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The Daily Illini Online
published Monday, February 10, 2003
Lisa Schencker
Assistant news editor
A 19-year-old graduate student was listed in critical condition Sunday afternoon after being hit by a car early Sunday morning at the 100 block of East Green Street.
Abraham Kim, a chemistry graduate student and TA, was crossing Green Street southbound when he was hit by a car traveling east on Green Street, according to a Champaign police report. Kim was taken by ambulance to Carle Foundation Hospital shortly after police arrived at about 1:16 a.m.
Freshman in LAS Sierra Jackson was driving a Kia Sportage when a person crossed in front of the vehicle. Kim was struck after following another pedestrian, according to a police report.
Jackson declined to comment on the incident.
Rantoul resident Brandon Apperson was a passenger in a vehicle driving behind the Sportage in the other eastbound lane of Green Street. Apperson said he saw seven or eight people run across the street in front of the car, but only Kim was hit.
"They kind of came out of nowhere," he said. "(Kim) flew over the hood of that van when it hit him. It threw him into the right lane and we almost ran over him too, but we slammed on the brakes."
According to the police report, Kim crossed Green Street between Second and First streets and was wearing dark clothing.
Carle house officer Suzanne Zercher said Kim remained in critical condition Sunday evening, but would not comment on the extent of his injuries.
Apperson said it took paramedics about five to 10 minutes to move Kim into the ambulance because of his injuries.
"He wasn't really moving," Apperson said. "He was spitting up blood so they had to turn him on his side. They were trying to talk to him, but I don't think he was responding very well."
Apperson said he wasn't sure how fast the car was traveling, but that it had just left a stoplight at the intersection of First and Green streets before it ran into Kim between First and Second streets.
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