike — October 31, 2005 @ 2:01 pm
Based upon the tortious and criminal action this fellow caused, he should be liable for wrongful death on both a civil and criminal level.
Comment by Anonymous — November 1, 2005 @ 2:18 pm