2 Young Children in the Last 3 Years Have Been Killed Crossing This SF Street

Days after a driver struck and killed a 2-year-old girl crossing the street in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, marking the city’s third pedestrian death this year, advocates have renewed their pleas for street safety reform.

The crash took place Friday night at the intersection of 4th and Channel streets, on a stretch of 4th Street designated as part of the city’s “high-injury network” — the 12% of roadways where more than two-thirds of severe and fatal traffic crashes occur. Since 2016, there have been nine other reported traffic crashes at the intersection of 4th and Channel, according to advocacy group Walk SF.

The site of the crash was also less than a quarter-mile from 4th and King streets, where an SUV driver hit and killed a 4-year-old girl in a similar crash in 2023.

That collision drew widespread condemnation from pedestrian-safety advocates and led then-Mayor London Breed to direct the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to make major improvements to the street.

In addition to removing one turn lane, SFMTA also installed a traffic signal to reinforce the requirement that drivers yield to pedestrians. Breed also directed the SFMTA to make basic safety improvements to all intersections listed as dangerous on the previous year’s high-injury network — which the agency completed.

Still, advocates said the proximity of the two tragedies underscores the long road ahead in improving street safety at the scale needed to prevent unnecessary pedestrian deaths. The section of 4th Street near the crash site is 50 feet wide and built for heavy car traffic, while the area around it is packed densely with new housing, shopping and young families, Walk SF noted.

“This is a heartbreaking reminder that San Francisco must do more to design and enforce streets that keep people safe,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk SF. “Too often, driver convenience is prioritized over our safety.”

Walk SF and San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets held a community vigil at the crash site on Monday evening.

The crash also injured the child’s mother, who was sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed on social media.

Officers who responded to the scene just after 9 p.m. Friday said the driver remained on the scene and was cooperative, adding that drugs and alcohol did not appear to be factors in the crash, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Medeiros said in a statement that she was “heartbroken and heartsick” over the child’s death. “We grieve for the loss of a child and hold their family close in our thoughts,” Medeiros said.

The crash follows two other pedestrian fatalities this year: a 76-year-old woman struck on Feb. 3 at Bayshore Boulevard and Silver Avenue, and a 47-year-old woman killed Feb. 14 at Bayshore Boulevard and Arleta Avenue.