Vietnamese Immigrant Comatose After Car Is Broadsided : Crash: The student was preparing for his first Tet holiday in the U.S. Police arrest a Long Beach woman suspected of drunk driving.

Thai Binh Dinh Nguyen and his mother were anxiously looking forward to observing their first Tet, the Vietnamese new year, in the United States.

But instead of spending Thursday decorating the apartment and making plans for today’s celebration, Nguyen, a 19-year-old Vietnamese immigrant who arrived in California less than a year ago, lay in a coma at UCI Medical Center in Orange, the victim of an alleged drunk driver.

Nguyen’s car was broadsided at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday by a 23-year-old Long Beach woman who allegedly ran a red light at the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Hamilton Street, police said. The impact left Nguyen with major internal and head injuries.

The woman, Victoria Madden--described by police as a transient who lived in motels--was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and was being held at Orange County Jail on $10,000 bail, Costa Mesa police traffic investigator Bob Baumgardner said.

Nguyen came to the United States from Vietnam last summer, said his mother, who asked that her name not appear in print on the Vietnamese new year, normally a time of joy and celebration. The woman said she feared that identifying herself publicly on the Tet holiday would compound her small family’s tragic experience.

“I pray very, very hard,” she said between sobs. Her hands, pressed together in prayer, shook uncontrollably as she talked about her son. “I hurt so deep inside.”

Nguyen, an Amerasian whose American GI father was killed in Vietnam before he was born, was enrolled at Saddleback College, where he studied English as a second language, auto mechanics and merchandising. He supported himself and his mother with a job at the Orange County Fairgrounds swap meet, she said.

“He’s a nice, nice boy. I love him so much,” his mother, a middle-aged woman, said in broken English before breaking down in tears. “He supports me.”

Through an interpreter, she said that she last saw Nguyen between classes at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Nguyen said he would be home late and told his mother not to wait up for him.

Nguyen, who was driving with a learner’s permit, was giving a ride to a friend, Trung Ngoc Hoang, 40, in a 1983 Toyota Corolla when the accident occurred, said Costa Mesa police traffic investigator Steve Rautus.

Madden and three passengers were riding in a 1983 Chrysler Cordoba, heading south along Harbor Boulevard in excess of 60 m.p.h., Rautus said. Witnesses told police Madden ran a red light and broadsided Nguyen’s car.

“It was about as clean a center punch as you can get,” said Rautus, the first police officer to arrive at the scene.

The impact pinned Nguyen inside the car, Rautus said. An emergency crew freed him and he was airlifted to the medical center. Hoang suffered possible cracked ribs, minor facial cuts and neck injuries. Both men were wearing their seat belts, Rautus said.

Madden and her passengers, Sharon Phelps, 25, April L. Lason, 18, and Angela Brown, 20, suffered minor cuts and bruises, Rautus said. None of them was wearing a seat belt.

Rautus said he confiscated an open bottle of beer and recovered several empty bottles from Madden’s car. Madden underwent blood-alcohol level tests at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana before she was taken to the Costa Mesa police station for booking, Rautus said.

Nguyen’s mother, who said that she was afraid of cars and only traveled by bus, said she remained optimistic about her son’s recovery.

“If he’s crippled, OK,” she said. “But I don’t want him to die.”