An unidentified 57-year-old man was struck by a vehicle and killed early Tuesday morning in SoMa. He was the twelfth pedestrian to die from a traffic-related accident in San Francisco so far this year. The fatality, which remains under investigation, occurred on the same day that city officials voted 10 to 1 to endorse speed safety cameras. The lone dissenting vote was District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton. His office didn’t respond by press time to an email and phone call seeking comment.
SFPD officers responded to a collision on Sixth Street, between Howard and Tehama Streets, at about 4:07 a.m., according to a police statement. The driver remained at the location and is cooperating with the investigation, police said, adding that alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors.
“Walking around San Francisco should not be a life or death situation,” Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco, said in an interview.
Traffic enforcement in the city is governed by state law, making Tuesday’s vote largely a symbolic message directed to legislators in Sacramento. Last week, the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee heard from pedestrians who have been struck by cars, and family members of people killed by speeding drivers.
The resolution was sponsored by District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “When you’re seeing something that’s working, it’s really hard to argue with success,” Dorsey told Gazetteer SF. “We felt it was important to say, on behalf of the City and County of San Francisco, we like this program. We want more of it deployed in our city, and we’re encouraging the state legislature to get working on giving us that authority.”
The pedestrian death Tuesday happened in Dorsey’s district. He said that drivers often speed through the location, near Howard Street. While Dorsey didn’t have any additional information about Tuesday’s death, he noted that another pedestrian, Anabella Gabriel Baquera, was killed on the same street last year.
“I can say confidently that speed is the number one factor when it comes to the difference between a minor mishap and a fatality,” Dorsey said.
Installed a little over one year ago, San Francisco’s 33 cameras have dramatically reduced speeding, data show. Those cameras are the result of years of lobbying in Sacramento according to Walk San Francisco’s Medeiros.
Medeiros noted that while the 33 cameras are effective, they’re hardly enough to change driving behavior citywide.
“We are very constrained in the state of California with this pilot on the number of cameras that can be implemented,” Medeiros said. “It’d be great to see if we can start to show that it’s working.”
