PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 7, 2024
CONTACT: Jodie Medeiros, Executive Director, Walk SF, jodie@walksf.org, 415.596.1580 (cell); Marta Lindsey, Communications Director, Walk SF, marta@walksf.org, 617.833.7654 (cell)
Hit-and-run victim in the Tenderloin is fourth pedestrian death this year
Despite many effective safe streets improvements in the neighborhood, some drivers still speed through
San Francisco, Calif. – A 41-year-old man was fatally hit by a driver on March 2, 2024 at the intersection of Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Street. The driver fled the scene. Walk San Francisco has no additional details at this time.
“We grieve for this life and this person’s loved ones,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco.
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 fourth pedestrian death in San Francisco in 2024. The first was a 72-year old man on January 31, 2024 at Fulton and Arguello. The second was a 32-year-old man, David Bridges Jr., who was hit and killed at 6th and Bryant Street on February 8, 2024 by a hit-and-run driver. The third was a 76-year-old man who was hit crossing at Alemany Boulevard at Rousseau Street in the Excelsior neighborhood on February 25, 2024.
While both Golden Gate Avenue and Hyde Street are on the City’s “high-injury network,” the 12% of streets where 68% of traffic crashes occur, both streets have had substantial safety improvements in recent years.
Both streets had the number of traffic lanes reduced from three to two, which reduces driver speeds. Speed limits were also lowered to 20 MPH in 2021. The intersection has pedestrian safety zones, no-turn-on-red, daylighting (removing parking around the crosswalk), and high-visibility painted safety zones.
“We are grateful to the SFMTA for bringing many safety improvements to this intersection and throughout the Tenderloin,” said Medeiros. “This is a neighborhood where for decades, the streets were designed to prioritize fast-moving traffic over the safety of the people living here. Many positive changes have happened in recent years, and crash rates have gone down. But the reality is many drivers use this neighborhood as a cut-through, and drive too fast and recklessly.”
Speed is the #1 cause of severe and fatal crashes in San Francisco, and the faster a driver goes, the more likely a crash is to happen – and the more severe the impact is.
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.
17 people were killed while walking in San Francisco in 2023, and pedestrians accounted for 65% of all traffic-related fatalities. Nationally, pedestrian deaths are at a 40-year historic high.
“The frightening reality for pedestrians is that we face bigger, heavier, more powerful vehicles and more dangerous driving,” said Medeiros. “Every possible solution is needed to design and enforce streets so we are all safe.”
Walk SF is supporting State Senator Scott Wiener’s new safe streets bills, SB 960 and SB 961.
SB 960 would hold our state transportation department, Caltrans, accountable for designing its surface roads to be ‘Complete Streets’ for the most vulnerable users: people walking, biking, and taking transit. Cities all over the state including San Francisco have Caltrans roads running through neighborhoods. Here in San Francisco, Park Presidio, Lombard Street, 19th Avenue, Skyline Boulevard, Van Ness Avenue, Sloat Boulevard, and San Jose Avenue are overseen by Caltrans. These are all designated high-injury streets because of crash rates and have long needed safer designs.
SB 961 would require all vehicles built or sold in California to have safe driving technology so they are unable to drive more than 10 MPH above the speed limit (emergency vehicles are exempt). SB 961 also includes a much-needed and overdue requirement for large trucks exceeding 10,000 pounds manufactured, sold, or registered in the state to have side underride guards. Underride guards can prevent pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists from being swept under and run over by a large truck’s rear wheels.
Citywide, around 30 people are killed and more than 500 severely injured each year on San Francisco streets. Older adults make up 50% of these fatalities annually.
The City’s Vision Zero commitment is reaching a 10-year milestone this month. Vision Zero is a comprehensive, data-based, preventative, and proven approach to ending severe and fatal crashes that has been successful worldwide. San Francisco has made meaningful strides in embracing Vision Zero, but it’s clear the City must act much faster and more aggressively to take on the rising dangers we all face on our streets.
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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.