A 4-year-old girl in a stroller was killed and her father was seriously injured on Tuesday evening just blocks from Oracle Park after a car crash, according to San Francisco police.
Officers responded around 5:15 p.m. to the intersection of King and Fourth streets on reports of a car wreck, police said.
The child and both parents were transported to a local hospital, where police say the girl was pronounced dead and the father was treated for life-threatening injuries.
Authorities arrested the driver, Karen Cartagena, 71, in the hours after the crash, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The woman was arrested on suspicion of vehicle manslaughter and three counts of failing to yield to pedestrians, police said.
Initially, SFPD identified Cartagena as 61 years old.
The driver of the gray Mercedes SUV—which appeared to have hit a pole along the Muni Metro N Line—remained at the scene, police said, and cooperated with investigators.
Ono Hoching, who was sitting in the Caltrain station lobby on King Street during the incident, said he saw a crowd gather in the aftermath of the wreck.
“It looked like there were more than a few people hurt,” he told The Standard.
Candice Bell, who lives across the street from the wreck, said the intersection can be a hectic area for pedestrians—especially when there’s a Giants game at the nearby stadium.
“The lane the driver was in that makes a right-hand turn also simultaneously has pedestrians cross,” she explained.
So if a driver turns that corner too quickly, she added, they often can’t see people on foot.