The three college friends from the north suburbs were celebrating their spring break in a Chinatown restaurant Tuesday night.

They chatted with pals, sipped smoothies and dined on chicken fried rice, beef chow mein and crab rangoon.

"They were happy, talking," said Bo Wu, their waiter at Seven Treasures Cantonese Cuisine.

Less than an hour later, they died when their sports car crashed early Wednesday on Lower Wacker Drive -- a wreck so horrific, the car was towed to the Cook County medical examiner's office, where their bodies were cut out.

"It's not something you ever forget," said Jacob Glasnovich, a witness to the fiery accident. "It was surreal."

Tommy Young Choi, 20, of Palatine, accelerated west from a stoplight at Columbus Drive about 12:50 a.m. and lost control of the Mazda RX-8 on wet pavement, police said. He slammed into a steel median barrier near Stetson Avenue, and the car burst into flames.

Choi and his passenger Cindy Young Kim, 20, of Northbrook, were students at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The other passenger, Karen Chiang of Northbrook, was a student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.


'Help! I'm on fire!'
"The Mazda kind of revved its engine before the light and peeled out when it turned green," said Glasnovich, who was driving home to Naperville when he rolled up to a red light behind Choi's Mazda and a Honda Civic driven by a friend of Choi.
"The Honda did not keep up with it. It was out in front of everybody. You saw the back end lose control, then the front end lost control, and it went right into the metal I-beam. Then you saw a flame start from the rear back corner."

One of Choi's friends was unable to pull him from the wreckage, Glasnovich said. "I thought I heard one voice coming from the car saying, 'Help! I'm on fire!'" he said.

Police and firefighters arrived quickly, Glasnovich said.

Choi and the passenger in the rear seat died of smoke inhalation, said a spokesman for the medical examiner's office. The passenger in the front seat died of multiple injuries. It was unclear which woman was in the front.

There was no evidence Choi and his passengers were using alcohol or drugs, the medical examiner's spokesman said. The results of toxicology tests were pending.

The trio started the evening dining on sushi in Palatine. Later, they joined friends at Seven Treasures, said a friend, Cyndi Chao, 19, also a student at NIU.

"There was no drinking going on," said Chao, who said she thinks Choi was driving the women home when he crashed.

They showed up at 11:01 p.m. and left at 11:53 p.m., according to their $30 bill. The restaurant does not serve alcohol, a Seven Treasures manager said.

Choi and Kim were active in Asian-American student groups at NIU and had attended an Asian student conference together last weekend in Champaign.

"This is a very sad day for our entire campus community," NIU President John Peters said. "Tommy Choi and Cindy Kim were outstanding student leaders and articulate spokespersons for the Asian-American student body."

Choi was a junior in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and a member of Kappa Phi Beta fraternity. His artwork was on display at the university.

"Tommy was a bright light at Palatine High School," said Raeleen Horn, chairwoman of the music department. "His image was of being a positive person who was responsible, well-respected and someone who you could trust."


High school classmates
Choi was a percussionist in several bands at the school and excelled as an artist, Horn said.
"He was a very nice kid. He was never in any trouble. He was sort of known around the neighborhood as 'Little Tommy,'" said a Palatine neighbor.

Kim was a sophomore in the College of Business at NIU and an executive board member of the Asian American Association. She also belonged to the Korean Student Association. She was a graduate of Glenbrook North High School.

Chiang was a sophomore majoring in psychology at Purdue, a university spokeswoman said. She wanted to become a pediatric cardiologist or a psychiatrist, according to her MySpace profile. She said she once played piano and violin, treasured her high school prom, described herself as preppy and said she wanted to get married by age 28, according to her Web profile.

Chiang, a classmate of Kim in the Glenbrook North class of 2005, sang in several choruses at the school and played violin, according to the school's yearbook and her Web profile.