By Alexander Dworkowitz
A 17-year-old Maspeth girl was killed when a car in which she was a passenger slammed into a pillar of the Broadway Long Island Rail Road station in Flushing.
Maria Baek, a student at Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, was sitting in the rear seat of a 1992 Honda when it crashed into the pillar at 2:52 a.m. on Sept. 4, police said.
The driver, Yeo Zao Xue, 24, and front-seat passenger Hong Chi Mei, 20, both of Woodside, were taken to New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens in stable condition, police said.
Xue and Mei were discharged from the hospital last Thursday, said NYHQ spokeswoman Cynthia Miska.
According to authorities, the Honda was traveling eastbound on Northern Boulevard when it attempted to make a left turn onto Depot Road. But the driver lost control of the car, and it smashed into the massive railroad structure, police said.
“It looks like they missed the turn and slid,” said Officer Jennara Everleth, a police spokeswoman. “The full brunt of the accident was on her.”
Police were investigating to determine exactly how fast the Honda was going when it hit the pillar. As of press time, police announced no charges in the accident.
Baek died of blunt trauma to the head and torso, according to Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner.
The Long Island Rail Road tracks cross Northern Boulevard at the intersection of 162nd Street, the location of the Broadway stop. Depot Road splits off from Northern at 162nd Street, continuing along the north side of the tracks.
Brian Choi, a family friend who had tutored Baek, described her is hardworking and friendly.
“She’s a very studious girl,” he said at Baek’s wake last Thursday at the Central Funeral Home in downtown Flushing. “Very outgoing type of girl.”
Choi said Baek worked at different jobs to help her parents, Catholic Korean immigrants who recently sold their deli named for their daughter in Maspeth.
Baek had worked at Wollman Rink in Central Park during the winter. The night of her death, she had worked a late-night shift at a Burger King before going out with Xue, a co-worker, and Mei, a close friend, Choi said.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
