2 Women Killed by Car While Crossing Reseda Street : Tragedy: The Korean immigrants were headed for an English class. Driver was not arrested but could face misdemeanor charges.

In a tragic coincidence, two elderly Korean women walking to English classes at a Reseda church were struck and killed early Thursday while crossing Sherman Way, the second pair of pedestrians to die on San Fernando Valley streets in five days.

Soon Nam Uom, 72, and Jung Kum Kong, 67--both enrolled in language classes to fulfill their dream of becoming American citizens--were jaywalking across the six-lane thoroughfare just west of Andasol Avenue at 7:10 a.m. when they were struck by an eastbound car.

Kong’s husband, Jae Ho Park, who was walking just ahead of the pair, said the women had nearly reached the far sidewalk when they were struck. Just as he reached the curb, Park said, he heard a thud.

The car hit Uom and Kong, and their bodies traveled about 30 feet to the corner of Andasol and Sherman Way, in front of the Saemoonan Presbyterian Church, police said.

For nearly four hours after the accident, officers cordoned off much of the mile-long stretch of Sherman Way between White Oak and Louise avenues as tearful family members arrived, identifying the sheet-covered bodies on the street.

“I can’t think straight,” Park said in an interview hours after the crash.

The driver of the car, Maria Martinez, 28, of Glendale pulled over and called police, Los Angeles Police Detective Jodi Wakefield said. Firefighters and police rushed to the scene, but the two women were declared dead.

Martinez, who was described as very “remorseful” and who authorities said appeared to have been driving below the speed limit, was not arrested. But Wakefield said city prosecutors will determine whether to file misdemeanor charges in connection with the crash.

The fatal mishap was the second involving Valley pedestrians in five days. Saturday, two sisters from Guatemala were killed as they jaywalked across a North Hollywood street.

Emma Sauceda, 54, and her sister, Antonia--who shared a home in North Hollywood--were hit as they crossed Magnolia Boulevard near Cartwright Avenue about 9:45 a.m. The driver of the car, Damion Dasaro, has been ordered to appear in Van Nuys Municipal Court for arraignment on charges related to the crash.

The deaths of the two Korean immigrants marked a tragic end to their years-long struggle to find a place in their new homeland.

The women, who had both lived in the United States for more than a decade, had begun studying English six weeks ago in an effort to become U. S. citizens because they feared losing benefits under pending congressional legislation, family and friends said.

“All the immigrants from outside are very nervous,” said Soon Nam Uom’s son, Dae Y. Choi, adding that his mother was having difficulty learning a new language at her age, but was determined.

“She tried to study hard,” Choi, 38, said. “She’s very kind and generous. She always smiles. She tried to help a lot of people.”

Uom, who lived in Van Nuys, moved to the United States in 1981 with her eldest son, Augustine, followed later by Dae. She and her friend, Kong, met while attending Valley Korean Catholic Church in Canoga Park three years ago, friends said. Both women were described as deeply religious and very active in the congregation.

“It’ll be a loss to us,” said Pastor Charles O’Rourke, who came to the scene to comfort family and friends. “We’ll miss them very much.”

Theresa Hwang, 68, a friend of both women who attends Valley Korean Catholic Church, said: “They are very religious people, wonderful people. I’m so sorry that we lost them.”

Kong had five children--two sons and three daughters--as well as six grandchildren. Her oldest daughter lives in Omaha. Jin Kong, her eldest son, lives in Bakersfield, and the other three live in Korea. Born in Seoul, she married her first husband in 1947. He died in 1962.

Family members said Kong came to the United States in 1984 because she wanted her son to get an American education. “Her dream was that her children be happy,” Jin Kong said in Korean as he sat in his mother’s North Hills apartment Thursday afternoon.

“I’m really hurting,” Jin Kong said. “We struggled so much when we came to this country, and now for this to happen. . . .”

Kong, who had worked at a janitorial job at an indoor swap meet, began night school in 1989. Three years later she married Park Jae Ho.

Kong’s granddaughter, Esther Kong, 11, said her grandmother was afraid of crossing busy streets. “She said there were too many cars coming by,” Esther said Thursday, recalling how her grandmother expressed fear at crossing Plummer Avenue. Once she told Esther she was afraid to go to a Korean market across the street because of the traffic.

Kong was remembered as a generous woman who enjoyed cooking large meals for guests. Esther Kong recalled that when her family moved to Bakersfield her grandmother gave her family one of her two television sets. “She gave us the good one and kept the bad one,” Esther said.

Said Kong’s best friend, Eui Duk Choi: “She was like an angel.”

Uom and Kong had a routine on Thursdays, with each taking city buses to the Saemoonan Presbyterian Church, where they took three-hour English classes with a group of elderly Koreans.

Thursday, Kong and her husband stopped at a Sherman Way coffee shop before boarding a bus headed toward the church. The pair met Uom on the bus, and got off near Andasol Avenue. The three walked across Sherman Way.

Park said he walked ahead, because his wife and her friend were talking.

Residents in the area said the accident shows the need for a traffic signal or crosswalk in the area. Between Louise and White Oak avenues there are no traffic lights or crosswalks across Sherman Way, where motorists sometimes reach speeds of up to 60 m.p.h.

“It’s like treacherous waters,” said Bill Davis, 26. “You don’t try crossing these streets because it’s like shark-infested waters.”

Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy, head of the Police Department’s Valley Bureau, said Sherman Way is one of two streets in the Valley with the greatest incidence of traffic collisions in the first quarter of 1995.

Sgt. John Gambill of the department’s Valley Traffic Division, who investigates dozens of pedestrian deaths each year, said the two accidents are nothing more than a terrible coincidence.

“I’ve been doing this for 21 years and it comes in cycles,” Gambill said. “It seems like we’ll get a run of pedestrian-involved collisions and then, whether it be for media attention or our own enforcement efforts, it drops off and we don’t see that for a while.”

Nationally, a pedestrian dies in a crash every 93 minutes. At the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, division chief Ron Engle said children, intoxicated adults and the elderly are the most common pedestrian victims.

In 1994, one-third of the Valley’s traffic fatalities involved pedestrians. To date, 10 of 31 traffic fatalities involved pedestrians, according to the Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division.

Times staff writers Abigail Goldman and John M. Glionna contributed to this story.