PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 31, 2023
CONTACT: Marta Lindsey, Communications Director, marta@walksf.org
Pedestrian killed Saturday at Post & Hyde Streets in Nob Hill marks 16th this year
Walk SF continues to demand City leaders do more to fix deadly intersections
San Francisco, Calif. – According to the San Francisco Police Department, a 65-year-old man was hit and killed on Saturday morning by a driver at Post and Hyde Streets. The reckless driver ran a red light, hit another vehicle, and then hit the victim on the sidewalk. The driver and the passenger in the other vehicle were unharmed.
“Our hearts go out to this man’s loved ones and community,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco. “We grieve for yet another life lost so senselessly on our streets.”
Walk San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets community stand ready to support the friends and loved ones of the victim however possible.
This is the sixteenth pedestrian death in San Francisco so far in 2023; the fifteenth pedestrian death was a 61-year-old man hit and killed on October 19 at Van Ness and O’Farrell Streets.
“We don’t need any more tragedies for the City to make traffic safety a top priority,” said Medeiros. “Dangerous driving threatens all of us. We should all be safe on the sidewalk. We should be safe in the crosswalk. And too often, we are not safe.”
Post and Hyde Streets are both designated as ‘high-injury’ streets due to high crash rates. The high-injury network is the 12% of streets where 68% of all severe and fatal traffic crashes occur.
Walk San Francisco has been calling on City leaders to create a detailed, publicly-available plan for how the SFMTA will meet its commitment to fix the 900 intersections on the high-injury network. (Read in detail at walksf.org/threeasks.)
“Streets can be designed and enforced to protect us,” said Medeiros. “We are calling on City leaders to be laser-focused on Vision Zero.”
In total, 20 people were killed while walking in San Francisco in 2022. 39 people were killed in all traffic crashes in 2022, which is the deadliest year since the City adopted Vision Zero in 2014. Vision Zero is a comprehensive, data-based, preventative, and proven approach to ending severe and fatal crashes that has been successful worldwide.
Both Post and Hyde are one-way, multi-lane streets – which is the type of street Walk SF has observed the biggest issues with dangerous speeding.
“These are neighborhood streets, with many people living, working, and walking here every day. The City must do everything possible to slow speeds on these kinds of streets,” said Medeiros.
Pedestrians are highly vulnerable as speed rises above 25 MPH. The most frequently cited study on speed and risk of fatality shows that at 25 MPH and under, a person has a less than 1 in 4 chance of being severely injured or killed if they are hit. But by 40 MPH, this flips, with 75% of pedestrians suffering life-threatening injuries or dying.
Speed is the #1 cause of severe and fatal crashes in San Francisco. Learn more in Walk SF’s speed report.
Nationally, pedestrian deaths are at their highest numbers since 1981 and with 20 pedestrians dying every day on average.
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Walk San Francisco (‘Walk SF’) advocates for safe streets for everyone who walks, which is everyone. Since our founding in 1998, Walk SF has been leading the way to make San Francisco a pedestrian-first city where people of every age and ability can walk safely. Learn more.
San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets is a group of people who have been directly affected by traffic crashes, including crash survivors and people whose loved ones have been killed or injured in traffic crashes. Learn more.