Student walking on sidewalk struck, killed
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student was walking on a South Park Street sidewalk and was struck by a vehicle Saturday night. She died as a result of injuries she sustained from the incident. Two other people were also struck and injured. According to an article in the Wisconsin State Journal, Wenxin Huai, who was 24-years-old, […]
A University of Wisconsin-Madison student was walking on a South Park Street sidewalk and was struck by a vehicle Saturday night. She died as a result of injuries she sustained from the incident. Two other people were also struck and injured.
According to an article in the Wisconsin State Journal, Wenxin Huai, who was 24-years-old, is being remembered as a bright young woman who was just a month away from earning her master’s degree and moving back home to China to start her career. Now, the man who struck her and two other people is expected to face homicide charges.
“Madison police said Huai was walking in the 400 block of South Park Street around 7:40 p.m. Saturday when she was struck by the SUV,” the article reads. “Authorities said the man was driving west on West Washington Avenue and turning onto South Park Street when his car left the road and went onto the sidewalk of the block that includes Mason Lounge and Falbo Bros.Pizza.”
The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office told reporters that Haui died later at the hospital due to her extensive injuries. As of Tuesday morning, the name of the driver who struck the three people had not been identified publicly. Police did say he is a 32-year-old man from Madison. He was also injured as a result of the crash and is currently being treated at a local hospital.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain told reporters that once the driver is released from the hospital, he will be arrested on multiple tentative criminal charges.
“Two other pedestrians who were injured in the crash were treated at the scene and have not been identified,” the article reads.
A professor who worked with Huai on her research about how changing demographics in China is affecting the employment rates, spoke out and said that Huai was one of the best students she has worked with.
“She was just exceptionally hard working, very talented,” Ananth Seshadri, chairman of the Department of Economics said. “When you gave her a task or gave her suggestions she would take every one of them very seriously and come back the next week with well-thought-out ways of dealing with those ideas.”
Friends and family have started a small memorial at the site of the crash and as of Monday, there were flowers and a card filled with messages in both Chinese and English.
