San Francisco's Latest Pedestrian Death: 72-Year-Old Man Killed on Van Ness

San Francisco has recorded its seventh pedestrian fatality of 2014.

Police say a car struck and killed a man near the corner of Van Ness and Golden Gate avenues about 11 p.m. Sunday night. The city's medical examiner's office identified the man killed as Il Sun Im, 72.

Im reportedly was crossing Van Ness outside a crosswalk when a northbound driver hit him. Police say the driver remained at the scene, has cooperated with investigators and has not been cited or arrested because there was no evidence of criminal negligence.

The advocacy group Walk San Francisco says Im was the fourth pedestrian to die along Van Ness this year. The group's executive director, Nicole Schneider, says the mile-and-a-half stretch of Van Ness between Broadway and Mission is very wide, characterized by high-speed traffic, and is a known high-injury corridor for pedestrians.

In an interview Monday with KQED's Ted Goldberg, Schneider said the ongoing pedestrian toll, which includes an estimated three pedestrian-vehicle accidents every day, shows the need to make the city's transportation infrastructure safer.

"We have a really old transportation system that unfortunately is failing us in terms of pedestrian injuries and all traffic injuries," Schneider said.

She went out of her way to praise San Francisco law enforcement agencies for increasing enforcement of traffic laws since the first of the year.

Police "are out on the streets more, they're targeting the most dangerous streets, they're targeting the most dangerous behaviors that will lead to fatalities," Schneider said. "And the D.A.'s office has proposed a vehicular manslaughter unit to address all the at-fault collisions and drivers that have led to fatalities and take them more seriously."

Mayor Ed Lee, the city's Municipal Transportation Agency and the Board of Supervisors have signed on to a campaign called Vision Zero, which aims to eliminate all traffic deaths in San Francisco over the next decade. It includes plans for safety improvements along dozens of streets, including Van Ness.

But the impact of that commitment to make the streets safer has yet to be felt. Schneider noted that this year's pedestrian death toll, seven, matches the number recorded by this date last year.

This post includes reporting from Bay City News.