Police report this evening that that the driver of a vehicle broadsided on Cesar Chavez  at 2:20 a.m. today died from his injuries. He was being treated at San Francisco General Hospital.

The medical examiner will release the victim’s identity, police said.

The driver was traveling eastbound on Cesar Chavez, crossing Folsom Street, when a second car going southbound on Folsom  ran a red light and slammed into the vehicle.

The car that was hit, a Toyota Corolla, hit the wall of a nearby building before coming to a rest. The impact woke up the residents of the building. Witnesses said the man in the car was unconscious and looked to be in bad shape.

“It felt like an earthquake,  a 4.5 magnitude quake,” said Evangeline Biralde a resident of the building. “It was a huge impact.”

A third vehicle was hit after the initial collision, police report.  The driver of the third car  had minor injuries.

The driver and multiple occupants of the vehicle that failed to stop at a red, fled on foot. One occupant from that vehicle remained at the scene and is being interviewed by investigators.

Neighbors could also hear loud conversations between the male driver and the passengers of the car, a black Infiniti sedan.

“We could hear loud conversation between a guy and a girl wearing high heels and a mini skirt,” she said. “The guy was saying ‘it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault.’”

Police report that this is still an active investigation and anyone with information regarding this collision is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department.

The incident left residents of the building in shock.

“We’ve been here since 1982 and this is the worst accident,” said Fetbir Biraldi.

We will be updating this story as we get more information. The anonymous tip line for the Mission Station is 415-552-4558.

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Rigoberto Hernandez is a journalism student at San Francisco State University. He has interned at The Oregonian and The Orange County Register, but prefers to report on the Mission District. In his spare time he can be found riding his bike around the city, going to Giants games and admiring the Stable building.

Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019 when I retired. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still there.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how you make that long-held interest in local news sustainable. The answer continues to elude me.

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5 Comments

  1. Car drivers are out of control. When will we get speed cameras?

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  2. Has anyone been caught yet? One person stayed. I would like to know what happens.

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  3. tragic and horrible. i hope they catch that scumbag and put him away. san francisco police – this is preventable. we need more cameras at traffic lights and more police patrols giving traffic tickets, especially at bar closing time such as this.

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