Visiting Chinese doctoral student Yichao Wang from Singapore passed away on Friday due to injuries sustained in a bike accident on Feb. 3 at the intersection of Palm Drive and Museum Way (Courtesy of Dan Cao)

The death of Yichao Wang, a visiting Chinese doctoral student, of complications after a bicycling accident on Feb. 3 has both saddened Stanford community members and spurred many to take action to heighten bike safety awareness on campus.

“It’s a heavy blow for everyone here, because even though he was here only for a very short time, everybody knew him,” said Dr. Martin Reinhard, Wang’s local host in the department of civil and environmental engineering. “He was not just an observer — he interacted quite strongly with people and had his own ideas.”

A memorial service is set for Saturday at 11 a.m. in Mountain View.

Wang, an exchange researcher from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, had researched since January the use of membranes in removing trace organic contaminants from recycled water. According to Reinhard, Wang was well into his work, and his loss represents a very serious setback for researchers at NTU.

Professor Chuyang Tang Ph.D. ‘07, Wang’s adviser at NTU, encouraged Wang to come to Stanford to learn laboratory techniques to bring back to Singapore.

“He fulfilled a very important function, namely to connect different countries, universities and laboratories,” Reinhard said. “We depend on people who are willing to go out, meet other people, exchange and interact with people elsewhere.”

His loss also came as a great blow to his colleagues at the laboratory, though he had only been at Stanford for about two months — and in the lab since just January — when the accident occurred.

One of Wang’s peers, another doctoral student in the Reinhard group who asked for anonymity while mourning, told The Daily in an e-mail, “People liked how smiling and outgoing he was. Yichao was [a] very cheerful, always smiling, energetic person. He was very intelligent and hard working, thirsty for knowledge.”

The question of bike safety on campus has also come under scrutiny in light of the accident. Wang was not wearing a helmet on Feb. 3.

Reinhard noted that from the perspective of a relatively newly arrived international student, the widespread lack of helmet-wearing on campus could lead to less safe biking practices. If not wearing a helmet on campus appears to be the norm, he suggested, newly arrived international students might adopt the same habits.

Wang, who lived in downtown Palo Alto, had been commuting between his home and Stanford twice daily for two weeks at the time of the accident.

At 9:30 p.m. that day, he failed to yield to a Honda Civic at the intersection of Palm Drive and Museum Way, according to California Highway Patrol officers. Colliding with the car, he was thrown from his bike onto the road, landing 128 feet away.

“People who are here only for the short term seem to me especially vulnerable, in a sense,” Reinhard said. “I think we will have to pay better attention to equipping people, making sure they have safety gear.”

“Something like that,” he added, “should never happen.”

The accident has been a reality check for Wang’s peers, who purchased a spare bike helmet for the laboratory in response to the accident, in case someone forgets his or hers at home, according to the same doctoral student.

“We feel such an accident could have happened to any one of us,” the student said.

According to the Chinese Mutual Aid International Network Web site, where donations poured in for Wang’s financially strained family, hundreds of donors had given more than $45,000 as of Feb. 22, the date of the most recent posting.

Dan Cao Ph.D. ‘05, now a postdoctoral student at the Stanford School of Medicine department of pediatrics and genetics, stepped in after the accident to assist Wang’s family as a translator and public liaison.

Cao said a public memorial service is set for Saturday at 11 a.m. at Mountain View Chapel on Castro Street in Mountain View. She said Wang’s father will speak and that Chinese consulate officials from San Francisco will attend.

王一超的妻子高玉瑩20日表示，王一超在家人和部分史大中國同學陪伴下安祥去世。據醫生說，死因是肺部感染導致肺功能衰竭。

高玉瑩說，王一超走得突然，第二天又是周末，現在還不知道醫療帳單總共多少，但是10天前就已經超出保險限額了。她表示，現在正在為王一超安排喪禮，希望所有的朋友和關心王一超的人士都能去送一送他。

史丹福大學中國學生學者聯誼會、海外華人互助會等組織20日下午開了五個小時的會，商議王一超喪禮事宜。召集人曹丹在會後表示，初步決定喪禮在27日（星期六）舉行。

曹丹說，由於王一超是因交通事故受傷致死，警方將對遺體進行檢驗，最快要到22日才能將遺體交還。檢驗完成後才能舉行喪禮。友人現正在尋找合適的殯儀館。家人希望喪禮在華人殯儀館舉行，能夠讓按照華人傳統習俗，為死者燒一些紙錢，並能供放骨灰盒。

她表示，目前還不清楚王一超醫療費用帳單是多少，但是據她所知，幾天前的費用就已經超過一百萬元了。

王一超在2009年12月8日來到史丹福大學環境工程系擔任交換訪問學者。今年2月3日晚9時30分，王一超騎單車從實驗室返回住所途中，在史大校園內Palm Drive和MuseumWay路口，被一名70歲人士駕車撞倒。王一超頭部受重傷，被送入史丹福醫院。他的妻子和父母分別從中國和新加坡立即趕來探視。史大中國學生和熱心人士發起募捐，並積極幫助王一超的家人。但是所有的努力都未能挽回他的生命。

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