If you live in the Bay, you probably saw this story on the news. Crazy ass shit. Dudes were playing basketball and about to go to the store one moment, then gone the next. RIP.
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4 Napa Valley college students die in crash
John Wildermuth, Demian Bulwa,,Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writers
(11-16) 15:00 PST NAPA -- -- On a gorgeous fall day that should have been devoted to relaxing and studying, students at a close-knit college in the hills above Napa instead spent Sunday grieving the loss of four companions who died in a car crash late Saturday.
"It's a real hard time," said Doug Wilson, director of student activities at Pacific Union College, a Christian liberal arts school in Angwin, a town built around the college.
Hundreds of students, faculty, staff and community members - along with the families of two of the victims - gathered at 5 p.m. in the Seventh-day Adventist church on campus to mourn the four young men.
The students were killed Saturday night when their speeding car skidded out of control and collided with a pickup truck north of St. Helena. They were identified as the driver, Boaz Joshua Pak, 20, from Hidden Valley Lake and passengers Luke Kotaro Nishikawa, 22, from Honolulu; Chong Whon Shin, 20, from Aloha, Ore.; and Simon Chulmin Son, 19, from Hidden Valley Lake. Friends said the students had just finished playing pickup basketball at the college gym and were on their way to a Safeway in St. Helena to get something to eat when the accident occurred about 11:45 p.m.
The men were apparently well-known and liked on campus. Shin was involved in youth ministry at the Rohnert Park Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church. Nishikawa was the leader of a campus outreach program called Homeless Ministries, and had been out working with homeless people early Saturday morning.
The Pacific Union College community "mourns the loss of four wonderful young men who were already giving service back to the community," said college President Richard Osborn. "Our entire campus is grieving along with their families."
The accident took place about 5 miles from the 150-acre Pacific Union College campus at the bottom of Deer Park Road, the winding, two-lane road that heads down the mountain into St. Helena on the floor of Napa Valley. The drive is a regular one for on-campus students.
"It was such a trivial thing, making a Safeway run," said Arie Francis, a senior from Mission Hills (Santa Barbara County), "but we all know you have to respect that road."
The news hit Erin Truex, a freshman from Oxnard (Ventura County), hard.
"My friends and I had just been to that Safeway an hour before," she said.
News of the tragedy spread quickly on campus. Within minutes of the accident, students started getting cell phone calls from friends who had seen the wreckage.
The CHP said Pak had been driving the other students in his black 2003 Honda Civic. The crash was so violent, the CHP said, that it took hours for Napa County and St. Helena firefighters to extract the victims' bodies from the wreckage using hydraulic tools known as the "Jaws of Life."
"It's probably one of the most horrific crashes I've ever seen," said Sgt. Trent Cross, a CHP spokesman who responded to the crash. He said that as word of the crash spread, many students gathered on the roadway to mourn.
The driver of the tan 1993 Toyota T-100 pickup truck, 28-year-old Angwin resident Sandalo Martinez, suffered major injuries and was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Martinez was initially in critical condition, Cross said, but has improved and is expected to survive. Cross said Martinez will be arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, a felony, when he is released from the hospital.
Cross said the students' Honda was traveling west on Deer Park Road when the driver lost control near a curve and skidded across double yellow lines into oncoming traffic. The front of the pickup truck hit the passenger side of the Honda.
Then, Cross said, the driver of a 1993 Honda Civic - this one white and moving eastbound - rear-ended the pickup truck. That driver, 20-year-old Carlos Rio Ortiz of Angwin, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, and giving false information to a peace officer. The latter charge is a misdemeanor.
Ortiz suffered only minor injuries and was booked into the Napa County jail. It was unclear whether Martinez or Ortiz could face charges relating to the deaths of the students.
The speed limit on Deer Park Road is 35 miles per hour. A sign at the top of the hill, close to campus, warns drivers to "Watch downhill speed." Cross said the students were speeding. He said investigators would, as a matter of routine, look into whether Pak had been intoxicated.
"This traffic collision was preventable," Cross said. "Someone made a poor decision behind the wheel, and four lives were lost. This traffic collision did not have to happen."
Pacific Union College, founded in 1882, is a Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts college. According to school officials, it has about 1,300 students.
Some students and professors led prayers during the Sunday afternoon service, while others wept, hugged and held hands.
Osborn, his voice cracking, told students that the accident just showed how quickly life can end: "There's a basketball game and then a fast trip to Safeway, something that all of us have done many times."
After the prayer service, many of the students went to a nearby hall where they signed a card for the parents of their classmates.
The families of the two victims of nearby Hidden Valley Lake attended the gathering. The others were planning to fly in Sunday night, school officials said.
By Sunday afternoon, a makeshift memorial had been built near the crash site. Four white wooden crosses stood by the side of the road, still strewn with auto glass and twisted pieces of metal - and still smelling of gasoline. Flowers and other mementos were placed nearby. A gray T-shirt that included the names of the dead was signed by students. A note tucked into one of the crosses said, "Love and prayer and God bless these four young people, their families, and their community of faith."
A memorial for the crash victims is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. in the college's church.
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4 Napa Valley college students die in crash
John Wildermuth, Demian Bulwa,,Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writers
(11-16) 15:00 PST NAPA -- -- On a gorgeous fall day that should have been devoted to relaxing and studying, students at a close-knit college in the hills above Napa instead spent Sunday grieving the loss of four companions who died in a car crash late Saturday.
"It's a real hard time," said Doug Wilson, director of student activities at Pacific Union College, a Christian liberal arts school in Angwin, a town built around the college.
Hundreds of students, faculty, staff and community members - along with the families of two of the victims - gathered at 5 p.m. in the Seventh-day Adventist church on campus to mourn the four young men.
The students were killed Saturday night when their speeding car skidded out of control and collided with a pickup truck north of St. Helena. They were identified as the driver, Boaz Joshua Pak, 20, from Hidden Valley Lake and passengers Luke Kotaro Nishikawa, 22, from Honolulu; Chong Whon Shin, 20, from Aloha, Ore.; and Simon Chulmin Son, 19, from Hidden Valley Lake. Friends said the students had just finished playing pickup basketball at the college gym and were on their way to a Safeway in St. Helena to get something to eat when the accident occurred about 11:45 p.m.
The men were apparently well-known and liked on campus. Shin was involved in youth ministry at the Rohnert Park Korean Seventh-day Adventist Church. Nishikawa was the leader of a campus outreach program called Homeless Ministries, and had been out working with homeless people early Saturday morning.
The Pacific Union College community "mourns the loss of four wonderful young men who were already giving service back to the community," said college President Richard Osborn. "Our entire campus is grieving along with their families."
The accident took place about 5 miles from the 150-acre Pacific Union College campus at the bottom of Deer Park Road, the winding, two-lane road that heads down the mountain into St. Helena on the floor of Napa Valley. The drive is a regular one for on-campus students.
"It was such a trivial thing, making a Safeway run," said Arie Francis, a senior from Mission Hills (Santa Barbara County), "but we all know you have to respect that road."
The news hit Erin Truex, a freshman from Oxnard (Ventura County), hard.
"My friends and I had just been to that Safeway an hour before," she said.
News of the tragedy spread quickly on campus. Within minutes of the accident, students started getting cell phone calls from friends who had seen the wreckage.
The CHP said Pak had been driving the other students in his black 2003 Honda Civic. The crash was so violent, the CHP said, that it took hours for Napa County and St. Helena firefighters to extract the victims' bodies from the wreckage using hydraulic tools known as the "Jaws of Life."
"It's probably one of the most horrific crashes I've ever seen," said Sgt. Trent Cross, a CHP spokesman who responded to the crash. He said that as word of the crash spread, many students gathered on the roadway to mourn.
The driver of the tan 1993 Toyota T-100 pickup truck, 28-year-old Angwin resident Sandalo Martinez, suffered major injuries and was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Martinez was initially in critical condition, Cross said, but has improved and is expected to survive. Cross said Martinez will be arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, a felony, when he is released from the hospital.
Cross said the students' Honda was traveling west on Deer Park Road when the driver lost control near a curve and skidded across double yellow lines into oncoming traffic. The front of the pickup truck hit the passenger side of the Honda.
Then, Cross said, the driver of a 1993 Honda Civic - this one white and moving eastbound - rear-ended the pickup truck. That driver, 20-year-old Carlos Rio Ortiz of Angwin, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, and giving false information to a peace officer. The latter charge is a misdemeanor.
Ortiz suffered only minor injuries and was booked into the Napa County jail. It was unclear whether Martinez or Ortiz could face charges relating to the deaths of the students.
The speed limit on Deer Park Road is 35 miles per hour. A sign at the top of the hill, close to campus, warns drivers to "Watch downhill speed." Cross said the students were speeding. He said investigators would, as a matter of routine, look into whether Pak had been intoxicated.
"This traffic collision was preventable," Cross said. "Someone made a poor decision behind the wheel, and four lives were lost. This traffic collision did not have to happen."
Pacific Union College, founded in 1882, is a Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts college. According to school officials, it has about 1,300 students.
Some students and professors led prayers during the Sunday afternoon service, while others wept, hugged and held hands.
Osborn, his voice cracking, told students that the accident just showed how quickly life can end: "There's a basketball game and then a fast trip to Safeway, something that all of us have done many times."
After the prayer service, many of the students went to a nearby hall where they signed a card for the parents of their classmates.
The families of the two victims of nearby Hidden Valley Lake attended the gathering. The others were planning to fly in Sunday night, school officials said.
By Sunday afternoon, a makeshift memorial had been built near the crash site. Four white wooden crosses stood by the side of the road, still strewn with auto glass and twisted pieces of metal - and still smelling of gasoline. Flowers and other mementos were placed nearby. A gray T-shirt that included the names of the dead was signed by students. A note tucked into one of the crosses said, "Love and prayer and God bless these four young people, their families, and their community of faith."
A memorial for the crash victims is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. in the college's church.
Shit sucks. Almost lost two homies in the same car crash some 5 years ago, critical conditions, but they both made it. Thank God I've never been close to death.