Tragic cyclist Min Joo Lee’s ‘ideas will live on’, students promise

Published: October 13, 2011
by TOM FOOT

CLASSMATES of a fashion student who died on her bike at a busy junction in King’s Cross say they will ensure her design ideas live on in her memory.

Fashion student Min Joo Lee collided with a heavy goods vehicle at the junction of Euston Road, Gray’s Inn Road and York Way last Monday.

It was the 24-year-old’s first day back at the world-famous Central St Martins College and the opening day of its new King’s Cross campus.

In messages left among flowers at the spot where she died, a friend wrote: “Life is perfection and you lived beautifully, you were perfect. We will make sure your ideas live on. You are going to be a beautiful angel.”

Ms Joo Lee posted her fashion designs on an internet site that says she was inspired by the Memphis Group, Italian designers and architects from the 1980s.

Other messages paid tribute to Ms Joo Lee’s “sweet smile” and a “perfect and beautiful person” who “helped everyone”.

On a cycling internet forum, another friend said: “She was my classmate and a very inspiring person”, adding that Ms Joo Lee was riding a “fixie” – a single-speed bike without gears – and “was always careful and aware”.

Students at the college, part of the University of Arts, had warned against the move to the new modern building before a proper road safety infrastructure was introduced.

One student, who did not wish to be named, said: “She wouldn’t have died if our campus hadn’t been moved to King’s Cross. The students and teachers on the fashion course didn’t want to move from Charing Cross and it’s completely irresponsible to move students to an incomplete building that is surrounded by building sites.”

A spokesman for Central St Martins said there would be no comment on the death, to respect the wishes of the family.

She added that the college was looking at ways it could advise students about cycling safety in King’s Cross.

Ms Joo Lee was the 11th young woman cyclist to die in Camden and Islington in the past five years – and the second student of St Martins in as many years.

On Thursday, a 25-year-old woman cyclist was left lying in a pool of blood after being knocked off her bike in an accident at the junction of Marylebone Road and Euston Road.

She was taken to hospital but her injuries were not believed to be life threatening, police said on Monday.