San Francisco officials, advocates work to make city safer for pedestrians after deadly crashes

ByAnser Hassan KGO logo
Friday, July 26, 2019
Officials work to make city safer for pedestrians after deadly crashes
Seventy-five percent of San Francisco's severe injuries and fatalities occur in the Tenderloin District. That's the discussion of a city meeting that's underway, where solutions will be given to solve this crisis.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Following last Sunday's collision where two pedestrians from the Fresno area were hit, killing one of them, we want to highlight an area of the city deemed the most dangerous. Seventy-five percent of San Francisco's severe injuries and fatalities occur in the Tenderloin District. When police said the driver of a Tesla appeared to be speeding when she ran a red light, it brought renewed attention to a problem that has excited in the Tenderloin for years.

"Every single street in the Tenderloin is on our city's high-injury network," said Jodie Medeiros of Walk San Francisco.

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There are more one-way streets there, creating a sense that people can drive faster.

Most of the people who drive through the Tenderloin are not residents.

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Last July 18, a man was struck at the intersection of Eddy and Mason. While we were shooting video, a young woman was nearly hit by a car.

"Yeah, I was crossing the street and I still had the light, just yeah," she said.

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According to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, speeding is the cause of 25 percent of fatal accidents in the city.

The collision that killed one man and injured his wife happened at Taylor and O'Farrell, an intersection that is always of concern because people do speed through here. I downloaded an app, which shows how fast a car is going. Honestly, I didn't know if it would work, but I gave it a try.

Remember here the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. We found many people driving above the limit.

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In the video, you can see that Kelly Dean saw the Tesla coming, stopped, and threw her arm across her husband before the Tesla hit them both.

Vision Zero SF is helping to create more traffic safety in the city which would include installing more red light cameras. Even the police union, which was opposed to them, is now in favor of including them.

"We are asking for our city to install more red light cameras where they know are dangerous intersections," added Medeiros

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