Jian Huang — the 80-year-old who was struck by a car on Wednesday afternoon while crossing the street — has died, the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner today confirmed.
Yesterday at 1:30 p.m., Huang was crossing the crosswalk at 18th and Valencia streets when an alleged ride-hail driver in a car heading westward turned left and struck him. An eyewitness at Yellow Moto Pizzeria said Huang “clearly had the right of way,” but the driver “didn’t yield.” Though police and paramedics arrived soon after and transported him to the hospital, Huang appeared very much “in pain,” the eyewitness said.
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Valencia St
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Around 1:30 p.m., a man crossing near Yellow Moto Pizza was struck by a car as it turned left on to Valencia St.
Valencia St
18th St
Yellow
Moto
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Around 1:30 p.m., a man crossing near Yellow Moto Pizza was struck by a car as it turned left on to Valencia St.
MISSION
Dolores
Park
Chart by Xueer Lu. Basemap from Mapbox.
This is the 14th pedestrian death so far this year in San Francsico, said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco, a traffic-safety organization. Approximately two weeks ago, an 80-year-old woman crossing the street at Taraval and 46th streets in the Outer Sunset died after getting hit by a car.
“Our hearts go out to this man’s loved ones and community,” Medeiros said. “We grieve for yet another life lost so senselessly on our streets.”
When it comes to pedestrian fatalities, those 55 and older are at most at-risk in San Francisco, Medeiros said. On average, more than 50 percent of San Francisco’s pedestrian fatalities are in that age group.
Left turns are also dangerous, because drivers are “more likely to make it at a higher speed and cut corners because they have a wider radius than with a right turn. Visibility is reduced for drivers, too, because the car’s frame blocks a driver’s view when they’re making a left turn,” a press statement from Walk SF said. Medeiros, reached by phone, said the city should consider limiting left turns.
“It’s unfortunate that this was another left turn,” she said.
District 9, which includes the Mission, is also one of the most deadly for pedestrians. This year, five of the 14 fatal pedestrian collisions occurred in District 9. Valencia Street is known to be a particularly dangerous street, too, and is featured on traffic-safety project Vision Zero’s High Injury Network.
So far, at least 18 people have died in 2023 due to a traffic collision.
Numbers are up from this time last year: By August 2022, 11 pedestrians had died from a vehicle. The last Vision Zero update was in August 2023, which reported 12 pedestrian deaths.
“It’s not good. We’ve lost more pedestrians this year than we have last year, and last year was [one of] the worst. It’s not looking good in 2023,” Medeiros said.
The eyewitness said others knew Huang as a local, and his wife had arrived to check up on him in the aftermath of the collision.
Mission Local contacted the San Francisco Police Department and the Department of Public Health, which did not immediately respond.
Correction: A previous version of this story identified the vehicle as an SUV, following an eyewitness account. The vehicle was a car.
The problem is simple: SF HAS ALMOST ZERO TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT. In my experience, most drivers fail to give pedestrians the right of way at crosswalks. I have stood with one foot on the pavement at a crosswalk, clearly signaling to drivers that I wanted to cross. DOZENS OF VEHICLES JUST PASSED ME BY BEFORE ONE CONSCIOUS DRIVER STOPPED TO LET ME CROSS. What does that tell you?? When the city fails to enforce traffic laws, people get the idea that they can do as they please. This is a prescription for disaster. We’re there!!! SFMTA keeps tinkering with our streets when in fact it should be pushing for what really works: enforcement.
The DA needs to prosecute this driver for manslaughter or at least negligent homicide. SF has always just left killings by drivers to insurance, which has zero deterrent effect. Drivers need to follow the law and should be dealt with under the penal code when their failure to do so results in tragedy like this.
DA needs to prosecute SFMTA and the Bike Coalition for manufacturing intentionally a boneheaded road.
Did the bike coalition actually endorse a center lane being built on valencia street or was it a decision by SFMTA?
So Walk SF performs grief but can’t quite get to the point where we can’t just engineer our way to pedestrian safety, enforcement has to be part of the picture.
Given that this occurred on a block with an SFPD station, with cops coming and going regularly, it is inexcusable that police presence has no bearing on deadly unlawful activity around Mission Station.
I avoid Valencia and use Capp for my north/south Mission traversals.
This is the second elderly Chinese woman killed at a Valencia Street intersection this year, the other at 16th Street.
I don’t know about 18th, but the 16th Street intersection is well-lit at night when it happened so it was inexcusable to hit anyone there. It’s unfortunate that we’ll never see a follow-up of whether either driver was prosecuted for manslaughter as they should be.
I’m a pedestrian over 55 and on many an occasion, I’ve extended the palm of my hand out. It seems that more and more, people just don’t think.
I think SFMTA (and Caltrans for that matter) should have the locks removed from their doors, and signs placed on them saying “Don’t enter illegally” at night. It will be about as effective as speed limit signs and all that road painting. Infrastructure should be designed to force cars to be safe, not rely on signage to beg drivers to be safe. The consequences of a mistake by a driver are far too dire.
Since the pandemic, I have noticed increased speeds, leaving less space for pedestrians, ignoring pedestrians in the crosswalks and overt aggression by male drivers. Given the absence of interest in traffic enforcement by the SFPD, what are we going to do? Changing the SFPD’s priorities is rather difficult, as official promulgations of policy are often thwarted by social and cultural attitudes within the department. Is it time to push for a new traffic enforcement agency?
i hope they release the info soon. I volunteer at a senior facility near there, this worries me.
Valencia is now an mysterious obstacle course. So many signs, lines and visual distractions. San Francisco is now the city that can’t do anything right.
Thank you for your coverage. Will you be asking SFMTA and SFBC what this means for the Valencia bike lane?
Thank you SFMTA for causing another death by your constant tinkering of our roads. Another preventable death weeks after shoving switching things up. Do you get it. on 3rd street a taxi went sideways when yous stuck a right turn lane out of nowhere. Toll: two dead. When will it end