A St. Edward’s University student died late last week after a motorcycle accident in north Austin.

Senior Peter Pham, 22, was riding his motorcycle southbound on the 10800 block of Metric Boulevard on Oct. 28 when he collided with a flatbed truck. Pham was wearing a helmet and taken to University Medical Center-Brackenridge where he later died, according to an Austin Police Department report.

Friends said that Pham always rode his motorcycle and was very confident, but he always rode safely and with a helmet.

Pham was an international relations major planning on going to medical school to become a paramedic or emergency room doctor. Friends described him as goofy, cheerful, optimistic and outgoing, always the one in the group to lift everyone’s spirits. As they talked about him, sophomores Elizabeth Kaweesa, Mai-Anh Van-Dinh, Jessica Le, and Joseph Tang laughed as they talked about their friend’s personality.

“I always told him he was special, and he was special,” Kaweesa said.

Kaweesa, who is from Uganda, talked about how Pham was the first person she really talked to at St. Edward’s.

“He introduced me to this American culture. He would tell me how different people act in case I had culture shock,” Kaweesa said.

Tang said that Pham was very proud of being Vietnamese and of his culture, and his friends agreed that bringing different cultures together was very important to him.

“He made me proud of being Vietnamese,” Tang said.

Although he was very outgoing, his friends said that this semester they didn’t see him much because he was studying most of the time.

“I remember one day I saw him in the library, and we had a big hug, like we hadn’t seen each other in forever. I just really remember that,” Kaweesa said. The two friends had decided that day to make plans for this weekend.

“I’m going to miss him,” Kaweesa said.

The other three friends nodded in silent agreement.

“There is not anything we can say, really,” Le said. “Anything we should have said, it’s too late.”

Visitations for Pham are scheduled from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on both Nov. 4 and Nov. 5 at Cook-Walden Capital Parks funeral home in Pflugerville. Funeral services for Pham will be held on Nov. 6 at 10 a.m. at Holy Vietnamese Martyr’s Catholic Church.