Another tragic pedestrian death in SF raises the question: Is Vision Zero a failure?

The accident marks the city’s 20th anniversary the death of a pedestrian this year and the third this month, completing a ten-year initiative to end road traffic deaths by 2024. It’s a grim reminder that San Francisco is almost as far from its own The goal of Vision Zero.

“Twenty is too many,” said Jodi Medeiros, executive director of the human rights group Walk SF. “We always say we can’t imagine what San Francisco would be like if we didn’t adopt Vision Zero. But the matter did not go far enough.”

Pedestrians now account for 70% of road accident fatalities this year — 5 percentage points more than the average. 2024 is set to be the deadliest year for pedestrians since 2014, according to city data. And after the pandemic, small streets – like the intersection of Stanyan and Parnassus – become more dangerous.

“We’ve seen such a shift in where accidents are happening,” said Martha Lindsay, a spokeswoman for Walk SF. “And it’s really scary for me, because now every street becomes a high-risk area. This is because of this deadly combination of aggressive driving, speeding, bigger, heavier vehicles and more traffic. It turned small streets into streets where someone could die tomorrow.”

Those issues are especially worrisome in the area of ​​this week’s fatal crash, where neighbors say large trucks often travel up hilly residential streets en route to a UC San Francisco construction site.

A construction worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the dump truck involved in the accident was involved in removing dirt from the ongoing construction of the hospital at Parnassus and Hill Point avenues. The truck was identified as KTVU personnel operated by Modesto-based Lally Trucking Inc. Although the phone line at Lally has been disconnected, safety reports posted on the company’s website indicate zero involvement in past reported accidents.

The truck driver remained at the scene and did not appear to be under the influence, police said in a statement. The medical examiner’s office identified the victim as Jose Chow, 70, of San Francisco.

On Wednesday morning, Lydia Byers and her husband, Neil, stopped by the memorial on the street corner where Chow was killed. Walk SF and community members held a vigil the night of the crash and left yellow paper hearts, marigolds and a handwritten sign that read, “A driver killed our neighbor here on October 22, 2024.”

On the other side of the street, at the Sunny Country market, bright bouquets of sunflowers bloomed from barrels, and even more flowers were displayed in rows in front of tall shop windows. Under the burgundy canopy of the bazaar, piles of wicker baskets were hung for sale. As trucks and other large construction vehicles whizzed by, the couple looked across the crosswalk in both directions and tried to understand how the accident could have happened.

“This is our neighborhood,” said Byers, who said she has lived in the area most of her life. “This is my crossroads, which I often visit. It’s really scary that your life can disappear in an instant because someone made a U-turn and wasn’t paying attention.”

“Just cut the right turn,” her husband added. “What’s a couple of seconds?”

Erica Kato, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said in an email that the intersection “painted daylight” in the direction of the truck. Daylighting uses markers or red paint to prevent cars from parking near pedestrian crossings to ensure that drivers do not obstruct pedestrians’ view.

On Wednesday, however, the red SUV was parked at the top of a steep hill approaching Parnassus, next to a red curb.

While there have been no pedestrian collisions at the intersection in the past 10 years, Medeiros said neighbors have described many near misses, as well as the lack of pedestrian signals at the crosswalk. Both the driver and the victim had a green light.

“We need something,” Kari said. “It’s a very busy area in the morning. We have two schools (nearby — Haight Ashbury Cooperative and Grattan Elementary —) and a lot of kids. The traffic is very fast and you see many trucks on the bend. We have to do something and put an extra light to slow down the traffic.”

Kato said the MTA is conducting a “rapid response review” of the fatal crash to evaluate the existing site and make recommendations for improvements. The location is listed for future pedestrian signal upgrades.