Video: Large pickup blows stop sign, smashes 4 parked cars in the Sunset

A speeding pickup truck ran a stop sign and struck a parked car early Saturday in San Francisco’s Parkside neighborhood, triggering a domino-like series of collisions that, ultimately, left four parked cars severely damaged. The dramatic predawn incident was caught on video. 

Video shows a truck blowing through a four-way intersection at Santiago Street and 28th Avenue. After a loud bang, the driver backs up slightly and drives away. The first car struck by the driver, a silver Toyota, was smashed on its right side at 2:36 a.m. on Saturday, its trunk hanging open and its back bumper dangling.

On Tuesday afternoon, two of the four damaged cars remained at the intersection. Pieces of red glass from a rear light scattered in the road. Drivers slowed as they passed by, seemingly appalled. “That’s really fucking bad,” one said. 

The pickup truck seemed to be a Chevy Silverado, according to Noelia Arteaga, a Taraval Street resident who picked up a piece of bumper that had fallen off the truck in the crash and looked up its make and model. That model can weigh over two tons.   

Arteaga, who has lived in the Sunset for a year, was on her way to see family in the Peninsula on Saturday afternoon when she saw neighbors gathering at the intersection. “What the hell happened?” Arteaga thought. 

She drove by and saw her partner’s car had been damaged in the crash. “Oh my God,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it at first.”

She called the Taraval police station, but the officer who picked up the call said the station didn’t have time to send anyone to the four-car crash that had occurred earlier in the day, Arteaga said. The officer encouraged those impacted to come to the station to report the incident instead. 

Since Saturday, Arteaga began her own investigation: She walked around the neighborhood and talked to neighbors. She made flyers asking for security footage. She emailed Supervisor Alan Wong. She made a public records request to the police department for its Flock camera footage. 

So far, she’s gathered a series of security video footage and shared with the San Francisco Police Department, Arteaga said. 

SFPD said it couldn’t locate a call for service or an incident report on the crash. 

“People seem shaken and pretty upset,” Arteaga said. “It’s frustrating.”