HONOLULU (KHON2) — Early Sunday morning, a 25-year-old woman was killed after a head-on collision on the Westbound H-1 freeway.
Police say the woman, identified as Kylee Chun, was traveling East on the H-1 West when she collided with an 18-wheeler truck. The 77-year-old driver of the truck was treated and brought to the hospital for a shoulder injury. Chun succumbed to her injuries a few hours later.
Chun, a mother of two, had recently relocated to Hawaiʻi following the California fires, and was in her second year of college.
“It still feels very surreal,” said Beejay Druary, a close family friend of Chun. “She had so much more to live for and so much hope for her future and for her boys.”
Druary, a longtime friend of Chun’s mother Jenny, describes Chun as a vibrant free spirit and a hard-working person who valued her two sons above all else.
“She was an amazing mother for her age. She would always have activities for them, or any random things like build a house out of cardboard,” said Druary. “She was a human being who adored her kids more than anything.”
Having raised her own kids alongside Chun’s mother, sometimes even under the same roof, Druary watched Chun grow up and into the person that her loved ones would come to know.
“I always told her you’re my soul daughter,” said Druary.
Following a public interview posted yesterday, Chun’s family was met with a significant amount of online speculation and negativity on social media.
“Her two boys, who really still have a very long road ahead of them, you know, they lost their mom, and one day they’re going to be older and they’re going to start to search for answers and maybe come across things that are said online,” said Druary. “So we just ask if anybody is reading and commenting that they just pause, and before they post anything harmful, just say a prayer instead and think of the boys.”
Kylee Chun is survived by her mother Jenny, younger sister Kalea, and two sons Mateo (5) and Liko (3).
Her family has set up a GoFundMe to help her mother cover funeral expenses and for her two sons.