Instructor of 5 dancers hurt in Seal Beach hit-and-run recounts how family and friends scrambled to their aid
Training at Premiere Dance Arts can mean committing three to five hours of practice a day, six days a week. And only their most gifted and hard-working students are invited to become a part of their troupe, according to David Kim, director of the Los Alamitos Ballet Co.
Saori Maeda, 24, Olivia Reck, 25, and 17-year-olds Rhyann Diaz, Katrina Sonwane and Camille Williamson were “burgeoning professionals,” and some of the company’s brightest performers, Kim said. After spending weeks drilling for a show scheduled in April, the five friends piled into a car to head out for a “Galentine’s day” weekend together on Saturday, Feb. 11.
“We had auditions at our studio for our summer program,” Kim told the Daily Pilot in an interview Tuesday. “They looked incredibly strong, beautiful and powerful. They generally are so busy and working so hard that they don’t get to have these quiet moments.”
But they didn’t make it to their dinner reservation. At about 7 p.m., the 23-year-old driver of a speeding Mercedes Benz 300D slammed into them near Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street in Seal Beach. He was able to get out of his sedan and flee, but turned himself in to police eight days later.
The victims he left behind at the scene survived, but all had to be hospitalized. Four of them were knocked out during the crash. The fifth remembered waking up in the passenger seat with her unconscious friend lying in her lap, Kim said. She later called him from a stretcher in the back of an ambulance and asked him to let their loved ones know what had happened.
“I didn’t really want to believe that I was reading the text that I had received,” Kim said. “We were hoping and praying that it was not the horrendous situation that it ended up being. We were thinking, ‘how badly could anyone get hurt in Seal Beach? It’s such a sleepy, quiet family town.”
He, other friends and relatives quickly managed to track four of the patients down at Long Beach Memorial Hospital and UC Irvine Medical Center, Kim said. However, Maeda had lost her phone during the collision, and since she was an exchange student from Japan, medical staff were unable to reach her family.
Kim called 12 different hospitals to find Maeda. It took until about midnight, but he learned that she was in treatment at OC Global.
“When I did locate her, she was so thankful. She had no idea where she was. She was knocked unconscious, so she didn’t really know what was going on. She just woke up in a strange hospital with zero ability to get a hold of anyone.”
The two adult dancers who were hurt were able to go home the following day. But the three 17-year-olds remained in care for days for multiple broken bones, Kim said. As of Tuesday, two remained in the hospital.
Kim said he is just grateful that they lived through their ordeal. However, he reluctantly acknowledged that the severity of some of their injuries has cast uncertainty on some of their futures as dancers.
“We’re going to hope, we’re going to pray and keep a positive perspective on it because we know how tough and resilient these kids are,” he said. “They all want to get back to the studio. They all want to start dancing again. They miss each other. It’s their home; it really is.”
All of them have a long road to recovery before them, Kim said. As of Wednesday, A GoFundMe campaign set up by Kim and his wife, Renee Kim, had drawn over $44,000 in donations to help cover the costs of the dancers’ medical bills.
Meanwhile, with the injured young women’s blessing, other members of their dance troupe have stepped up to fill the roles they were supposed to play.
“We were initially going to cancel the show, but we decided to put it on because dancers are some of the hardest working, toughest people out there,” Kim said. “You’ve heard the adage: the show must go on. We’re living up to that.”
That upcoming performance is now planned as a benefit show for the injured dancers, Kim said. It is tenatively scheduled for April 1 or April 2, and may take place at the 2,000 person capacity auditorium at Millikan High School in Long Beach.
“We’re hoping to fill every seat,” Kim said.
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