A 70-year-old pedestrian crossing Parnassus Street in Cole Valley was killed by the driver of a turning dump truck Tuesday morning. From an SFPD report:
...officers responded to Parnassus Ave. and Stanyan St. regarding a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian. Officers arrived on scene and located an adult male pedestrian suffering from injuries. Officers rendered aid and medics arrived on scene. Despite the lifesaving efforts of the emergency responders the pedestrian was declared deceased on scene.
In typical fashion, the cut-and-paste phrase: "The driver and the vehicle involved remained on scene. Impairment due to drugs or alcohol does not appear to be a factor at this time," was included in the police report, absolving the driver of any wrongdoing before any investigation took place. SFPD repeatedly sidestepped questions by Streetsblog about whether the driver's cell phone records would be examined to determine if they were driving distracted.
"This is the 20th pedestrian death this year–already two more than in 2023," wrote Walk SF's Jodie Medeiros in a prepared statement. The group held a vigil for this latest victim of traffic violence later the same evening.
Maurice Kari, the owner of Sunny Country Foods, which is on the corner across the street from the scene of Tuesday's tragedy, said he's seen "hundreds of accidents."
"They need to do something. I don't care what," he said. Kari said the truck was turning right from Stanyan onto Parnassus and that both the pedestrian—who was in the crosswalk and had the right of way—and the driver had a green light. He also recalled a time a truck slammed into a concrete garbage can on the sidewalk, which was all that prevented it from hitting his shop.
"This fatal crash is the tragic but predictable result of Mayor Breed and the City failing to implement citywide policy and infrastructure that would make it safe and convenient to walk, bike, and take public transportation and help people shift trips from cars to sustainable transportation," wrote advocate Luke Bornheimer of Streets Forward. "‘Fixing’ individual intersections or streets through a reactionary, piecemeal, and patchwork approach continues to fail San Franciscans and the environment."
SFMTA spokesperson Michael Roccaforte told Streetsblog that "The intersection is currently daylit in the direction the car was going."
Daylighting, as Streetsblog readers are surely aware, means keeping cars from parking near the corners and crosswalks to make sure views of crossing pedestrians are not obstructed. However, as Streetsblog has repeatedly called out, SFMTA continues to use only red paint and occasionally plastic posts to "daylight" intersections. When Streetsblog visited the site on Wednesday, an illegally parked SUV blocked one of the crosswalk daylight areas for an extended period of time.
From Streetsblog's view, this is the core of the problem: SFMTA continues to depend on the good behavior of drivers rather than installing simple concrete or stone planters, slabs, cast-iron bells (see two images up) of the type seen in New York, Paris, London and other cities where they have successfully reduced traffic violence. Until the city uses materials that force—not ask, but force—drivers to park legally and take corners slowly and with the upmost care and attention, Vision Zero will remain an unattainable goal.
"It is beyond enraging that we continue to accept this kind of violence on our streets," wrote advocate and Streetsblog contributor Tricia Gump in a statement about the tragedy. "These deaths are the result of a system that, despite lip service, continues to prioritize cars over people—leaving pedestrians, particularly seniors, vulnerable."
Note/erratum: an earlier version of this post indicated that the curb by the red SUV was painted red. That corner is not actually painted, although it is nevertheless illegal and dangerous to park that close to a crosswalk.
