Update: 78-year old man dies two days after Huntington Beach crash

The Orange County Register is reporting that a man has died following a crash in Huntington Beach.

According to the paper, 78-year old Huntington Beach resident Charles Kam was riding on an unidentified street in the city when his bike was struck by a vehicle at 8:42 am Sunday.

Kam was taken to a local hospital, where he died Tuesday night.

No other information is available at this time.

There’s no word on how or where the crash occurred, or on the identity of the driver. Or if the vehicle that struck Kam even had one, for that matter.

Hopefully the Huntington Beach police will release more information soon. Because frankly, anyone who’s still riding at 78 deserves more than just four sentences in the local paper.

This is at least the 49th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Orange County.

Update: The Daily Pilot places the location of the crash at the intersection of Edwards Street and Varsity Drive.

Kam was riding east on Varsity Drive when he was struck by a 28-year old woman in a Jeep Cherokee; she remained at the scene. 

Anyone with information is urged to call Investigator Tai Huynh at 714/536-5666 or Officer Robert Frahm at 714/536-5663.

Correction: The Register had originally spelled the victim’s name as Cam, rather than Kam. I have changed this story to correct the spelling.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Charles Kam and his loved ones. 

Thanks to John McBrearty for the heads-up.

 

 

5 comments

  1. Bill says:

    Not sure why they call this ‘news’ with so little info.
    My count for 2018 is only 6 – who am I missing?

    Charles Kam, 78 (Nov 20, Huntington Beach)
    Mike Kreza, 44 (Nov 5, Mission Viejo)
    Terri Ames, 55 (Aug 9, Cypress)
    John Dolan (Apr 26, Orange)
    Unknown man (Mar 22, Santa Ana)
    Unknown man (Jan 12, Santa Ana)

    • Bill says:

      Missed 2 -Jaso & Nguyen both on Oct 8: puts my count at 8:

      Charles Kam, 78 (Nov 20, Huntington Beach)
      Mike Kreza, 44 (Nov 5, Mission Viejo)
      Raymond William Jaso, 52 (Oct 8, Buena Park)
      Tam Nguyen, 79 (Oct 8, Stanton)
      Terri Ames, 55 (Aug 9, Cypress)
      John Dolan, (Apr 26, Orange)
      Unknown man (Mar 22, Santa Ana)
      Unknown man (Jan 12, Santa Ana)

      • bikinginla says:

        Give me a day or two and I’ll go back through my records and compare what I show to your count. I suspect the Register was working from the coroner’s report, which often has no details. Hopefully they’ll both have more information today.

  2. JJD says:

    Our earnest prayers go up for the family and friends of Mr. Kam.

    • Tanya Kam says:

      Thank you. This is Charles Kam’s second daughter, and we are so very sad, but we’re trying to be strong. He passed away two days before Thanksgiving, so that changes the holiday forever for us. I just happened across the article, and the official police report hasn’t been released to us yet.

      Wear your helmets everyone! My dad was a purple-vet who worked for the Dept. of the Navy for 35+ years. He always liked to wear his blue and gold naval baseball hats when he rode his bike to Central Park because people would talk to him and ask about his service. I really wish he had listened to us and wore a helmet. He was a stubborn, energetic old guy who liked it when strangers talked to him.

      Mele kalikimaka to you and yours, Tanya Kam

      . . . I cried when I read your nice message because all we’ve been dealing with so many business, death-related papers. It was nice to read a human voice.

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