A driver killed a two-year-old child Friday evening in Mission Rock at the intersection of 4th and Channel Streets. Walk San Francisco will be holding a vigil this Monday evening at the location at 5 p.m. SFMTA crews were dispatched Monday morning to repaint the crosswalks and other markings.
Several witnesses described the scene on a Reddit thread. "I heard someone screaming out 'you’re dragging her' and I looked in the intersection and saw the horrific scene," wrote one poster.
"The San Francisco Police Department's hearts and prayers go out to the family who tragically lost their child last night during a vehicle collision that occurred near 4th and Channel," wrote a department spokesperson in an email to Streetsblog. "We offer our deepest condolences on this tragic loss." But, of course, the police have also, as is protocol, already exonerated the driver without doing an investigation, stating that the motorist: "remained on scene and is cooperating with the investigation. Alcohol and or drugs do not appear to be a factor at this time."
"We are in the process of working with SFPD to understand more about this tragic collision," wrote SFMTA's Michael Roccaforte in an email to Streetsblog. "We are working to conduct the SFMTA's rapid response review—an analysis of what we know about the circumstances surrounding the collision, location history and existing conditions to see what engineering improvements can be made quickly."
From Walk San Francisco:
The intersection where the crash occurred is less than 0.2 miles from where a four-year-old girl was hit and killed by a driver at the intersection of 4th & King Streets in 2023. 4th Street is designated as a dangerous street on the city’s 2022 “high-injury network” map: the 12% of streets where 68% of traffic crashes occur. There have been 9 other traffic crashes at the intersection of 4th and Channel Streets since the beginning of 2016. This neighborhood is dense with new housing, businesses, and young families. The section of 4th Street where the crash occurred is 50-feet-wide with three vehicle travel lanes and is near community amenities like Gus’ Market, Mission Creek Park, the Dahlia School of San Francisco, and an affordable housing complex.
From Streetsblog's view, Walk San Francisco brings up the most salient point: why is the street this wide, and the sidewalks so narrow, in an area with so much dense housing? The answer is simple: yet again, car throughput was put above pedestrian safety. In addition, there are far-side traffic signals built high over the intersection, which encourage motorists to overshoot the crosswalk, drawing drivers' eyes (assuming they're paying attention at all) up and away from pedestrians. The crosswalks are not set back from the corners, which would increase reaction times for turning drivers. And of course, there's no corner bells or bollards to prevent drivers from rounding turns too fast. One has to wonder why streets with Muni tracks need to encourage car throughput at all—can't at least some of these streets be converted to local-access only, as one would see so often in European cities with train tracks?
It also speaks volumes about city priorities that SFMTA doesn't even close the intersection to drivers while crews are out repainting the crosswalks. Instead, the paint crews do their best to dodge and direct traffic as they work. Their safety should be prioritized and traffic stopped while they paint.
Meanwhile, Walk San Francisco encourages witnesses and other people traumatized by this incident to reach out via "Families for Safe Streets." Again, there will be a vigil Monday/tonight at 4th and Channel Streets.
