A 32-year-old Korean woman killed in a scooter crash on San Francisco’s Market Street was identified as Yebin Kim, a South Korea native who came to the United States about a year and a half ago to build a new life. She died Aug. 7 after her scooter wheel caught in streetcar tracks at Market and Powell streets, causing her to fall into the path of a truck.
Police and reporting based on the family’s attorney say the truck was traveling in the same direction as Kim when it struck her. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that an internal police document listed the cause of death as traumatic brain injury. Kim was found with her helmet and scooter on the roadway, according to the article.
Kim’s mother told the Chronicle in a video interview that her daughter had been scheduled to return to South Korea on Sept. 5 to visit family. The mother said she misses everything about her daughter and still expects to hear her voice at home.
Kim graduated from Seoul National University and had worked in human resources at Qcells, a solar company. Her mother said Kim had also spent two years in Britain on a working holiday to learn English while in college. Family members described her as ambitious and adventurous; they said she loved extreme sports and had recently become deeply interested in tennis.
Her family dressed her in tennis clothes for the funeral, according to the report. The apartment she left behind held reminders of her life, including Mickey Mouse pajamas that still carried her scent.
