At 17, Tamara Tye, a champion swimmer from Southern England, had come to the University of Hawaii to compete with Division I athletes, considered the fastest in the world. Driver gets probation
in fatal accidentTalented UH swimmer Tamara Tye
was killed while riding her bikeBy Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comShe was steadily improving and dreaming of qualifying for the Olympics when, at 19, she was killed by a motorist while riding her bike in a crosswalk on South Beretania Street near the university.
She was one of the swimmers who was likely to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's championships the following year, said Bruce Kennard, then interim swimming coach at UH.
"She was climbing that (Olympic) ladder, and now we'll never know if she would have really made it or not," Kennard said.
Kennard was one of several people who spoke about Tye on Monday at the sentencing of the motorist who fatally struck her. Circuit Judge Derrick Chan sentenced Jeffrey Yoon, 47, of Aiea to one year probation and suspended his license for six months.
Yoon pleaded no contest last November to third-degree negligent homicide, causing someone's death due to simple negligence.
Deputy Prosecutor George Parrot III had argued for one year probation with at least six months in jail and a one-year suspension of Yoon's license.
Yoon submitted to a field sobriety test shortly after the incident. But he was released after he took a Breathalyzer test to determine the amount of alcohol in his system and blew a zero.
Deputy Public Defender Randy Hiranaka, who argued that Yoon should serve no jail time, said the incident was an accident and that Yoon has maintained all along that he didn't see Tye.
Yoon was estimated to have been traveling between 32 mph and 34 mph when he struck Tye, Hiranaka said.
Yoon apologized to Tye's "hanai" family here, including her former roommate and swim coach.
Tye's family filed a lawsuit against Yoon in May 2001, alleging he was negligent and drunk at the time of the incident. The case settled out of court last July for $300,000, the limit on the car's liability insurance policy, according to the office of attorney Rick Fried, who represented the family.
The day Tye was killed, at least eight of her team members were in New York competing in the national championships and were on a "natural high" after six of them won All-American honors, Kennard said.
"In the wee hours of that night, we got the call that she was killed, and it just took away that feeling that we really accomplished something. It didn't seem important after that," he said.