The Office of the Medical Examiner has confirmed the identity of a cyclist killed in a hit-and-run collision while riding her bicycle on Saturday morning: Mission District resident Laura Taylor, 41.
Taylor was near Interstate Highway 280 early on Saturday morning, Oct. 14, when she was struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run.
Mark Andrews, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol, said that at around 12:27 a.m. on Saturday morning, someone called 911 to report a pedestrian walking along the center median on the northbound side of the highway, opposing traffic, just south of the Alemany Boulevard exit.
CHP then received another call saying a person was on a bicycle. It is unclear if the two events were related.
The San Francisco Fire Department arrived at the scene at 12:41 a.m. Taylor was pronounced dead at the scene.
The vehicle involved in the incident did not stop, Andrews said.
Taylor was known to her friends as a safe, avid cyclist, who made people around her feel happy all the time. Originally from North Carolina, she moved to San Francisco some 20 years ago and, more recently, to the Mission. She worked as a nanny and graphic designer.
She had blonde hair that she dyed different neon colors, said Beau Trincia, a friend from college. The rainbow colors personified her. “Laura was exceptional. She was magnetic,” he said.
There needs to be an immediate moratorium on driving cars until we can stop the killing
In the meantime, as a practical solution, ppl got to stop wandering (cycling?) in the middle of freeway traffic.
Baseball bats are sometimes used to kill people so we should ban baseball!
Can we stop with facile arguments?
I believe that bicycles cannot legally be ridden on freeways. The reporting here is not clear about where she was.
It seems that obeying the law could have prevented this tragedy.
Also, following common sense. It defies common sense to ride a bicycle on a fast divided highway.
It is a tragedy and outlawing the driving of cars is emphatically NOT the appropriate remedy.
She was hit by a car driver in a hit and run, what part of that makes you jump to victim blaming?
The hit and run driver is certainly culpable for hitting a person and leaving the scene.
I’m just trying to understand how a safe and sober and experienced cyclist came to be walking her bike in the middle of a freeway in the middle of the night.
The reporting is frustratingly confusing. Was she near 280 or on the center median? Or somewhere else?
I don’t think you can get to the center median accidentally, or without crossing traffic lanes on the freeway.
I hope we will learn what happened to cause this tragic loss of life.
Laura was a very conscientious biker, having rode her bike in SF for 20 years. She was also very intelligent and not prone to making dangerous decisions. I know, I was her friend. If you know that highway, you know that nobody would be there intentionally on a bicycle. There is nowhere to ride and there are walls on both sides for a long stretch. And, there are multiple biking lanes on the surface streets around that area, so no need to risk being on the freeway. If she was on the freeway it would have been because she was forced to be there. She could have been struck on one of the overpasses and fell onto the highway before being struck again a second time while recovering. There will never be a clear understanding of what happened, but remember that jumping to conclusions based on very limited information makes you a fool.
Evan. That’s Fkn funny
That’s so sad. Alemany is inexplicably a bike route and difficult to navigate in broad daylight. I wouldn’t be surprised if even an experienced cyclist could get confused at night and wind up on 280 itself by accident, or be hit and dragged/thrown from Alemany onto 280 by a driver going way too fast.
RIP, Laura–this is so sad. that whole area is a disaster as far as traffic flow, bike lanes, pedestrian walkways….it doesn’t matter if this happened late at night, it could’ve been the middle of the day and still happened the way cars move through there.
I am shocked to read the comments about how confusing and dangerous the bike route is in that area.
When I was going to City College occasionally for work, someone told me that there was a way to avoid Glen Park Bart on my way north from City College. I was supposed to go down Monterrey and there would be a bridge that looks like it takes me onto the freeway, but actually curves off to the left and take me to San Jose. So, one night after work, I rode down Monterrey and went onto the bridge and ended up on 280. Fortunately traffic was light and I stayed next to the curb, riding to Alemany Exit and exiting. It was really scary. The next time I came down Monterrey I realized my mistake and I took the left and then the bridge to San Jose which was somewhat less scary.
Thank you for sharing this. It actually provides some valuable insight as to how she could have ended up down there on the highway at night. She was one of my dearest & longest-held friends in the city, and those of us who knew her & loved her have been desperate for answers. One thing that perplexes me still, though (among MANY things) is how the hit & run driver managed to get away. I mean, SOMEONE saw this happen. 12:30AM on 280 in San Francisco: I know that TECHNICALLY it was Saturday by then, but it was essentially a Friday night. Other people were on the highway at that hour. That wasn’t even the wee hours of the morning. And how does someone strike a person on the highway, and not even stop their car? Even momentarily, just to figure out what the hell just happened? I find it very hard to believe that NO ONE managed to catch this person’s license plate. And here it is, a month later, and STILL there are no answers. I just drove down that way tonight (AGAIN), and it’s HORRIFYING being down there, even in a damn CAR. I can’t IMAGINE how treacherous it must have been on a BIKE, in the middle of the night. It pains me to think what she must have been feeling down there. At the very least, your explanation makes it a bit easier to understand how she could have ended up down there, accidentally. Thank you once again for sharing your experience.
That’s really sad. My thoughts are with her family and friends.
Unfortunately, it is usually the loss of life that generates basic planning and transportation safety changes.