Tragedy: Bard student is killed after earning music degree
NewsA student from Vietnam, Linh Hong Nguyen, died when a car mounted a sidewalk in Red Hook, NY, as she walked home from receiving her master’s degree at Bard College.
Her tragic death was confirmed by Bard president Leon Botstein.
Linh, 25, was from Hanoi. She was about to begin a doctoral degree at Stony Brook University.
UPDATE: Terrence Wilson writes:
Linh Hong Nguyen was my piano student at Bard College Conservatory of Music.
This past Saturday evening, May 25th, as she was walking to her home in Red Hook, NY after receiving her Master of Music in Instrumental Studies, she was suddenly struck and killed by a vehicle which veered upon the sidewalk where she was walking.
My pain and anguish over losing Linh to this horrific event is excruciating. I can only imagine what her family in Vietnam is going through.
Please consider a donation to help Linh’s family during this tragic time. A GoFundMe has been established for this.
That is cruelly sad.
I hope they throw away the key after jailing this irresponsible driver. Unless he had a heart attack at the wheel — and if there was any risk of that he ought not to have been driving — there is no good reason for what he did.
All that promise just erased.
You do know that many people have no warning of a serious health problem before it strikes?
Can we please wait for the facts to be established before we break out the noose?!
Why did you just assume that it was a man?
The driver was Carol Boeck, 63 years old, a local Red Hook resident, who was driving over the speed limit.
Carol Boeck was the drunk driver who killed two Bard students in 2015. Regardless. Whoever did this has wreaked devastation.
Incorrect. That’s a different case from 2014. Think before you comment
“ANY risk”??? Half the Americans driving are probably at SOME risk of heart attack, someday, sometime. What an odd statement to make.
To the musical community that we are so intricately a part of,
As we grapple with the sudden and tragic loss of our dearest friend, this Go-Fund-Me was created to assist her surviving family during this difficult time. Please share it far and wide, as anything can help them.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-linhs-musical-legacy?%3Fattribution_id=sl%3A9af3a67b-5537-415d-ad6d-7d23516a86d0&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_ft&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAabosHGEtqa-Mn0YbRl3R4SvHAN6pVE0c7beFcLYSSUSxMZOuK9LJCsEMWw_aem_AYs2S2sIBSrsc1zumIT2X7f_H2EZqa9MwU32VtPok90oH7y1ek3FcRQVjxO8LundOHt3H8GHcT1ELoPFeiJSV6vo
Emmanuel,
Sorry to seem insensitive, but there are stories of fundraising scams that pray on the sympathy of tragic accidents.
Please could you clarify who you are, and who your fundraising is for , and how it can be known who it goes to ?
Nivis,
You are completely valid and no need to apologize (I realized I should have used a shorter URL to make it look more polished).
I was one of Linh’s closest friends during her time at Bard, the first one she made since arriving directly from Vietnam (she reminded me of this after the fireworks show at the end of our commencement day). We started our respective programs together at Bard and graduated together (I graduated from the orchestral conducting program).
The fundraiser is for her surviving family to cover any financial difficulties that come their way (funeral costs, legal fees, etc.). The family and school are aware of the fundraiser and it is being managed by another friend of Linh’s.
This is an unbearable story. Imagine what obstacles this girl had to overcome to study in the US, then achieving success and then this.
Very sad. It’s like decorated Gulf War vets returning home, only to die in the mean streets of USA.
I do not do GoFundMe but will send money directly to wherever it’s needed.
Great job hijacking a post about the tragic death of a talented young woman to inject your own agenda. Sure, vets dying is tragic. What does that have to do with this???
Take a chill pill. I was only referring to the “mean streets of USA” for victims young and old.
Good reply,Zandonai, and you are absolutely right!!
I’m assuming that this young woman didn’t rape and massacre innocent civilians.
I am so upset by this horrible news! I’m a worker at Bard college and I saw all of the commotion. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think this would happen to someone who worked so hard for what she got to have it taken away by a careless and irresponsible person. This story just breaks my heart
This is the reason why there are speed limits of 20 miles per hour (30 km/h) in many places, since crashes are often fatal above 50 km/h. Of course I don’t expect to see anything like that in the US
Have you ever been to the US? There are speed limits everywhere, but the enforcement is questionable.
By a weird coincidence, a friend of my son, a gifted Chinese student, was killed in NY by a speeding car. The driver who killed her and badly wounded her BF was a drunk cop.
You don’t expect to see speed limits in the US?
Hmmm… the speed limits are everywhere, and posted.
yeah, and you’ll die if you’re hit by a car travelling at 40 miles an hour
Red Hook is a small village located about 3 miles southeast of Bard College. To walk from Bard to the village requires walking south along a state highway (“9G”) and then east on another road (route 199).
Sadly, this is not the first time that a tragedy like this has occurred near Bard, which (for those who may not be familiar with the geography) is situated in a tiny hamlet called “Annandale-on-Hudson” about 100 miles north of New York City alongide the Hudson River.
A decade ago, two students were killed by a drunken driver while walking along the highway connecting Bard to Tivoli (a small town located about 3 miles north of the college):
https://www.hvobserver.com/21776/2-bard-students-killed-1-hurt-in-midnight-hit-and-run-on-route-9g/
https://www.oneidadispatch.com/2014/04/12/suspect-in-tivoli-hit-run-that-killed-two-bard-college-students-indicted-on-17-counts/
https://www.dailyfreeman.com/2014/02/01/two-bard-college-students-killed-by-hit-and-run-driver-in-tivoli-suspect-caught-jailed/
https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/crime/2014/04/23/boeck-bard-hit-run/8047857/
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/hudson-valley/news/2015/02/24/carol-boeck-sentencing-bard-college-student-deaths.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2015/04/02/family-of-winnetka-student-killed-in-dui-crash-says-justice-remains-elusive/
The only way to walk between Tivoli and Bard is along the aforementioned state highway, 9G.
The college does operate a shuttlebus service between Bard, Red Hook, and Tivoli:
https://blogs.bard.edu/transportation/?page_id=5
She was not walking along 9G, she was walking on the sidewalk in Red Hook village. Please don’t imply she was doing something reckless. That was not the case.