Driver killed in S.F. after crashing van into Mission District building

Love what you read? Love that it was free?

Mission Local will never have a paywall. All our articles are free for everyone, always. Help us keep it that way — donate to our end-of-year fundraiser to make Mission Local free for your neighbors.

Donate today!

A van crashed into a three-story residential building on Harrison Street at Mariposa Street in the Mission District just before 2 a.m. today.

One person was declared dead at the scene, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. 

Firefighters and police found the van inside the lobby of a large apartment building at 2130 Harrison St., with the apparent driver trapped inside the vehicle. 

Residents of the building were not injured. The fire department and Department of Building Inspections assessed the structural integrity of the building and determined that its occupants may remain as repairs take place. 

Before it was removed, the van was wedged perfectly into the building’s lobby, and no skid marks were visible on the road on Friday afternoon. It is unclear whether the van turned from Harrison Street into the building, or barreled through the intersection from Mariposa Street, which is perpendicular to the building.

“It was a very freak accident,” said resident Serafin Fernandez, who stood on his balcony watching workers do repairs on Friday afternoon.

Other residents wore masks to protect against the smell of gasoline that permeated the air in and outside the building.

“One of the gnarliest things I’ve ever seen,” said resident Tina McCloskey, who was walking her dog on Friday afternoon. Like several of her neighbors, she heard a bang and went back to sleep, not realizing at first what had happened.

Soon, she heard dozens of police, and saw first responders remove items like a bloodied surfboard from inside the van. The incident, she said, was “scary and awful.”

Fernandez and McCloskey said that workers took hours to slowly winch the van out of the building by around 8:30 a.m.

By 8:45 a.m., emergency crews had cleared the scene, the fire department said in a statement.