Charles Hu ’11 passed away this past Tuesday afternoon in a car accident while heading north on Route 128 in Lexington. He was 26. A computer science major, Hu had been living in Lexington and worked for athenahealth at their Watertown headquarters. Hu was involved in the Chinese Cultural Connection while at Brandeis according to his LinkedIn profile, and emcee’d BC3’s Lunar New Year celebration in 2010, according to a Brandeis Hoot article from Feb. 12, 2010.

The accident occurred when a tire dislodged from a pickup truck, driving on the other side of the highway, bounced over the median and struck Hu’s car, killing him at the scene, according to a Massachusetts State Police press release.

Investigations are under way to determine why the tire fell off of the moving truck and if any charges need to be filed. No charges have been filed yet, but service records of the truck, its current condition and evidence from the scene will be considered.

Additionally, the police will check to see if any recalls had been announced on the vehicle—a 1997 Dodge Ram pickup—that lost its left rear tire, though according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) online database on vehicle recalls, there have not been any recalls. A complaint left by a user on the website, however, mentioned that the lugnuts on their 1997 Dodge Ram pickup were not tightened correctly after having their tires rotated at their dealer. This incident occurred in 2002 in Indiana, according to the corresponding letter to the NHTSA included with the complaint.