ONLY ON ABC7NEWS.COM: Wife shields husband in new video of deadly San Francisco Tesla crash

Kate Larsen Image
ByKate Larsen KGO logo
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
EXCLUSIVE: Video shows wife shielding husband before deadly SF crash
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.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Exclusive new video from an Uber dash cam shows the intersection at Taylor and O'Farrell Streets around 2 p.m. Sunday -- the moment a couple was hit by a car that ran a red light.



RELATED: Investigators say Autopilot feature was not on during deadly San Francisco Tesla crash



The cars are all moving slowly, at least relative to the Tesla, which is seen speeding up Taylor, through a red light at O'Farrell.



It takes one second for the Tesla to broadside a Mini Cooper, which had the green light, and then hit a couple who were in the crosswalk.



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, throwing them into the air.



"She was incoherent, gurgling noises, she was on her stomach with her head off to one side," said Bob Navarro, who ran to help the couple and stayed with Kelly, who was unresponsive. "I could see a lot of blood coming from her head and we just kept talking to her, talking to her."



MAP: Here are the highest-injury intersections in San Francisco



Kelly survived and, as of Monday night, is at San Francisco General Hospital in critical condition.



But her husband, 39-year-old Benjamin Dean, died.



The couple, from the Fresno area, were in San Francisco celebrating their wedding anniversary.



RELATED: Tesla driver in San Francisco crash that killed man from Central Valley used Getaround app



The driver of the rented Tesla, 21-year-old Kelsey Cambridge of Vallejo, was arrested Sunday and booked for involuntary vehicular manslaughter.



"Pedestrian fatalities are way up this year, and most of those are here in this neighborhood," said San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney.



Sunday's deadly wreck happened in the Tenderloin - the heart of Haney's district, and the city's "high injury network." The dangerous areas are mostly concentrated in the downtown, SOMA and Tenderloin neighborhoods.



VIDEO: Vallejo woman identified as Tesla driver in San Francisco crash that killed tourist from Central Valley


The woman allegedly responsible for hitting a couple sightseeing in San Francisco on Sunday has been identified as 21 year-old Kelsey Mariah Cambridge of Vallejo. She's been charged with involuntary vehicular manslaughter and one count of running a red light.


"We are in a crisis, we are in a state of emergency and it's time that the city recognize that," said Haney.



"Speed is the number one killer," said Jodie Medeiros, the executive director of Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy organization. She wants new policy that slows down drivers. "Street design changes and re-engineering to really impact how people are driving in our city."



Supervisory Haney will be joining Medeiros for a rally Tuesday at 9 a.m. at San Francisco City Hall, to urge city leaders to declare a state of emergency for pedestrian safety to better facilitate quick action. Haney says he's interested in narrowing streets, eliminating lanes and installing speed and red light cameras to improve traffic conditions in his district.

Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.