Driver Kills Pedestrian on Lakeside in Oakland
The hit-and-run driver of a white Nissan killed a pedestrian in Oakland near Lake Merritt Saturday morning. “The preliminary investigation indicates that the pedestrian was walking in a marked crosswalk on 17th Street when a vehicle traveling northbound on Lakeside Drive at a high rate of speed struck him. The suspect vehicle [driver] fled the scene and has not been located,” wrote a spokesperson for the Oakland Police Department.
Streetsblog added the correction to the OPD quote in brackets, unless the police are really seeking a car but not the driver.
KTVU anchor Andre Senior was out walking his dog and witnessed the crash:
As Senior reported, the driver appeared to be traveling between 90 and 100 mph.
While the hit-and-run driver holds primary responsibility, advocates say the Oakland Fire Department and Oakland DOT, which delayed a safety project that would have narrowed this crossing, share the blame.
“This tragedy today occurred at a location that has long been planned for traffic calming,” wrote Bike East Bay’s Robert Prinz, in a post on Instagram. “Oakland DOT’s Lakeside/Lake Merritt Blvd project was to start construction around the same time as 14th Street [which started construction in January 2024]. But the fire department (OFD) took issue with the roadway clearance and forced a redesign, resulting in a two-year delay.”
That objection also nixed the protected bike lanes. The adjacent 14th Street project, meanwhile, is nearly complete and rideable.
“The fire department is uniquely aware of the crisis of speeding vehicles and the impact of reckless driving on our streets in that we respond to all of them,” said Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for OFD. “However, fire code absolutely plays a role in street design and that’s where coordination between OFD and DOT is so critical.”
As Senior described it in the KTVU report, the pedestrian tried to get out of the driver’s way by running to the right of the car’s direction of travel. But the driver veered right too, perhaps in a miscalculated attempt to avoid the pedestrian. This is extremely unlikely to have happened if the protected bike lane had been built, because there wouldn’t be enough space.
Moreover, “I can’t definitely say what could have prevented this crash, but the more significant traffic calming from the cycletrack version would make speeding much harder,” said Prinz.
“OFD’s requirement of 26-foot-wide clearance on Lakeside means faster cars and more injuries and deaths,” wrote Kevin Dalley, an advocate with Transport Oakland who specializes in fire department issues. “OFD responds to substantially more vehicle crashes than fires.”
Hunt stressed that the fire department knows better than anyone that there’s a street safety crisis. He stressed the importance of OFD and DOT working together to assure streets are safe and the fire department and emergency services have the space they need.
Streetsblog also reached out to Oakland DOT and will update this post.
An Oakland DOT official sent the following note shortly after this post published: “OakDOT and Oakland’s emergency response departments routinely collaborate to identify solutions that allow for advancing traffic safety goals while supporting and ensuring emergency vehicle response. This is an integrated, standard element of the street project design process.“
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